With up to 16-team fields in the North Coast Section playoffs, it almost becomes easy to forget that a large number of senior football players hung up the helmet, pads, and cleats for the final time last weekend. For a handful of them, college football can become a reality, but even a small percentage of those who can play at the next level actually will.
With our last regular-season edition of the Red Zone, we pay tribute to some of those seniors who concluded outstanding high school careers last Friday, beacons of shining light in programs who were unable to extend those careers into the post-season.
Overlooked in Antioch . . . For the past two seasons, it has been easy for some great performances to get overlooked in East Contra Costa County, home to the nation’s top-rated running back in the Class of 2017. But across town, at Deer Valley High School, Rai-Shyan Alexander just concluded a standout career, despite his team not winning a league game since 2013.
With a three-touchdown performance against Heritage in his final game, Alexander concluded a career that saw him run for over for 2,000 yards and score 30 touchdowns. His senior year alone featured 20 touchdowns and over 1,200 yards on the ground.
At the corner of Balfour and American . . . Heritage may have made the playoffs just once in the last three seasons, but one consistently dominant force for the Patriots was defensive lineman David Letuligasenoa. Having earned first-team all-league honors after his sophomore and junior years, he is likely to earn a third straight selection next Monday when the BVAL coaches have their post-season meeting. That is despite facing constant double and triple teams this season.
Rebuilding role model . . . With a transition between head coaches, and a young team around him, Berkeley’s Draysean Hudson provided young Yellowjacket receivers with a leader to look up to, emerging as one of the top targets in the section.
Hudson had 45 catches for 935 yards and 15 touchdowns through the air this season, giving him 61 catches and 1,213 yards over the last two seasons, despite his team’s lack of a passing attack in 2014.
Jones flew high for the Falcons . . . The Diablo Valley Athletic League seemed loaded with top running backs over the past two seasons, many of whom either got to play in last year’s playoffs or are headed there this year. That list includes such names as Clayton Valley’s Miles Harrison and Ray Jackson III, Concord’s Malik Blackburn and Harold Tidwell, Northgate’s Mason Mitchell, and Ygnacio Valley’s Jesse Guzman.
But despite missing three games to start this season, and playing through the turmoil of a mid-season coaching change, College Park’s David Jones finished his career as one of the most explosive backs in the Bay Area, scoring 33 touchdowns over the last two seasons. That included one of the best nights in area history last season, when he scored eight times against Ygnacio Valley. And Jones scored at least one touchdown in each of the seven games he played this season, returning from a debilitating bout of mononucleosis at the beginning of this year.
Small school standouts . . . The names will be unrecognizable to most football fans in the section, as schools such as St. Vincent-Petaluma, McKinleyville, and South Fork largely fly under the radar, but a few careers concluded last week which deserve our attention.
St. Vincent’s quarterback and receiver tandem of Dominic Pedersen and Nick Vollert finished among the most productive in the section. Pedersen threw for 2,143 yards and 22 touchdowns this season, and concluded his career with 3,892 yards and 41 passing touchdowns over the last two years, in addition to over 300 yards and eight scores on the ground. Vollert, meanwhile, had a breakout senior year with 56 catches for 1,017 yards and 11 touchdowns, plus two interceptions as a defensive back.
Up in McKinleyville, quarterback Kyle Spalding just completed a prolific career, despite his team’s struggles this season. Over the last two seasons, Spalding, a San Diego State-commit as a tight end, threw for 5,103 yards and 48 touchdowns, with just 15 interceptions, while also running for 960 yards and 22 scores.
And in Miranda, at South Fork High School, Huston Reuter put himself on the map with 13 sacks and five fumble recoveries this season. He also finished the last two seasons as a career 1,000-yard rusher, with five offensive touchdowns.
Early impact player . . . In contrast to all the seniors mentioned above, one member of the Class of 2019 is already making an impact this year, and figures to be a key figure in the Division III playoffs.
Bishop O’Dowd’s Austin Jones has run for 1,025 yards and 10 touchdowns in his freshman season, including five games over the 100-yard mark. And best of all, none of his biggest games have come against weak competition. Jones also seems to have a knack for rising to the occasion.
He ran for a season-high 179 yards in the Dragons’ first league win, over Division I Berkeley, and followed that up a week later with a 176-yard performance in a 21-20 loss against league champion San Leandro. He ran for 136 yards in a 20-14 win over Encinal, and also shined in losses to Saint Mary’s and James Logan.
And we will have to assume that Jones will only get better during his career, with former Washington Husky and Oakland Raider Napoleon Kaufman as his head coach.
Carrying momentum into next season . . . When it becomes apparent that a team is no longer going to be a factor in the post-season, every coach talks at some point about building momentum for the next season, creating some enthusiasm to carry into the off-season. It appears no one has done a better job of that than Sonoma Valley.
After the Dragons lost their first seven games this season, coach Bob Midgley’s crew turned things around, finishing the season on a three-game winning streak to finish in fourth place in the Sonoma County League.
Those wins included a 14-7 game over Healdsburg, who plays this week in the Division IV playoffs, along with victories over El Molino and Elsie Allen. It will be interesting to see what kind of non-league schedule the team has set up for 2016, and whether the Dragons can carry a bit of the late-season success into the next season.
