The Central Coast Section will have two independent football members this year in St. Francis Central Coast Catholic of Watsonville and The Harker School of San Jose.
Both schools had .500 records last year and boast full, 10-game schedules for 2014 featuring primarily smaller, private schools.
Neither Harker nor St. Francis-CCC are in a league, though there may be a desire down the line at re-joining or joining one.
The Sharks and Eagles are both in full swing preparing for the season.
Both programs will have much higher roster numbers than in years past, with St. Francis being varsity only.
“We are up to 37 players in the program and all of our young guys will get pulled up," Sharks coach Adam Hazel said. "We have a crew of sophomores that have looked great in camp, starting with running back Richie Martinez who is looking to get a lot of carries.”
Hazel added that Ruben Ibarra is showing signs of “becoming a dominant nose guard.”
Both St. Francis CCC and Harker had to pull out of their leagues last season and go independent close to the start of the season. In the case of the Sharks, then-interim athletic director Ed Kelly did a nice job reconstructing his school's schedule, retaining some Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League opponents and adding other games, as he could find them.
Meantime, Harker played a mixture of 11- and 8-man games.
ST. FRANCIS CENTRAL COAST CATHOLIC (5-5)
St. Francis looks poised for a big year with talent at key positions returning.
Team leader and virtual coach-on-the-field Nick Ciandro will start at quarterback for the third year in a row. The senior threw for 24 touchdowns and more than 2,500 yards last year in a breakout campaign.
Wyatt Ryan and Tommy Carroll will form the heart of the defense at linebacker.
The offensive and defensive lines have plenty of experience and boast leaders in Noe Madrigal and Kyle LeBlanc.
The Sharks will have youth at the skill positions with Ivo Lasich, Andrew Ciandro and Conor likely playing both sides of the ball at defensive back and receiver.
THE HARKER SCHOOL (2-2)
Harker played an abridged, four-game schedule last year and split four games. This year, Harker is back to a full 10-game schedule with a full squad of 30 players. The Eagles have, at times, fielded less than 20 active players for games over the last two years.
Coach Ron Forbes enters his third year at Harker. Forbes has quite the resume, boasting 15 years of experience at the collegiate Division 1 level that includes stints with Stanford and Florida.
He continues to build a program that returns 11 players from last year’s team. The Eagles will open play against Overfelt on September 5.
