The numbers game has finally hit the Valley Christian football program. The WCAL announced today that the Warriors will not field a JV team this fall _ the same situation that has bedeviled SHC for the last several years. Only six WCAL schools will participate at the JV level this season: Bellarmine, Riordan, SI, Mitty, St. Francis and Serra. All league schools will field freshman teams.
VC drops JV team
- Thread starter colhenrylives
- Start date
Very surprising VC isn't fielding three teams. What was their total numbers? I was surprised Palma fielded three teams. The frosh and sophs have decent numbers put they have moved up talent in JV and varsity. Soph RB on JV is going to be special, but looks like they want to give him playing time with all the depth they have. Sophs and Frosh have depth at line and many moved up.
- 47 on varsity comprised of 24 seniors, 16 juniors, 6 sophs and 1 freshman;
- 30 on JV with 22 sophs and 8 freshmen
- 32 on frosh team
Program: Total - 108
- Seniors 24
- Juniors 16
- Sophs 28
- Frosh - 41
COVID really hit the junior class which JV was pretty good but mainly this year's soph class. The juniors on the team are very good but lack numbers, but Soph and Freshmen have lots of talent and depth with Freshmen looking like they will be very good class. Looks like numbers will trend up to between 50 - 60 in a couple years (Srs and Juniors assuming 15-20 drop out of program) but looks like will drop below 40 (Srs and Jrs) next season for jumping up.
- 47 on varsity comprised of 24 seniors, 16 juniors, 6 sophs and 1 freshman;
- 30 on JV with 22 sophs and 8 freshmen
- 32 on frosh team
Program: Total - 108
- Seniors 24
- Juniors 16
- Sophs 28
- Frosh - 41
COVID really hit the junior class which JV was pretty good but mainly this year's soph class. The juniors on the team are very good but lack numbers, but Soph and Freshmen have lots of talent and depth with Freshmen looking like they will be very good class. Looks like numbers will trend up to between 50 - 60 in a couple years (Srs and Juniors assuming 15-20 drop out of program) but looks like will drop below 40 (Srs and Jrs) next season for jumping up.
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For a small school, those numbers (115 total) are impressive. That would appear to be roughly 30 percent of the student body, perhaps a tad less.
Meanwhile in San Mateo, Serra's numbers appear to be not quite up to Palma's level on a percentage basis: A total of 223 boys listed (online) on three teams, roughly 26 percent of the current student body. As far as old guard followers can figure, that 223-player stat marks an historic program high. Not all of these guys will stay with it, of course. But most will.
The lower levels are impressive numbers. The junior class is very low. Usually between freshmen and JV, many of the freshmen drop off but usually 35-40 on JV. I think a decent year is 120-125 is a good draw year (so down by 4-8% overall with juniors down by about 30%)
The St. Francis website shows 130 boys on three teams. The varsity roster, by the way, indicates that the Lancers at that level hail from no fewer than 18 different cities, stretching from Pacifica, San Mateo, San Carlos and Foster City to Newark, Fremont, Milpitas and Los Gatos and points beyond.
29% of Palma's 374 high school students are on the football team. It's a small school, but base on the percentage can be referred to as a football school.
- 48% of Palma's frosh class play football
- 29% of the soph class play
- 17% of the juniors play, and
- 24% of seniors play
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My work colleague drives his frosh daughter to Mountain View from Danville (works in Palo Alto) so she could go there to be with her friends from middle school. Many of the WCAL teams have a wide draw. Serra also has a wide draw. Palma draws from Monterey through Gilroy and Hollister (although I think more are opting to stay at San Benito in recent years)
It would be safe to say that the dedicated parochials take the legacy of St. Peter (The Fisherman) to heart by casting a very wide football net.
You're right. Miscalculation. They have 22 sophs and 8 Frosh on JV. I adjusted the numbers an percentages. Total of 108 in program.
I am still confused why they cant field a JV team if they have 30 (22/8 Soph/Frosh) ???
HSfan82- I think NorCal is referring to Palma having 30 on their JV team.
It appears changing demographics, covid, injury concerns (especially concussions) is taking its toll. It is a sad state of affairs. Don’t know if VC will ever recover from this.
On the other end of the roster spectrum, Serra's staggering total of 223 players nearly equals the combined football rosters of all three public high schools in San Mateo. Good heavens.
It looks like Coach Walsh might be enjoying the benefit of leading the LetThemPlayCa movement.
Not to my knowledge, but building a Conservatory of the Arts and the Human Performance Center has definitely changed the type of student that applies to VC, and they have gone woke adding a Director of Biblical Unity this year.
Where do most kids that go to VC come from? The East Palo Alto kid (WR Dickey) is their best player. That is a long way to travel to go to school. Something is going on in that area when you look at Bellarmine, Mitty, and now VC. It's not like all the kids are going to play at one of the local public schools in San Jose either.
Over the years, it seems Valley Christian performs better in underdog positions. More than a very long time previously, VC is in a serious underdog position. We have Machado, who is aging out soon, stuck in an outdated coaching style. We have the smallest varsity squad in VC's last 25 years along with an unprecedented lack of JV squad in known VC FB history. And we have a series of events, not solely related to Covid, occurring simultaneously to create a lack of FB student interest at VC. Only a serious infusion of inspiring FB successes will pull VC out of this mounting conundrum of dwindling interest. Either a successful change will happen soon, or VC will be among the mounting number of Bay Area schools playing TAPS for their uninspiring FB programs. I ask, as a long-time Valley Christian interested fan, which road will VC travel?
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Interesting description. All lot of that could describe their opponent next week in Capital Christian.
Sacred Heart Cathedral and Riordan also not fielding JV teams this season.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/08...-programs-to-cut-jv-team-under-numbers-crunch
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/08...-programs-to-cut-jv-team-under-numbers-crunch
We were under the impression that Riordan was on its way back to some degree of WCAL relevance. Maybe not. By the way, the WCAL master schedule still shows Riordan JV's on the list.
Hope VC has a successful change, nice program they've had in a tough league. Seems like the gap between Serra and the rest of the league is widening, or as a WCAL outsider am I mistaken?
I don't think you're mistaken although St. Francis still looks good.
The composite schedule, updated on August 25th shows only 5 JV teams. They have to update the master schedule.
For some reason the frosh WCAL composite schedule doesn't have SHC listed for Nov. 6th. Mitty's site shows a game. Perhaps somebody missed it on the WCAL composite schedule.
Time will tell which road VC will travel. But in today's article of the Merc, Mike Machado says he "...is confident Valley Christian will rebound."
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/08...programs-to-cut-jv-team-under-numbers-crunch/
@VCHS_FB - One great game isn't a trend change but it sure seems promising to have as much effort and will-to-win put out on the Offense side of the ball as on the Defense side of the ball. The final score was 54-33 with Wilcox. The first half was full of mistakes, as expected. The VC offense appeared to be much of the same "tame" offense, doing just enough to get by in the first half. The half time game ended with a score of VC 21-19. The second half, though, was a completely different game with most the past 16 years trend of VC offense being broken. VC was able to put together an Offensive effort producing a 33-14 second half victory.
