There will be no New Year’s surprise in the Northern California preseason high school football rankings
As has been the case for almost 30 years, the No. 1 high school football team in Northern California will not change. The bottom line is until someone from north of Fresno puts a chink in the armor of De La Salle, the Spartans will top every Northern California rankings with no debate, period.
After De La Salle, there were a lot of questions, particularly with not knowing what kind of shape the top players are in due to a lack of a lot of competition as a result of the pandemic. Plus, it’s been hard to keep up with all the transfers – and lastly, some top seniors that have committed to a D1 school, may forego their final season for a few different reasons.
With such a lapse of time in high school sports, we took the opportunity to go in-depth on the top 25 teams (27 with ties) in our analysis with another more than 30 teams getting a mention in the "others considered" section.
Now that the count up to No. 1 is complete, it ends a feature that began in mid-November. Whether or not we will have a season to continue our section rankings features is still up in the air.
1. De La Salle-Concord (12-2 last season)
As usual, De La Salle is loaded. The reason is coming into this season head coach Justin Alumbaugh returns a whole bunch of talent from a team that lost only to national No. 5 St. Thomas Aquinas of Florida in their season opener, and national No. 1 St. John Bosco-Bellflower in the state CIF Open Division Bowl Game championship, and neither were blowouts of the national No. 13 and state No. 3 ranked Spartans.
As for the rest of the schedule, comprised completely of teams gracing these rankings and a couple of others from the East Bay Athletic League, the Spartans marched past and pounded their other 12 opponents by a 624-127 combined score.
Sacramento State committed dual-threat three-year starting quarterback Dorian Hale returns for his senior season with high expectations after passing for 2,047 yards and 17 touchdowns and rushing for 588 yards and six additional scores.
What could be interesting if and when we have a season, is Alumbaugh has elevated freshman quarterback Carson Su’esu’e to varsity, and after the way he looked at the National Preps Collegiate Showcase in Vacaville, where he was named the Class of 2024 Offensive MVP, Su’esu’e will be a formidable backup and could even see some time under center.
Prep2Prep North Coast Section Player of the Year Shamar Garrett has graduated as has James Coby, but as usual the Spartans have running backs waiting in the wings to lead the march of the vaunted veer. This year those two are seniors Mekhi Norfleet (470 yards rushing, eight TDs last season) and Nico Torrez (356 yards rushing, four TDs last season), who will be asked to step up.
Alumbaugh also gets back his top wide receiver for catches in senior Lu-Magia Hearns. The Cal-committed Hearns, who is one of the top six senior wide receiver prospects in Northern California according to National Preps Western Region College Football Scout and St. Vincent de Paul head coach Trent Herzog, is also a top-notch defensive back. Last season he snagged 29 pass receptions for 439 yards and two touchdowns.
Su’esu’e wasn’t the only Spartans standout at the National Preps events.
Zeke Berry, a junior cornerback with six Pac-12 offers and who will see more action as a receiver, was named the overall Defensive MVP of the Collegiate Showcase in Vacaville.
Another underclass player to look for that made Herzog’s top prospects list is junior Brodie Tagaloa, a tight end prospect with four Pac-12 offers and a last name familiar to De La Salle football.
Two incoming sophomores that shined at the National Preps camps were Cooper Flanagan and Dylan Greeson, both are rated as Major D1 prospects by National Preps along with Berry and Su’esu’e.
Flanagan is a tight end who was named the 2023 Offensive MVP at the Vacaville Collegiate Showcase. He and Tagaloa could give De La Salle the top tight end combo in the state. Greeson, a linebacker who already has an offer from Tennessee, made the list of Top Performers at both the Fresno and Vacaville National Preps showcase events.
On paper this Spartans team looks really good. Obviously, the January 8 game with the St. John Bosco team that beat them 49-28 in the Open title game, is not happening, and whether they can play four of the top teams in Northern California, St. Francis-Mountain View, Elk Grove, Folsom and St. Mary’s-Stockton, is questionable. So if they do get to play, it may be only against four opponents from the East Bay Athletic League.
“I actually really like this team,” texted Spartans Coach Justin Alumbaugh back in late November. “Helps having a QB like Hale back, Hearns, Zeke, a lot of linemen, lots of guys with experience. If we get the chance to properly coach them I think we could be very good.”
“If” is the key word.
