The West Catholic Athletic League has bred top Bay Area high school football programs for seemingly as long as it has been instituted. While the East Bay has repeatedly put forth Northern California’s best team in De La Salle, those in support of teams from the WCAL have found pride with the recognition that its league schedule may be as grueling as any in the area.
Last season, the CCS Open Division Playoffs found this to be extremely accurate. With all four WCAL teams laying wake to their public school opponents in the first round, an all-league semi-final showcased the true dominance of perennial postseason teams such as Mitty, Serra (the eventual champion), Bellarmine, and Valley Christian.
The league has always featured a significant turnover rate. With steady incoming talent in each class and a league-wide emphasis on complex playbooks, each year finds many four-year veterans of their program in first-year starting spots.
This year, teams such as Serra, Bellarmine, and Mitty also have to recover from losing talented captains who have moved on to continue their playing careers at power schools such as UCLA (Matt Dickerson, Serra), Cal (Hamilton Anoa’i, Serra), Washington (K.J. Carta-Samuels, Bellarmine), and Army (Chandler Ramirez, Mitty).
Teams that have showcased young talent in last season’s campaign now find themselves without another year of leeway for development. Valley Christian features a studded running trio of seniors in Kirk Johnson, Tre McCloud, and Mark Quinby, each of whom reached the end zone at least nine times last season.
Johnson’s brother, Collin, is a four-star prospect in the class of 2016 at wide receiver who could shake the traditionally significant run-heavy Warrior offense up this year, as Coach Mike Machado's team only threw 26 times for 318 yards in 2013.
Elsewhere, St. Ignatius returns many second-year starters including quarterback Ryan Hagfeldt, linebacker Rob Meagher, wide receiver Luke Lotti, and safety Dominic Burke, all of whom hope to have a 2014 season like that of the Wildcats’ 2012 squad, which shocked everyone in the playoffs by defeating Bellarmine to win the CCS Open Division.
St. Francis loses its quarterback William Fischer-Colbrie, as well as top tailbacks Alex Andrighetto and Landon Baty who combined for over 1,500 yards rushing last season, but expect coaches to turn towards Devin Hurtado (97 carries, 539 yards) to seamlessly assume their role. Another boon for the Lancers could be Kamalii Akina, an elusive and strong-armed junior transfer quarterback from Texas. Akina's father, Duane, is now an assistant coach at Stanford.
Also suiting up for the Lancers in the fall will be exciting transfer Thomas Toki from Kirkland, Washington. Toki stands 5-11, 307 pounds, and is rated the 142nd player in the country by ESPN, as well as the 15th best defensive tackle in the nation.
Hooked By The Horns: Kirk and Collin, the aforementioned Johnson brothers of Valley Christian, enter the season as two of the most high-profile recruits in the WCAL, and the most recognized D-I prospects at their school since Byron Marshall, now a starting running back at Oregon as a junior. As of April, both had committed to Charlie Strong at Texas, “their dream school,” as Collin put it.
“It was great, Kirk and I both wanted to go to the same college, it truly couldn’t have worked out more perfectly,” Collin said over the phone on Wednesday. “My dad played there and we loved the campus. We can both make an impact as a true freshman, which is great.”
Johnnie Johnson, their father, did far more than just ‘play’ at Texas. The two-time unanimous All-American defensive back is a College Football Hall of Fame inductee and was also drafted in the first round of the 1980 draft by the Los Angeles Rams.
Last season, Kirk was the Warriors’ featured back, rushing 142 times for 1,228 yards and 11 touchdowns in only seven games. In three of those seven, Johnson rushed for over 200 yards, his highest being a 28 carry, 253 yard performance against St. Francis.
Collin has earned his notoriety from recruiting camps and combines, as Valley Christian doesn’t put the ball in the air very often. The 6-5 big-bodied wide receiver only caught 10 balls for 99 yards and three touchdowns last season.
Replacing K.J.: The Carta-Samuels brother dynasty is complete at Bellarmine, and now Coach Mike Janda must look to summer practice to find a replacement for the star signal-caller, now headed to play for Chris Peterson at Washington. K.J.’s older brother Austin, a recent graduate and starting quarterback last season for Vanderbilt, was also a member of the Bells, winning the CCS title in 2008.
This year, the starting job is far less determined. Senior Griffin Quinn and junior Troy Martig have both been splitting reps with the first-team offense, leaving Janda with a decision to make: go with the impressive junior or the four-year program veteran?
“I’m getting first string reps in practice, just really trying to see how I shape up with the guys on varsity,” Martig said. “I feel I’m doing really well myself. I’m starting to find my skill level will allow me to compete well for varsity, and I’m just anxious to see if my practice reps will translate into this season’s games. Whether I’m starting or splitting reps, I can’t wait to see what I can do.”
Martig started on last season’s JV team, but said he still felt a strong presence and motivation from Carta-Samuels:
“[K.J.’s] a leader because he’s one of the best, he knew he was the best. He grew as a leader because of all that," Martig said. "He was a teacher to all the wide receivers, to pretty much to everyone. I had a big role on JV, so I tried to follow what he did on varsity and emulate him with my own team.”
The Almighty Bruce: The Bruce-Mahoney trophy is a San-Francisco based rivalry between St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart Cathedral named for servicemen of each school who died in World War II battle.
Fans of both SI and SHC have grown accustomed to playing their tri-sport championship (football, basketball, baseball) at prestigious venues across the city, as in recent years the legs have been played under the lights at Kezar Field (former home of the 49ers), Memorial Gym at USF, and AT&T Park (home of the San Francisco Giants).
Due to a renovation and extension of the Kezar track in the fall though, this rivalry that typically draws 5,000-6,000 fans is scheduled to be played at St. Ignatius’ J.B. Murphy Field for a mid-afternoon start time.
Coach Ken Peralta of Sacred Heart Cathedral hopes that the two teams can find an alternate venue with as much, if not more fanfare surrounding it than the historic Kezar:
“We have a connection with Levi’s Stadium, and I don’t know if SI would want to go to play at Levi’s, but I would love to be able to move the Bruce down there for a year,” Peralta said. “I know De La Salle is playing an early-season game there as well, it would be very cool to get something going.”
