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Very strange and unusual, but nevertheless avidly welcomed.
The 2020 prep football season begins in 2021. Not in autumn, the season so indelibly associated with football, but late winter with spring on the doorstep.
Not your normal 10-game season with playoffs to follow, either, but in most cases a five-game season ending by April 17, so that next fall’s season might begin on time.
Currently no fans are to be allowed at Peninsula Athletic League games in San Mateo County. Four family members per player will be allowed to attend Santa Clara Valley Athletic League games
Players will not have to undergo COVID-19 testing due to both Santa Clara and San Mateo counties having an adjusted case rate of less than 7 per 100,000.
Members of the Palo Alto and Gunn teams were looking forward to a non-league game between the two Palo Alto public high schools in the second week of the season. But that matchup, along with everything else on the original fall schedule, was cancelled due to the pandemic. So Paly and Gunn are meeting in a scrimmage Friday at Palo Alto, frosh-soph at 5 p.m., varsity at 7.
“The guys are thrilled about getting the chance to play football,’’ Paly coach Nelson Gifford said. “They are thrilled about playing Gunn. High school sports are all about relationships, all about community.’’
Scrimmages this weekend are the norm for most local teams. But Sacred Heart Prep has a game that counts on Friday in a 7 p.m. start at Aragon.
“They’re ecstatic,’’ SHP coach Mark Grieb said of the mood among his players.
Playing a game so early also has its drawbacks with already limited practice time reduced even further.
“There are huge challenges everywhere,’’ Grieb said. “A lot of programs have had their numbers drop off. The ability to prepare will be a lot different.’’
SHP was originally scheduled to play Terra Nova in a Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division opener. But Terra Nova and other Jefferson Union High School District schools only began practice on Monday. So Aragon, a PAL Ocean team this year, took Terra Nova’s place on SHP’s schedule, leaving the Gators with four Bay and two Ocean opponents.
There are six teams in each of the PAL’s three divisions, but this season there are only five in the Lake as Mills announced Monday it would not take part in football. So uneven schedules, with teams playing different numbers of divisional games, are commonplace.
Just getting a chance to play is the focus, rather than winning league championships.
There are no Central Coast Section playoffs for football in this one-of-a-kind season.
Menlo-Atherton has a scrimmage with St. Ignatius and Menlo School a scrimmage with The King’s Academy, both on Saturday.
M-A opens its season with Half Moon Bay on March 19, the same day Menlo School gets underway with Hillsdale.
Palo Alto and Gunn also play their season openers on March 19, Paly at Wilcox and Gunn at Saratoga.
Local teams, top players
Palo Alto: QB Danny Peters, RB Josh Butler, OL/DL Patrick Crowley, OL/DL Jackson Bundy.
Peters, also a promising pitcher on the baseball team, had an outstanding sophomore season at quarterback.
“I’m really excited about what he’s going to show,’’ Gifford said.
Butler also provided some bright moments at running back as a sophomore.
“He looks fantastic,’’ Gifford said. “He told me he wants to make a full commitment to this. I want to see how far he can go.’’
Standout receiver Jamir Shepard has graduated, so Peters will have a new group of targets to throw to, including Brody Simison, Rowan Felsch, Blake Chase and Lucas Black.
Gunn: OL/DL Ken Erlan, RB/LB Richard Jackson. RB Evan Wiederhold, WR Kevin Green, QB James Lambert.
Erlan (6-4, 290) and Jackson, who has put on 30 pounds and now weighs 205, are both receiving interest from college programs. Gunn coach Jason Miller describes Lambert as “a Kyler Murray-type at quarterback. “A small, quick guy who runs a 4.4 (40) and was born to lead.’’
Objectives are a little different than normal as the Titans prepare to play a delayed, five-game season in the spring with no playoffs to provide motivation.
“There’s less emphasis on competition and more of an experience for seniors,’’ Miller said.
Menlo-Atherton: WR Jalen Moss, QB Matt MacLeod, RB Thomas Taufui, OL/DL Fale Mosley (6-2, 315), OL Leki Tautua’a (6-2, 350), ILB Andrew Buck, ILB Sione Vaka, DB Jayden Stanley.
Super recruit Troy Franklin has enrolled early at the University of Oregon, but the cupboard is far from bare at M-A. Moss, with a number of Division I offers, is the obvious heir apparent to Franklin as primary pass catcher.
“He’s the real deal,’’ first-year coach Chris Saunders said of Moss. “Probably the most explosive athlete I’ve coached in my career. You can’t really guard him one on one.’’
MacLeod, who made a memorable appearance in the 2018 Central Coast Section Open Division I championship game as a freshman, had an outstanding sophomore season and is described by Saunders as “the heartbeat of our program.’’
Stanley has committed to UC Davis. Taufui has been offered by Arizona State, among others. Skyler Thomas, another defensive back being recruited by Division I programs, is ineligible after playing prep ball in Georgia in the fall.
Sacred Heart Prep: QB Teddy Purcell, TE/DE/LB Will Mackie, C Peter Desler, WR/DB Cav Williams, TE/DE Paul Barton, G/LB Ryan Wong, WR/DB Jackson Girouard.
Purcell is coming off an excellent junior year and is expected to be a team leader.
“Teddy has just worked so hard,’’ Grieb said.
Grieb praised how much Mackie (6-3, 220) has progressed since last season.
“He’s transformed himself,’’ Grieb said. “Runs real well.’’
Desler is a three-year starter at center. Barton is the son of former 49ers offensive tackle Harris Barton.
Grieb, in some respects, has tried to maintain a business as usual approach.
“I don’t think the prospect of not having playoffs will change our mindset,’’ Grieb said. “It doesn’t change what we want to accomplish from a team perspective. We always want to play at the highest level we possibly can.’’
Menlo School: WR/LB Chris d’Alencon, MLB Ronier Babiera, WR Carter Jung.
d’Alencon, who first-year coach Todd Smith described as “physical, excellent on both sides of the ball, a team captain,’’ has committed to play at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.
Jung has made an impression during practice.
“He’s been electric in camp,’’ Smith said. “Extremely explosive.’’
Three players — Eliot Kinder, Will Murphy and Sergio Beltran — are competing to be the starter at quarterback.
Smith might be in his first year as head coach, but he is no stranger to the Menlo program, having served as defensive coordinator the past eight years. He will continue as his own defensive coordinator.
Austyn Carta-Samuels has been hired as offensive coordinator. Carta-Samuels played quarterback at Wyoming and Vanderbilt after a prep career at Bellarmine. He comes to Menlo after five years on the staff at the University of Missouri.
