The SHC football program has its hands tied for a variety of very tough reasons. By all rights, it should not compete in the WCAL. For many years, it didn't. Now, it's stuck. With both San Francisco rivals, Riordan and SI, (and Serra to the south already a WCAL big boy program), upgrading their football programs, SHC is caught in a vise as the odd man out. Frankly, it's not at all clear The Irish can ever break free and become an annual factor in the WCAL. They are really up against it. They have chronically low numbers, a lack of overall talent, too many coaching changes over time, minimal facilities, no frosh team and no history of WCAL success, having never won a league varsity football title. You might say SHC, with its inner city campus not all that far from the Tenderloin, is simply not a football school. Normally, that would be fine. Nothing wrong with that. But SHC, which hesitated to join SI in the new WCAL back in the late 1970s and then had to relent, is stuck in the WCAL, one of the top leagues in NorCal. The football competition is unrelenting. In a perfect world, The Irish would compete in the expanded PAL. But such an option, considered years ago and discarded, seems to be DOA. SHC's football future appears to be grim. That's not news. But it is depressing, for SHC and, frankly, for the WCAL. It's not good, no matter how you look at it. Saturday, Serra barely showed up, committing mistake after mistake and performing as badly as any Walsh-coached team ever has in his 24 seasons at the school. SHC, credit to them, hung in there but simply got overwhelmed in the end by Serra's depth, speed, overall size in both lines and an occasional big play. The final score was 29-12, pretty respectable really. But the difference in the two programs was so stark it was painful to watch, even as Serra (which did showcase its impressive transfer kicker from Stuart Hall) continued to self-destruct for most of the day. Oh, the JV score was Serra (with 60 sophs on the roster) 33, SHC 6. More bad news. It was a long, hot day on West 20th Avenue.