What is everyone's thoughts on Foothill? Seem to return a good number of guys, but they lost some studs too. Are they the favorites in the EBAL?
Foothill-Pleasanton
- Thread starter Streak One
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EBAL is looking like it is going to be a 3 horse race. Foothill has skill speed and returns a lot on both sides of the ball but a new QB (underclass transfer from Cal High). However,the have lots of speed and defense returns a lot. Question mark if they will be as good as last season (lose elite player and a very good QB), but potential to be. Cal Hi should have a good ball control offense (Locklear a 1,000 yeard rusher) and good defense with some balance with passing attack with last year's backup. However WRs will be inexperienced. Amador Valley returns a 3 year starter at QB (Ronnie Jones 1900+ yards passing) and dual rushing threats and lots of depth. They defeated Foothill last season and looks like they will be formidable this season. San Ramon Valley has talent as does Monte Vista (really good QB) but lots of reloading.
If I had to pick, Foothill would rank as favorite (since they have a talented transfer for QB and lots of skill position speed, and return most of their defense). Cal again probably will be battling for the title, but also have inexperienced skill players. Amador Valley in my opinion has a shot at winning league. It should be one of those better Dons teams every few years that has talented seniors with experience.
If I had to pick, Foothill would rank as favorite (since they have a talented transfer for QB and lots of skill position speed, and return most of their defense). Cal again probably will be battling for the title, but also have inexperienced skill players. Amador Valley in my opinion has a shot at winning league. It should be one of those better Dons teams every few years that has talented seniors with experience.
Should be their best team in years despit losing two of the most talented players in school history. Sweeney is still one of the better coaches in NorCal and finally got over the hump against Belleci and Cal High last season. I think there's a great chance they go through the regular season 9-1, 10-0 and win EBAL. They should be the favorites in every game they play but Cal, SRV, Freedom and a young MV team could sneak up on them as Amador did at the end of last season. If I were a betting man I'd put the house on them being a top 4 NCS D1 seed.
The Soph transfer is getting a lot of love on the board. I'm not sure he'll make an impact this year at all. I've seen him play and he's far from a varsity stud at the moment but has potential. He may develop but as of now not a D1 type guy but who knows in 3 years.
Even though I'm a fan of Cal High I have not seen the soph QB transfer play. I know that not many sophomore QB's light up the scoreboard and there's a big difference between frosh and varsity, especially at the QB position. I also doubt Billeci will make the mistake of breaking out the wildcat offense for the first half of the game against Foothill like he did last year. I suspect he will show some confidence in his QB Gerlach and stick with his base ground and pound approach.
I don't expect Foothill to be nearly as good as last year, but I expect them to battle for the EBAL crown. The loss of Langley and Kearns is significant, IMO. However, they return some studly players like Floyd, Mercado and Gates. I did see a big lineman type kid on their frosh team last year that will almost certainly be moved up to varsity this coming season, don't know his name.
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Have to agree with B3k on Soph QBs. Some schools do the "grooming" by putting the kid on varsity as a Soph, and have other weapons to compensate for, typically, underdeveloped passing. Some sophs are slingers with lots of instruction reps but throw picks galore those early years as part of the development process. Sometimes a coach has to go with the smartest arm like SRV did last year with the now Stanford baseball player Winaker. Bubba may have heard of the Grizz baseball player who never threw a game football until at Cal High, then broke the school QB rating record as a Senior. Now a D1 baseball player also. The soph QB that same year was used to run the ball effectively at times, but never reached his two predecessors passing numbers.
Kearns is a good example. He was a very polished soph QB at Foothill three years ago but in my opinion became a much better QB as a junior and then as a senior. This is a kid that has been playing quarterback since he's 8 years old. I have no idea how much experience the new soph Foothill QB Wooldridge has, but I suspect he will take his share of lumps playing the most difficult position in all of team sports, IMO.
If Foothill has quality returners besides Floyd and Mercado then I would tab them as the team to beat. Especially with Sweeney as Coach. They dominated Antioch in the playoffs last year and it wasn't just because of Kearns and Langly.
California just looked very mediocre in terms of talent at the JV level. But Billeci willalways field a tough and competitive team.
California just looked very mediocre in terms of talent at the JV level. But Billeci willalways field a tough and competitive team.
If you look at the scores of the games last season in EBAL, Foothill only defeated Cal High by 7 and lost to Foothill (its town rival). AV biggest EBAL loss of its 3 was by 10 to Cal Hi (others by 4 and 3 pts) and defeated Foothill. AV and Foothill is a rivalry so anything can happen, but overall AV could be better than last season. Foothill seems to be returning enough on both sides to compete for the title with the two above shots. SRV and Monte Vista (if play better defense) could be tough matchups and pull off wins against the above. EBAL could have some surprises this year as to who wins. Still would give Foothill the slight advantage due to speed of the skill and return some good line and defenders. The soph may take time to grow into offense, and why this league could be pretty close among top competitors. AV has has inconsistency in its past but have in the past also run the table in the EBAL. This league could end up like last year with one loss champs.
To me the big question mark for Foothill will be QB and line play. As far as the Antioch game goes, Foothill dumper 8 or 9 in the box, got an early lead and never looked back. Getting a big lead took Harris out of the scheme.
The coach at Foothill has in past years taken young QB's and groomed them into QB's that knew what to do depending on the situation and paid attention to instructions...The same thing will happen to this transfer, but we will see.
As a SJS Homer, I always like to see the EBAL play SJS Teams in Out of Section Games in the Preseason. Hope to see San Ramon Valley vs. Vacaville soon!
Sira, Bergman and Sweeney being the coaching vets in the EBAL know it only takes one or two stud athletes to entertain thoughts of a League sweep (now that DLS left) if they've developed the aforementioned squad. One of the best non-Cal matchups with Sparta was 2009 when a super fast dual threat (a better diamond player btw) named Kean Stancil took an unheralded AV squad to a halftime lead versus Ladouceur. Unfortunately, as you all know, the line play was the difference in the second half. If Stancil hadn't blown his hammy for the playoffs that Don squad would've faired much better than Pitt did in the D1 final. Fastest QB in the EBAL in past 10 years (yes, that includes Kline, McAllister, Nottingham, Southwick and Lockie.)
That was a very good AV team and close game against the Spartans. That 2009 DLS team started kind of slow....7 pt win against Serra and losses to powers Don Bosco Prep and Lakeland FL and then won the state championship. 2004 was a great team with only DLS as a loss in NCS Championship. Every 5-6 years they compete....2015...
Kearns listening to instructions... Haha, that's a first. I wish the Soph all the luck but he's not the next coming just the next young starter. Wouldn't it be beneficial for him to start on JV first 5 games while he'll have to sit for transfer rules? If the upper class man who ever he is has a 5-0 record at the time why mess with a good thing
Sweeney saw a good thing in Kearns and stuck with him and it was Sweeney that kept him in line although Kearns was a hard head and at times a smart ass, but Kearns got the job done...With this new QB, I believe you are right to start him off on the JV, but he could surprise us, some of these young kids are way ahead of them selves just to show that they can do it. Or they are blessed with that certain skill....
Sweeney and Kearns was a business relationship only, they both needed each other. He didn't stick with him but rather didn't have a better option. There's a reason a 4 star rivals recruit had 1 offer from an east coast team at the 25th hour. Considering Sweeney's yearly records for the last 30 years Kearns hardly got the job done as he probably had one of the worst winning % of any foothill QB in that era that started more than one season. Kids got talent but .....
I doubt Woolridge (younger brother of Cal's Qb last year) beats out Merrimen.
Think your right, Woolridge was called up for playoffs last year; however the JV QB was ineligible the last two games(only JV losses) and playoffs. The Cal freshman were shut out at least twice and had trouble scoring.
He has a big arm' but I doubt he's ready.
I pretty sure Merrimen is Qb, EBAL
EBAL is going to be wide open, might even end up with several teams tied with two losses.
1. Cal 16-2 in league last three years
2. Amador Looked impressive in 7 on 7's and Jones good.
3. Monte Vista QB really good and coaches very high on this team.
4. Foothill Think Merriman will lead team.
5. SRV Always tough but seemed down a little in 7 on 7's
6.Granada don't overlook them, they have almost everyone back.
7.Livermore In over their head, but do have some good players.
Cal
AV
Foothill
SRV
Monte Vista
Granada
Livermore
I find picking EBAL extra tough this year. SRV is pretty young but I hear Kevin Davidson is applying to go there, so that could make a difference for them. I'm also hearing a couple of Foothill's big studs may have eligibility issues due to grades.
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