Sacramento-area coaches praise ‘Navy Seals’ of high school sports after summer scrimmages

Friday and Saturday offered glimpses of a high school football season soon to consume a lot of lives.

Teams throughout the Sacramento Valley and beyond engaged in spirited intrasquad scrimmages. The intent was to crash into each other in simulated game-like situations in an effort to fine tune. Or, for a good many, to continue to work from scratch, to learn how to block, tackle, pass, catch and run.

Football was in the air (and in the ground) in Del Paso Heights, where the defending CIF state 3-AA champion Grant Pacers unleashed their array of marvelously skilled guys and big guys. It happened down the road at Inderkum in Natomas and throughout Placer County in Auburn, Lincoln, Loomis, Roseville and Rocklin. And in Folsom for the powerhouse Bulldogs, in Orangevale for Casa Roble, in Rancho Cordova and up to El Dorado Hills for the Navy-Gold scrum at Oak Ridge.

A lot of programs elected to have a normal practice without all the bells and whistles. By any measure, football is hard work. It’s hot, sweaty and grueling with coaches barking instructions.

“We’ve got hard workers, good dudes, and I like the intensity,” Sheldon coach Chris Nixon said after watching his gritty team from the Elk Grove Unified School District go through drills earlier this week. “That’s what any coach wants. Football is definitely not for everyone. They’re the Navy Seals in high school, doing things no one else does. But there are rewards, of being part of a team with goals.”

A lot of intrasquad sessions followed youth feeder program scrimmages. It was geared so high school players could inspire kids because they were that kid not too long ago.

Crossing all bridges

Twelve Bridges is the sparkling program growing by the day in Lincoln, a campus so new the school won’t graduate its first class until next spring. Coach Chris Bean hit the ground running and he’s still in fast-forward motion. On July 31, in the first minutes high school teams were allowed by CIF rules to include shoulder pads and full contact, the Ragin’ Rhinos had a Midnight Madness practice.

On Friday night, there was an intrasquad game.

“I love that analogy by Coach Nixon about Navy Seals,” Bean said after a Thursday practice, the sun setting on campus. “Football players are a dying breed with lower numbers and concerns of concussions, and because it’s not easy, you appreciate the kids who put in the time. So we as coaches put in the time.”

Bean has an army of players ready to fight the good fight. As a first-year varsity program last fall, the Ragin’ Rhinos reached the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs, a remarkable feat similar to what coach Jason Tenner pulled off the previous season with new West Park High in Roseville. Twelve Bridges has 51 varsity players, 42 on the junior varsity and 38 on the freshman level. For a Division V program, that is an impressive turnout.

Next for area programs is this coming weekend: full-on scrimmages against other teams. There will be referees, and for some, a scoreboard. The real fun starts Aug. 17-19 with season openers. That’s when the product starts to look more genuine with student rooting sections filling the stands, the marching band and cheerleaders adding to the pageantry and fans of all ages squeezing in. Prep football the last 10 years has become the rage on campus and in communities large and small.

Scrimmages offer a real gauge of progress.

“Next, we scrimmage Del Oro,” Bean said, “because we need to get pushed around.”

The beauty of this sport is that one can push back.

Team theme

Coaches said it is a special deal, a big deal, to hand out helmets and then to hand out jerseys. Those items are the early rewards of grinding through summer drills. Some players sleep with a helmet next to their bed. Some try to convince mom it’s OK to wear a jersey to church.

“If I’m the 37th guy on the totem pole and I get a jersey, I’m happy, and you love to see it because that kid is working hard to get higher on that pole,” Rocklin coach Jason Adams said. “A jersey and a helmet means everything to a football player.”

Such items are treasured because not everyone is a star and not everyone is a starter. But everyone can be part of the team, and nothing signifies team more than gear and apparel.

At Oakmont High in Roseville, the team theme was to tidy up before an intrasquad scrimmage Friday that included a raffle and barbecue. So coach Jake Messina put his guys to work.

“We’re going to clean the stadium,” he said a day before the project. “We’re going to pull weeds, pick up garbage. It’s our stadium. We want to look nice. Coaches coach because it’s nice to see kids get better and their desire to get this right, to help turn a program around.”

High school experience

The point of prep football is to foster team building and bonding, to deal with challenges and adversity, to come together for a common goal. And there is one other major factor.

“Hopefully, football is still fun because it’s such a great game, though it’s never easy,” said Capital Christian coach Aaron Garcia, stressing perspective. “Too many kids now are worried about getting scholarship offers or how many college coaches follow you on social media. They’re living at a higher stress level than needed.”

The coach added: “I walked in one day on campus and we had a player, a tough kid, whose eyes were watering, looking in the mirror. What’s wrong? He said, ‘Coach, I don’t want to play in college. I just want a good high school experience.’ Know what? That’s 95% of the players out there — just wanting a good high school experience.”

Del Oro can speak of the grand prep experience. A football power since the 1970s, Del Oro and head coach Mike Maben didn’t just have the annual “Black and Gold” intrasquad session on Friday in Loomis. They had a party. It was called “Rock the Stadium” with scrimmages, food vendors and live music heavy on 1980s tunes. Players woke up Saturday morning with sore limbs and ringing ears from the loud tunes.

‘We don’t call it Hell Week’

At Casa Roble in Orangevale, the Rams on Friday had a freshman/junior varsity scrimmage followed by a varsity session that ended in a 16-16 tie. Like everywhere else across the region, there were no kickoff or punt returns — why splatter your own guys, right?

The Rams ended the day with a team photo, the sun setting behind them. Everyone went home spent and healthy.

“We got exactly what we wanted out of Friday,” Casa Roble coach Chris Horner said. “It was full-on tackling, to the ground, but we didn’t have any kill shots on receivers. Why? Nobody’s impressed. No one’s here to post that film on Tik Tok.”

What adds to the coach’s fun this season is having his junior son, Ethan, playing receiver. Son even challenged dad in the car ride home after the scrimmage.

“He said, ‘Dad, we needed one more possession to score to break the tie,’” Horner said. “Yeah, but not for this. It’s a scrimmage. If it ends in a tie, I’m not losing. Ethan said he only had two balls thrown to him. I told him, ‘Hey, man! Be happy you’re starting!’ It’s just so cool. He’s so into it.”

More cool: Horner’s approach to the most rigorous hot-weather summer practice sessions.

“We don’t call it Hell Week,” Horner said. “It’s fall camp. You don’t want players dreading going to practice if it’s called Hell Week. I tell the guys that if football was easy, everyone would play it. You’re a unique group, sweating your butts off. You just love the camaraderie and what football can do. I haven’t been this excited about a team in my 23 years doing this.”