After months of anticipation, the high school football season is about to start.
Thousands of players across the Bay Area have spent the past several months grinding through agility workouts, early morning lifts and 7-on-7 tournaments to get to this moment.
Now, it’s time to see if the work pays off.
Practice officially begins for schools in the Central Coast Section on Monday while schools in the North Coast Section will start on Aug. 11.
They all will be getting ready for Week 1 of the season, which for most of the 100-plus teams in the Bay Area News Group’s coverage area will be Aug. 28-30.
Teams will play up to 10 regular-season games over 11 weekends, followed by section playoffs in November. The season will end in Southern California on Dec. 12-13, with a couple of dozen regional champions competing for state championships across numerous divisions.
Starting Aug. 11, the Bay Area News Group will begin rolling out league previews and all-BANG preseason player lists at all positions.
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To get you up to speed, here are 10 storylines as practices get underway:
Is De La Salle still No. 1?
There isn’t much doubt who the Bay Area’s top team is entering the season.
After giving national powerhouse Mater Dei-Santa Ana a temporary scare in the Open Division state championship last year, De La Salle returns a plethora of talent from that team.
Speedster Jaden Jefferson – a North Carolina commit and state record holder in the 100-meter dash – will be the featured playmaker in De La Salle’s offense as a wide receiver and running back. Cal-bound offensive and defensive lineman Nemyah Telona will anchor the trenches while running back Duece Jones-Drew, son of former NFL All-Pro Maurice Jones-Drew, will enter the year as De La Salle’s primary ballcarrier.
North Carolina-bound Jaden Jefferson is back for the Spartans after winning the 100-meter dash at the California state championships, breaking records along the way. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Justin Alumbaugh, who is entering his 13th year as De La Salle’s coach, said this is his fastest team he’s ever had.
As usual, De La Salle stacked its schedule as the Concord heavyweight will open against Florida powerhouse Lakeland before three straight road games against Serra, St. Francis and Grant-Sacramento.
It has been 33 years since De La Salle lost to a team from its own section. That NCS streak nearly came to an end in 2023 against San Ramon Valley and last year against Pittsburg, but don’t count on it being broken this year.
The Spartans’ winning tradition mixed with Division I talent at every key position makes De La Salle the team to beat in Northern California.
Other teams might disagree.
But until proven otherwise, the Spartans should be the favorite to represent NorCal in the Open Division state championship game again this year.
– Nathan Canilao
Riordan primed to finish job
For Archbishop Riordan, everything has been building toward 2025.
The Crusaders have a senior SEC-bound quarterback, a Big Ten-bound offensive lineman and college talent all over the field. Now it’s time for them to win the West Catholic Athletic League.
There is no reason why Riordan shouldn’t be the overwhelming favorite in the WCAL and Central Coast Section. Last season’s WCAL co-champions, St. Ignatius and St. Francis, both graduated their starting quarterback and running back.
Riordan, meanwhile, returns four-year starting QB Michael Mitchell Jr., running back Adonyae Brown and receivers Cynai Thomas, Judge Nash and Wesley Winn Jr. And for good measure, the Crusaders added senior transfer Perrion Williams, St. Francis’ top pass catcher in 2024.
The San Francisco school is tough in the trenches, too. Riordan brings back Oregon commit Tommy Tofi to anchor its offensive and defensive lines.
Everything is lining up for Riordan to romp to a WCAL title and win the CCS Open Division championship. One WCAL coach called them “ridiculously stacked this year.”
But can the Crusaders be the best team in the Bay Area, or even win a NorCal or state title? Those are the questions the San Francisco school will have to answer this fall.
– Christian Babcock
El Cerrito has a tough road back
The 2024 El Cerrito season was marred in controversy.
The East Bay school was expected to be one of the Bay Area’s top programs as a plethora of Division I college talent filled its roster.
But after an NCS investigation found that El Cerrito used several ineligible players in the first half of its season, the Gauchos were forced to forfeit six games, sit numerous top players for the rest of the year and finished the season with a 1-8 record. The section’s ruling and the decision from the school’s administration to place then-coach Jacob Rincon on administrative leave led to protests from students and community members.
Now, El Cerrito is trying to turn the page.
New coach Tim Johnson, who was the associate head coach last season, will try to inspire a program that will not be eligible for the postseason for the next two years.
A number of key contributors from last season have transferred out of the program, including three-star safety Savion Bandy (Grant Union-Sacramento), Malikii Lavern (Grant Union) and Jamar Lincoln (Marin Catholic).
Despite the losses, the Gauchos still have enough playmakers to be competitive.
Wide receiver Gary Youngblood, who led El Cerrito in receiving yards, receiving touchdowns and interceptions, returns for his senior season. Running back Joezon Broussard will look to make an impact at running back as a second-year starter.
El Cerrito will open the season against East Bay powerhouse San Ramon Valley, but the schedule will get a lot easier with games against Lowell-San Francisco and Oakland Tech before league play.
The Gauchos won’t be the powerhouse they once were, but a successful season could go a long way into restabilizing the program.
– Nathan Canilao
SI encore will include new coach
St. Ignatius celebrates after beating St. Francis in the CCS Open Division championship game last season at San Jose City College. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
St. Ignatius came out of nowhere to win the CCS Open Division championship in 2024.
The Wildcats were picked to finish fifth of eight teams in the WCAL by the Bay Area News Group. The Cats had other plans.
The senior duo of QB Soren Hummel and RB Jarious Hogan, plus key contributors like WR/CB Zui Shelton, linemen John Mills and Manoah Faupusa and WR/DB Ty Hicks, led SI to an 8-2 regular-season record that included comeback wins over WCAL powers Serra, Riordan and Valley Christian. The team that became known as second-half SI made history, reaching a CIF NorCal regional under second-year coach Lenny Vandermade.
The Cats won’t be sneaking up on anybody this time around.
They’ll also be working under new coach JaJaun Lawson, who took over this winter after Vandermade went home to Southern California, joining former USC teammate Carson Palmer at Santa Margarita High.
Can Lawson, who was Vandermade’s offensive coordinator, recapture the magic of last season? He faces long odds to do so.
But if SI showed us anything in 2024, the Cats proved that you can never quite foresee what’s to come in the fall.
– Christian Babcock
Will Pittsburg take a step back?
Last season, Pittsburg put arguably its best group on the field since the 1991 team that upset De La Salle in the NCS 3A final.
But given that much of the Division I talent from last year’s roster has graduated, the Pirates will go into this season with a group that does not have a ton of varsity experience.
So … will this be a rebuilding year for Pittsburg?
Probably not.
Despite graduating quarterback and Bay Area News Group player of the year Marley Alcantara and UCLA-bound defensive stars Juju Walls and Jadyn Hudson, the Pirates still have a treasure chest of Division I players on both sides of the ball.
Pittsburg’s Kenny Ward burst onto the high school scene as a freshman last year. He is seeking another superb season this fall. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Arizona commit RJ Mosely figures to follow up on his stellar 2024 postseason run that saw him catch 18 balls for 285 yards and two touchdowns in five games. Mosley will pair up with sophomore speedster Kenny Ward, who already holds multiple Division I offers after a monster year as a freshman.
While replacing Alcantara will be a tall task, Pittsburg will hand the QB keys to sophomore transfer Javale Jones after he shined as a starter for Clayton Valley last season.
Third-year coach Charlie Ramirez will have to get his young team up to speed quickly, but a rebuild doesn’t look likely for the Pirates.
– Nathan Canilao
Los Gatos, Wilcox still class of PAL Bay
Can anyone outside of South Bay powerhouses Wilcox and Los Gatos rise up to make noise in the Peninsula Athletic League’s Bay Division?
It’ll be another uphill battle this year.
Los Gatos lost quarterback Scotty Brennan but brought back senior offensive stars in running back Grayson Doslak and wide receiver Beau Musser. Callum Schweitzer, who split time with Brennan in 2024, will take the reins fully for the first time.
Wilcox must rebuild without reigning BANG Santa Clara County player of the year and PAL Bay MVP Brayden Rosa, who moved on to UC Davis after finishing his career as one of the best players in school history. But the Chargers have something of a cheat code with their hard-to-stop veer offense, and junior QB Kai Imahara is the reigning PAL Bay offensive player of the year.
Wilcox’s Kai Imahara returns after receiving PAL Bay offensive player of the year honors last season. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)
Sacred Heart Prep played Wilcox tough early in their matchup last season and returns QB Nico Pollioni, RB/LB Maxime Morelle and WR/DB Sasha Bamdad. Menlo School brings back QB Jack Freehill and DE Palmer Riley, a Princeton commit who missed the Knights’ first five games last year with injury.
Palo Alto struggled in 2024, but junior quarterback Justin Fung gained valuable on-the-job experience. The dynamic dual-sport athlete won’t be able to throw to his brother Jeremiah anymore, but he should be more comfortable operating the offense in his second full year at the helm.
Menlo-Atherton will run through senior QB Teddy Dacey, a dynamic dual-threat athlete who has played significant snaps the past two seasons.
Wilcox and Los Gatos are once again the clear favorites. But there are talented players who could rise up all over the league rated as the strongest in the CCS in 2023 and 2024.
– Christian Babcock
Depth makes Mack dangerous again
McClymonds patchworked its way through last season.
The Oakland powerhouse opened the year with just over 20 players on its roster. After a brawl ensued in a league game against Fremont-Oakland, McClymonds lost even more players to suspension and had to pull multiple players up from junior varsity to put a team on the field.
Despite all of that, the West Oakland school managed to win its 15th consecutive Oakland Section championship and nearly upset Amador Valley in the NorCal Division 3-AA title game.
McClymonds wide receiver Rahsjon Duncan (7), shown here running in last season’s Silver Bowl, has committed to Washington. (D. Ross Cameron for the Bay Area News Group)
This year, not only does McClymonds return Division I commits Rahsjon Duncan (Washington), Koi Taiese (San Diego State) and Berell Staples (Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo), but the Warriors are slated to have just over 30 players on their roster.
In previous seasons, McClymonds has found success with small rosters. Now, by adding more depth, the Warriors shouldn’t have to worry too much about the year-long attrition.
McClymonds clearly is not backing down from any challengers. The Warriors will open the season against WCAL favorite Riordan before playing St. Francis, Santa Cruz and California in their non-league portion of the schedule.
– Nathan Canilao
What do we know about Serra?
There are more questions than answers for Serra heading into the 2025 season.
The Padres, who rampaged through Northern California high school football with a 25-0 record against regional opponents in 2022 and 2023, took a step back in 2024. Serra posted a 5-6 overall mark, went 4-3 in the WCAL and lost to Los Gatos in the first round of the CCS Open/ Division I playoffs.
Some regression was expected after the Padres graduated 18 of 22 starters from the 2023 team. But Serra will once again have to replace a number of key players this year.
Longtime coach Patrick Walsh said his team graduated 11 players on offense from a team that had “11 inexperienced senior starters” last year. Offense should be a work in progress as senior QB Andrew Heneghan and RB Nano Latu have moved on.
Four-star safety Malakai Taufoou, who has an offer from Ohio State, will anchor the defense. Lineman Lemani Fehoko, who started on O-line as a freshman and D-line as a sophomore, will play both ways for Serra this year.
As always, the Padres have potential. But this may be another rebuilding year before the next great Serra team rounds into form.
– Christian Babcock
In Year 2, is MacDonald ready to win its league?
The thought was that MacDonald would have to go from worst to first in the PAL’s Lake Division.
The fledgling Condors, in their third year as a high school, played varsity football for the first time last season and struggled out of the gate, losing their first game 40-0 to Santa Clara and falling in their first four games by a combined score line of 144-20.
But something changed down the stretch. MacDonald won four of its final six games and finished fifth in the nine-team PAL Lake.
Could the Condors now contend in the Lake division? There are reasons to believe this season.
MacDonald returns senior QB Moussa Fall, the reigning offensive player of the year, and has a full complement of four high school classes for the first time in school history.
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The Condors dressed 22 players for their first varsity game in 2024. Coach Burt Codera told the Bay Area News Group that MacDonald now has 30-35 players on its roster and returns nearly every starter from last season.
Plus, Gunn, which dominated the Lake last season, has moved up to the El Camino division, leaving room at the top for a new champion. Could the Condors rise up and be that team?
– Christian Babcock
Is Cardinal Newman about to become another DLS?
Santa Rosa powerhouse Cardinal Newman was already one of the Bay Area’s strongest programs before this season.
But after hiring former Mater Dei coach Frank McManus, the trajectory for the Cardinals has skyrocketed.
In his lone season at Mater Dei in 2023, McManus led the national powerhouse to a 13-1 record and a 35-0 Open Division state championship win over Serra. He was subsequently fired from the program just months later, though no reason was given for the dismissal.
McManus spent last season as an assistant coach at Mission Viejo before he moved north to take the vacant coaching job at Cardinal Newman this past spring.
While some have labeled McManus as a brash figure, he without a doubt brings a new level of juice to the Santa Rosa school, maybe a level that could contend with the likes of De La Salle. Cardinal Newman is a 13-time NCS champion – mostly in small-school divisions – but has not won a section title since 2019.
– Nathan Canilao