I’m confused. You’re saying DLS was like Mater Dei but also saying the talent up north is inferior…
Where does Serra go from here?
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Florida recognized quite a while ago that IMG competing for a State title wasn’t a good thing so they prevented them from doing so. IIRC none of the Florida public schools are permitted to schedule them. And there are many programs around the country that won’t or are barred from scheduling them.
Thus IMG schedules 10 games each year against a National schedule. And does not participate in a postseason.
I know CA won’t sack up and treat SJB and MD the same, but IMO they should. What they’re doing is creating a massive talent imbalance that isn’t good for the game or the student athletes. This isn’t a case of just being coached better or a particular geographic area consistently producing more talent.
If MD and SJB want to continue playing the recruiting and stockpiling game they’ve been playing the past 8+ years — they should do it by scheduling other Nat’l programs that are doing the same. There’s just no point to them playing any teams from CA besides themselves and possibly Centennial-Corona when they are having an “up” year. Sans Servite a couple seasons ago, none of the other Trinity programs are capable of competing consistently.
The funny and hypocritical thing is, I believe the CIF banned all CA programs from scheduling IMG a while back, clearly acknowledging the competitive disadvantage, yet they’ve allowed MD and SJB to become IMG‘s on the West Coast and are refusing to acknowledge and address the same competitive disadvantage. Go figure.
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Anybody that believes DLS is or ever was comparable to what MD and SJB have become just aren’t properly educated on the history of the Spartans program and the coaches that built it. My advice is to pay them no mind.
where mater dei and bosco have 80 and need 80 to compete.. de la salle only needed 40 cuz the comp in weaker. that isnt anything groundbreaking.
As a coach and a competitor, i’d honestly be embarrassed to play the schedule they’re playing. And I can back that up with real world examples.
We ended a 60 year old rivalry game to schedule
elite competition (relative to us), because that rival isn’t up to par.
This past year we scheduled Los Gatos (a school well over double our size) as our week 1 opponent, despite having been a B league school the year before.
I’d rather go 5-5 than do what MD is doing. To me that would just be so boring..
3 of Riordan’s 4 losses were to teams that played for a State title last weekend ( St. Bonaventure, Serra, Los Gatos) The 4th was the WCAL 2nd place finisher. (St. Francis).
Freshmen, sophomores and juniors made up for most of the starters.
Forgive my ignorance. What rules are different down south? I understand what's going on at Mater Dei. I'm not aware of different rules you mention?
Where would this end? I know many up North who would want Serra also treated differnelty. I'm not sure many are aware that Serra recruits the Oakland area hard. You might be surprised how many East Bay kids are on their roster. Heck, they even go after Sac. Their Qb1 lives in Sac and stays with another family during the week. Do publics in the PAL and Oakland also get a voice against what Serra is doing.
Is the solution creating a public and private playoff pairing?
Well technically up north recruiting is illegal. My program has faced recruiting investigations from CCS 2 straight years. Obviously it still happens up here, but you gotta at least pretend like you’re not recruiting.
Down there it must just be open season because they’re not even trying to hide the fact they’re recruiting players.
Maybe i’m mistaken but it sure seems like that.
Key word here TRANSFERS.
DLS is geographically gifted and boomed especially as Pitt/Antioch/Brentwood exploded in population growth. They got and get 9th graders who they shape into great players, with talent in there. What they do not do is call up every D1 10th/11th grader in a 100 mi radius and van them over for the football season and they return to their home school in the spring to graduate.
DLS is a school, SJB/MD are football factories just like IMG.
Look no further than Serra and more recently Riordan on the recruiting front. Riordan aggressively playing the transfer game also.
Ya, I think in most of those cases it’s players recruiting players. And of course offseason 7 on 7 connections and youth ball connections.
There’s legal/grey area ways to attract players without technically recruiting.
I’d bet both of those schools have a lot of newer coaches at the lower levels that are connected to the youth football and flag programs throughout the bay.
Hello FNL72,many on here know me as someone who posts rarely during football season but when i do i do so in support of our local kids from a tiny town off I80 East about 30 miles above Sacramento,i just read your post and it definitely caught my attention especially about the recruiting that Serra does especially the DISTANCE they go out away from San Mateo in which to do so…..i realize the privates recruit i understand that but i had NO IDEA that as far as Serra is concerned they go as far as Oakland and even worse SACRAMENTO where as you said they housed a player throughout the week!If this is true and i don’t know if it is then THAT WOULD PISS ME OFF!We rarely get transfers very rarely and we surely do not recruit,our local team and we have a good one for a small community with what i consider exceptional coaching and the tremendous job they do yr in and yr out in shaping and growing our LOCAL kids and many on here would agree with that as they know who i proudly support….and we compete vs teams of equal size just fine and at times over achieve vs bigger schools….but to hear that a school such as Serra recruits SO far away PISSES ME OFF to no end as i never knew just how far out they go to do so!Thank you for posting that as i didn’t know that,and if thats the case then i will voice my displeasure in the unfair advantage Serra has over other schools especially the publics…thanks again!I know a little about the catholic schools as i attended St Benedict in Oakland throughout 8th grade and attended BOD (Bishop O’Dowd) my frosh,soph before moving to Auburn,we played in the CAL (Catholic Athletic League) back then vs De La Salle,Moreau,St Elizabeth,Salesian,wasn’t aware of the recruiting then if any and even worse now if Serra is as you said going as far as Sac…..that in my opinion is wrong,bad enough to recruit as parochials do from neighboring communities taking away their talent but to have a recruiting arm that goes so far should be STOPPED!Just voicing my opinion…thanks!
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Not true at Serra. The coaches that I know of on their frosh and JV staffs have coached high school (mostly at Serra) for years and years. I don’t know about the Riordan staff, though.
Privates technically are not allowed to recruit for football. If you had evidence of a school representative from Serra actively recruiting players, it could be submitted to CCS and they’d be sanctioned.
I’m sure it does happen. But like I said before, in most cases it’s kids recruiting kids and/or youth/7on7 connections.
The ramifications of being caught recruiting are a pretty big deterrent.
Got to hand it to Serra....they scheduled Folsom, DLS and St John Bosco next season and will have a young team. MD and SJB in the current regime will have numbers and overwhelming talent. This Serra team is among if not its most talented ever. They clearly could have competed with anyone not named MD or SJB in CA this season. They had a great great year.
Could be true that they don’t at all but they definitely have a pipeline with their Next Level flag program.
So it’s really easy. A couple Next Level flag coaches with ties to Serra recruit from all over the region. There’s no rules against that. You stack these crazy teams, the kids become friends, then that team winds up going to High School at Serra.
Same is happening w/ youth 7’s and training programs.
I can just about guarantee you that Serra’s dominance began in large part as a result of ties to youth football programs be it tackle or flag.
I see Soquel has a next level footbal site this year. Looks like you guys caught on how to recruit without recruiting. Every kid in Santa Cruz County should want to go to Soquel after winning State.
Ha ha. Ya, I mean if you wanna compete with the big dogs, you gotta put yourself out there to the community.
That’s exactly right tho. We know we can’t recruit. So what we can do is win games, schedule the top competition so our guys get looks, go to camps, be active in the youth sports etc.
well, they have already been pilfering the other schools in the district (Harbor/Santa Cruz)
For the record, we had zero harbor players. This year we had 3 transfers from Santa Cruz.
Scotts Valley had 4 from Santa Cruz.
And those kids left because Santa Cruz passed over a really good long time Santa Cruz coach, for a guy that hadn’t coached in a decade.
If they’d hired the incumbent, none of those kids transfer. Has nothing to do with us pilfering anyone.
Shoot we lost one of the best athletes to ever come through our county to Mitty. Left to a program that lost to a team we beat 28-0.
The Next Level model is having high school/college kids coach the younger kids. Peninsula/SF schools that have next level (per website):
Riordan, Burlingame, St. Francis, Stanford, Cap, Jefferson, San Mateo, Aragon, M-A, Sacred Heart Prep, Serra, Hillsdale. Lots more in the South Bay, including all the WCAL schools.
Riordan, Burlingame, St. Francis, Stanford, Cap, Jefferson, San Mateo, Aragon, M-A, Sacred Heart Prep, Serra, Hillsdale. Lots more in the South Bay, including all the WCAL schools.
Walsh's son played for the local pop warner team so he was always there. Not sure if he recruited his teammates to Serra or if they went to other WCAL schools instead. There are a couple of "recruiting gurus" in the bay but I don't know if Walsh or Bell works with them. Seems like SoCal trinity schools work with them since they are the connection that MD or Bosco use to recruit bay area kids. That and DLS or Pittt also work with these gurus out in Antioch/Oakley.
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Is his son a freshman? What team did his son play for?
That’s what i’m saying tho. If MD has recruiters directly tied to players and the MD staff, then they’re operating under way different rules. Serra couldn’t get away with that.
Riordan's staff is a mix of Coach Raviipati's former coaches/relationships and Riordan alumni.
Okay I will be that guy. In MY OPINION none of this is REAL Friday night lights football. Escalon v Hilmar games. Oakdale v Sonora up at Dunleavy Field. Bret Hart v Calaveras that's high school football. Just and old guys opinion.
There is a local public school in Sac that has a pipe line up the hill, called the Reno Express.......
I started wondering how MD was getting the Bay kids like Raleek Brown and now Jordon Davison. How does that work? Does MD have host families or dorms, or is there a family connection for these kids to stay down South with?
It can only be real high school football in mostly white rural small towns, but it’s not real high school football if it’s played by brown youths in urban areas ? Hmmmm okay
Guys, trust me when I tell you all the top programs have strong ties either directly or indirectly to the youth football scene. I coached youth ball for 15 years
All the top programs have strong ties to the youth programs. Up north they have just straight feeder programs that are named after the school, and often run the same system.
Obviously So-Cal is more appealing about Stockton, I'm talking about the logistics of it and the first contact. Does MD contact the family directly, it seems like they back channel through the trainer first, similar to how the transfer portal is working. Does the kid stay down with a host family, dorms or other family/friends down there?
I think the OG poster means that he likes kids that grow up in a town/neighborhood and grow up going to HS games and end up playing there and represent their community. In Marin, San Marin HS is like this now. MC is no MD/SJB they aren’t taking every single promising Sophomore in the county as a transfer. Look at how much the Trinity league, and demographic change, has decimated the LA section alone.
The “Real HS football” comment I don’t know…
What I do know is that in the valley football is king at many schools, they don’t have many privates either. Also many of the valley schools and their teams are majority Hispanic like teams that made SBG Escalon, Strawthmore, Wasco, ect…
Other valley towns are ethnically diverse now, more so than many parts of the Bay Area now.
It's rather ironic. As CIF continues its thrust into the feel-good world of balance and fairness, its premier Open Division has become anything but balanced and fair. It's a strange world.
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