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Where is Coach Joe Cattolico?

ncscalfootball

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May 24, 2011
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Where is Coach Joe Cattolico? Is he coaching again? Will he come back if not? Where will he end up? I liked his Pleasant Grove Teams
 
Actually, I hear he is going to coach at a new academy in Sacramento. This will be a Charter School type deal that focuses on Athletics along with academics.
 
Many rumors, very few sightings, much like the Chupacabra because there are only rumors but nothing has ever been confirmed.
 
El Chupacabra Cattolico was at the Grant game last night...so there goes my theory that he was moving to Boston and taking over as OC for the New England Patriots.
 
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Coach Cattolico is a very strong minded coach. I wouldn't be shocked if he was on the DL mastering every aspect of the spread formation. Why not, it's not like Folsom is going to fall off anytime soon. Cat and Blanton are two of the coaches in the SJS that can beat Folsom regularly at the right school. A school like Laguna Creek when they had an abundance of talent. Let those two coaches get that type of talent and Folsom is in big trouble. Bank that. signed: PGW
 
Maybe it should read "Cat and Blanton are two of the coaches in the SJS that might beat Folsom at the right school".

And why list Blanton? What better school than at Jesuit? Blanton hasn't beaten Folsom during his four years at Jesuit. What's your reasoning on him being more likely to beat Folsom? I'm not attacking, just curious. I'd list the retired coach at GB, Cooper, as a better candidate to take down Folsom. I'm surprised at how poorly Jesuit has done this year with Bisharat on the team.
Even in down years, Cooper would be better than 500 and make the playoffs.
 
Maybe Coach C could go up to Grass Valley and fix that one time juggernaut. ;) No reason for that program to have taken such a fast and hard drop.
 
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Ram - You have no idea what is happening at NU. None. Neither do many people. And a message board isn't a place to explain.
 
Ram - You have no idea what is happening at NU. None. Neither do many people. And a message board isn't a place to explain.

I didn't at all suggest that I do. I have zero connections to that program and I haven't seen Kevin_Sierra posting much this year. He might be able to enlighten since you've chosen not to.

The only thing I do know is that NU's long but quick fall has been very disappointing to see.
 
Maybe it should read "Cat and Blanton are two of the coaches in the SJS that might beat Folsom at the right school".

And why list Blanton? What better school than at Jesuit? Blanton hasn't beaten Folsom during his four years at Jesuit. What's your reasoning on him being more likely to beat Folsom? I'm not attacking, just curious. I'd list the retired coach at GB, Cooper, as a better candidate to take down Folsom. I'm surprised at how poorly Jesuit has done this year with Bisharat on the team.
Even in down years, Cooper would be better than 500 and make the playoffs.

Whoa, I just re-read my post. I didn't mean to imply that Bisharat has caused the team to do poorly -- hope nobody got that impression. That kid is a beast.
I just meant that they seemed to have some good players (like Bisharat) and I thought they would end up better than 5-5
 
When you say, "no reason for that program to have a fast and hard drop" assumes you have insight to why that is happening.

Anything said would be an excuse. Most people on this board do not have a direct, inside connection to the program they root for. I have a direct inside connection to NU. It doesn't do any good to explain. The numbers (wins/losses, etc.) say enough.

I'm done hijacking the thread about Joe. Wish him the best of luck next season.
 
Maybe it should read "Cat and Blanton are two of the coaches in the SJS that might beat Folsom at the right school".

And why list Blanton? What better school than at Jesuit? Blanton hasn't beaten Folsom during his four years at Jesuit. What's your reasoning on him being more likely to beat Folsom? I'm not attacking, just curious. I'd list the retired coach at GB, Cooper, as a better candidate to take down Folsom. I'm surprised at how poorly Jesuit has done this year with Bisharat on the team.
Even in down years, Cooper would be better than 500 and make the playoffs.
You say why list Blanton? Because he's a better coach then his record indicates this year. Do you really think Jesuit gets better talent then Laguna Creek when Nelms was the coach? The last time Jesuit had talent like LC was when Isiah Fry was there. That's been pretty close to 10 years now. As a matter of fact, LC hasn't had talented teams in about 4 years now. Been told Franklin and Cosumnes Oaks get kids that would have usually went to LC. With that being said, I totally agree with you in regards to Cooper.
 
When you say, "no reason for that program to have a fast and hard drop" assumes you have insight to why that is happening.

Not really, but that's obviously how you interpreted it. I suppose I could have worded it a bit differently to suggest that I don't understand why the program has fallen so far, so fast.

For those like myself that do not have inside access to what is or isn't going on, it just doesn't make sense. It's not like a new school opened in the area and enrollment has taken a drastic dive or that the kids up there suddenly forgot how to play football. Losing a fantastic coach in Dave Humphers certainly plays a role, but the downfall began a few years before he left. I played against Dennis Houlihan and know that he learned under Humphers and Randy Blankenship so I wouldn't imagine that his methodology is drastically different, but perhaps it is. He had some success down in SoCal, but it certainly hasn't happened in Grass Valley.

It's one thing for the program to sink to mediocrity if the coaching and/or program support has drastically changed. But NU has sunk further than that. It's just quite odd to see a program that was a so good from around 1982 through 2009 and undoubtedly one of the top 2 or 3 programs in the SJS from 1989 through 2009 take this kind of fall without something as obvious as a drastic decrease in enrollment (ie. Elk Grove in the early 2000's or Cordova in 1993 when the AFB closed).

The SJS is much better off when NU is good.
 
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I had heard that NU was at over 4K enrollment in their glory days, maybe the dilution of talent by the new school has attributed to their slide? Seems when a new school is built everyone want to go there and have new shiny desks and lockers. Only Lips and Picks knows for sure though and their not sayin.

I remember going up there for playoff games years ago, what a great place to watch a game and the community support was off the hook. Also remember what seemed to be sub zero temperatures, no need for an ice chest, just leave your drinks in the bed of the truck and hope they don't freeze.
 
I had heard that NU was at over 4K enrollment in their glory days, maybe the dilution of talent by the new school has attributed to their slide? .

That's the thing -- there hasn't been any new schools. Bear River opened nearly 30 years ago and is still a relatively small school.

I don't believe any school in the greater Sacramento area has been anywhere close to 4K enrollment since the 60's or 70's. I think Davis was at or near 3K a few times, but most D1 programs are in the 2K range. NU has consistently been between 2K and 2500.
 
Davis is at 2800. NU is 1981. Lincoln of Stockton has highest enrollment in SJS at over 2900
 
In the late 90s NU was over 2900. Checking the official amount of students on the campus at NU today. Literally...today. 1579.
 
NU is 1981
Checking the official amount of students on the campus at NU today. Literally...today. 1579.

There's a fairly large disparity between both your numbers. Not sure what's actually accurate.

What I do know is that NU has never been below D1 or AAA in football since 1976. Which means their enrollment numbers have been consistently at or above 2K for nearly 40 years

If they are sub-1600 now, they must not be making babies up in Nevada City or Grass or Penn Valley anymore. The NU kids certainly aren't moving to Lake of the Pines, as Bear River has dropped down to D5 in recent years. Something has certainly changed up North.
 
Like I said. Nobody understands. And don't believe CBEDs (H.E.A.T.'s number). I am exactly accurate. I went into the office today at NU and found out the exact number. 2016 projection of NU students is right around 1500.
 
Like I said. Nobody understands. And don't believe CBEDs (H.E.A.T.'s number). I am exactly accurate. I went into the office today at NU and found out the exact number. 2016 projection of NU students is right around 1500.

While they may have zero clue, the NU announcers on KNCO kept mentioning that it was a possibility for the program to go independent next season in an attempt to leave the SFL and join a new league after. The rationale was that they aren't likely to make the playoffs next season anyway so the playoff ban wouldn't really matter. I don't know how the CIF rules work in a situation like that, but, assuming they did move out of the D1 league, they would qualify for D3 with the numbers you're giving. That's strange to say.

As I mentioned earlier, Bear River was a D2 school back in 1997 and has gradually dropped down 3 divisions over the past 18 years. NU's drop has happened so much faster. I can't fathom what the reason would be.
 
Like I said. Nobody understands. And don't believe CBEDs (H.E.A.T.'s number). I am exactly accurate. I went into the office today at NU and found out the exact number. 2016 projection of NU students is right around 1500.
Not asking you to give names or pin point who you feel is responsible for the decline, just give us an "insiders" opinion on what is happening. Are families leaving the area in droves? Have the demographics changed? Is a retirement community now and kids are no where to be found?
 
CBEDs is what the section uses to determine what division a school plays in. NU currently counts a secondary school that is located off campus as part of their enrollment. Last year and when realignment happened the count included 2 schools that were off the NU campus in their CBEDs report. The idea was to have these students go to these schools, but be allowed to play sports at NU. Welllll...it backfired. These smaller schools sent basically 1% of their population to NU for sports, but their total number students counted against NU's CBEDs number. Meaning...whatever you read from CBEDs is NOT the actual enrollment on the NU campus. Having these 2 schools added 300-400 kids to NU's CBEDs, but a total of about 15 kids played sports.

Winghunter...I don't know. Ask the county supervisors. There aren't many jobs up here. The older population votes against any expansion of anything...housing, etc. That is why I say it's too complicated. Too many factors that ultimately end up affecting the school.

Everyone sees "football". Last year...NU's football, basketball, and baseball teams (big 3 sports) won a combined 1 SFL game. COMBINED. But everyone wonders why/how NU's football team has fallen off so much. Softball...until last year...hadn't won more than 3 games...TOTAL...in 5 years. Girls soccer didn't win a single match over the course of 5 years. I'm talking varsity sports here.

What does that mean? School morale down. "Nobody can win". Athletes not coming out because they don't want to be a part of losing...instead of being part of the fix.

If I had the answer...this wouldn't be happening to football. But I don't have answers. Having Joe Cattolico (a good friend of mine) come to NU wouldn't fix the job situation in the county.

Read this. http://www.theunion.com/news/18803912-113/jeff-dellis-factors-behind-nevada-union-high-schools
 
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I just walked up to our Registrar at Napa High. Our CBEDS in the link above says 2093. Our current enrollment of students on campus is 1792. The question is "What accounts for the difference?" Well, there are a number of students who attend a Tech School in Napa who count as Napa students. Napa High does NOT receive the benefit of these students academic achievements, but Napa High does have to count these students in the Enrollment numbers for athletic purposes. I believe Nevada Union has this same issue.

Couple that with the fact that there are fewer people moving into the area and more people are dying in the area than are being born and you have a school with a declining enrollment.

Also, losing breeds losing. Once a program starts on that slope, it is often hard to recover from without a major change of some sort. Perhaps Humphers saw the writing on the wall and got out while the getting was good.
 
I had read this somewhere least year too, that there was a significant drop in enrollment, with many younger families leaving that area for jobs elsewhere. That would explain a lot.
If I'm an AD at a school that is dropping in enrollment, and the demographics of the area don't lend themselves to people contributing extra funds to support the football program, I'd be looking at getting out of the ultra-competitive SFL too.
 
I teach at NU and everything that Lips and Picks has said is accurate. 16 years ago the enrollment was just below 2900 and today is 1579. Also the figures about the numbers for the other two schools counted in our enrollment are correct. As far as the job market up here goes, we have only two major employers, the education system and the health care industry. Health care is big because we have been listed as one of the top retirement areas in the state and retirees are now the majority of our population. We do have a technology industry here and they are working on some ideas that may help us draw more younger families in the future but nothing is for sure yet. We also have a large charter school/home school community that siphons away students each year. The bottom line is we do not have the numbers of athletes that we once had and if you lose 328 students you are also lose athletes and so the talent pool is much smaller to draw from. We are listed as D2 for basketball this year (first time since the 80's) Just reread this post we have dropped 1321 students, not 328.
 
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I teach at NU and everything that Lips and Picks has said is accurate. 16 years ago the enrollment was just below 2900 and today is 1579. Also the figures about the numbers for the other two schools counted in our enrollment are correct. As far as the job market up here goes, we have only two major employers, the education system and the health care industry. Health care is big because we have been listed as one of the top retirement areas in the state and retirees are now the majority of our population. We do have a technology industry here and they are working on some ideas that may help us draw more younger families in the future but nothing is for sure yet. We also have a large charter school/home school community that siphons away students each year. The bottom line is we do not have the numbers of athletes that we once had and if you lose 328 students you are also lose athletes and so the talent pool is much smaller to draw from. We are listed as D2 for basketball this year (first time since the 80's)
This situation somewhat reminds me of Vallejo when Mare Island closed. Vallejo's population shrunk big time which affected the enrollment number of the schools in Vallejo (Vallejo High & Hogan High) during the time. To this day the enrollment numbers are still affected by the closing of Mare Island.
 
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Thanks everyone for all the insight and explanation. It certainly makes a whole lot more sense given everything that has been outlined. It was obvious something had drastically changed. Now we all know. I certainly hope things improve in the area. I truly believe what I said before. The SJS is much better off when NU is good (in all athletics). With regard to football games, Hooper Stadium is among the best venues I've ever played or witnessed a game. Great atmosphere, great fans. I would love to see them start winning again.
 
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I believe that Placer had issues with playing in the ever growing SFL. It is my understanding that thier AD petioned to get them out of the SFL and into the PVL, replacing Whitney...Successful.....I think that would be excellent for NU and then have much closer travel to BR, Colfax, Placer, Lincoln....
Just my opinion...
 
There is talk on the table of NU, Placer, Lincoln, Roseville, Oakmont and one other (tba) forming a new league at the next realignment but it's just talk at the moment. NU wants to move to a D2 or D3 league if they can. It would fit the level of athletes they now have
 
Another example of what has happened over at NU is Sonora High in the southern half of the SJS. Ten years ago their enrollment was over 1600 and were highly competitive in the Valley Oak League. For one reason or another their enrollment has dropped and so did the number of wins. Sonora is now in the Mother Lode League with schools with similar enrollment and have had a 21-3 record in the two years in the new league. Two of those losses were to long time rival Oakdale. Maybe it's time for NU to step down a division.
 
ThunderRam, What you hear from Lips and Picks and Kpcarter is correct about enrollment, they do not have the large base of students anymore to pull from. Bear in mind also many of the assistants remained on staff during the changeover so the focus on the changes that have been made in the program have been nothing but positive. Until NU is moved down you will not see those changes take effect. NU will never see an explosion in enrollment or growth in the area like the last decade you have seen in Folsom or Elk Grove, as Grass Valley will never grow like that. Hopefully the next realignment will address this...
 
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