SAN JOSE, CA - Wilcox High football coach Dan Brown didn't sleep much the night before Wednesday's pivotal CCS board meeting.
He needn't have fretted, because his Chargers got the waiver they were seeking to play Manteca in what we'll be monster of an event Friday, Aug. 29 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara. Levi's is the $1.2 billion state-of-the-art venue where Wilcox will be one-half of a doubleheader -- the other half probably being De La Salle vs. Jesuit-Carmichael.
Ironically, the school closest to Levi's - in its own backyard - was the school most in danger of being jettisoned from the event if the 40-plus member CCS Board of Managers did not approve by a two-thirds majority the waiver the Chargers sought to play Manteca a week before the normal first game allowed date of September 5. That's when Manteca was originally schedule to meet Wilcox.
However once Santa Clara Valley Athletic League officials spoke so eloquently about their unanimous support of allowing the waiver, the landslide had begun. There's couldn't have been any more good vibrations regarding the vote if the Beach Boys had been there.
The spoken count went decisively the Chargers' way, prompting smiles by Chargers coach Dan Brown, Wilcox principal Bonnie Billings and athletic director Woody Freitas.
"When we got in there I felt like it was a sports kind of meeting," Brown said. "It felt like a sports meeting. I felt the vibe."
There was still an element of doubt going in, despite the grand opportunity for Wilcox because, as CCS commissioner Nancy Lazenby Blaser said, section officials aren't that keen on ignoring its own bylaws and passing waivers out like Halloween candy.
"The board rules on these things and it's their bylaws, so if they want to set it aside for this (event) I think it's great," Lazenby Blaser said. I think the comment that we might have to address this in the future concerns me a little bit. When you have bylaws you don't want to be continually setting them aside for exceptions. ... In this case I think the vote was unanimous and they're excited about it and it's going to be a fun thing for Wilcox."
That's an understatement. Chargers' booster member Crystal Jackson and Brown spoke of the income level of some Wilcox fans and how this might be the only opportunity to see the 49ers' brand-spanking new stadium that will host Super Bowl L in 2016. Jackson runs the boosters' social media offerings.
"We got a response on the Facebook page that was overwhelming," Jackson said. "It's an opportunity to go see an NFL stadium when otherwise they wouldn't be able to afford it."
Brown said just the opportunity to take the same field as the 49ers will two weeks earlier in an exhibition against the Denver Broncos is a treat. His school is the only one of the four headed for the doubleheader to need a waiver to play because the CCS is scheduled to begin for everyone else September 5, due to the section's three week-playoff system. The other teams expected to play in the twinbill -- De La Salle (North Coast Section) and Jesuit-Carmichael (Sac-Joaquin Section), as well as Manteca (Sac-Joaquin Section) have four-week playoff systems and are able to start playing games a week earlier than the CCS.
In other CCS news:
--The board voted to keep the much-debated Open Division for football rather than the alternative, going to five enrollment-based divisions. The CCS Football Committee had previously voted in favor of nixing the Open.
--The board also gave a thumbs-down to the proposal that only teams with .500 records be allowed in the playoffs. Serra coach Patrick Walsh and others have spoken out against this in the past, noting teams playing strong schedules should not be penalized for falling below .500. Others disagree.
Eric Jacobson, one of several El Camino athletic directors and also an assistant football coach, is not a proponent of lumping public school teams in with the cream of the WCAL.
"I'd rather just see them put all of the WCAL schools in their own division because you take a team like Terra Nova which had a great season and then they play in the Open Division and it's over; it's not really fair."
While that's a valid viewpoint, it was not exactly a proposal on the table.
--Wilcox has added El Camino to its schedule. The game is on September 26, Week 4 for the Colts.