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Parity playing large role in race for Southwest Yosemite League title
| Wednesday, Sep 3 2008 11:00 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Sep 3 2008 11:08 AM
Who’s the best in the Southwest Yosemite League? It’s a more diverse question than Obama vs. McCain — it’s more like a seven-way race for class president.
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Have we got a proposition for you. Correction, make that 20 propositions for you.
The Bakersfield Californian sports department presents the first of three preview sections on high school football, and we’re asking you the reader to vote. It’s not a debate without your involvement.
Today, we focus on the six teams of the South Sequoia League and the rest of the area programs in Kern County. On Thursday, we’ll take a look at the Southwest Yosemite League and Friday it’s the Southeast Yosemite League.
From Taft to Ridgecrest, from Delano to Frazier Mountain, and every non-SEYL and SWYL team in between is covered in today’s section, including information on the area’s three 8-man football programs.
In addition to these features, you will find the most comprehensive preview of Kern County high school football teams available. We produced three sections with the idea that it could be a reference for fans to keep at their fingertips throughout the season.
We’ll also have more features, predictions, blogs, podcasts and more as the season continues. So you’ll be able to read about your favorite team and all of the area’s programs in the daily newspaper or on www.Bakersfield.com.
ABOUT THE BALLOT
Look in today’s, Thursday’s and Friday’s football preview sections for all the propositions or go online at Bakersfield.com/footballballot.
The answers to these 20 propositions, written by The Californian staff, could determine your team’s fate this season.
INSTRUCTION TO VOTERS
Be sure to cast your votes online at Bakersfield.com/footballballot.. Votes will be tallied at the end of Week 2 of the season.
QB: Ben Jarvis, West; Jose Ramos, South
RB: Julian Dean-Johnson, North; Stephen Silva, Stockdale; Seth Vlach, North; Nate Wiley, West
WR/TE: James Armenta, South; Dion Curry, West; Bryan Maxwell, Centennial; Emmanuel Ossai, Stockdale
OL: Jeremy Bethell, West; David Born, West; Yannis Mallory, Ridgeview; James Pounds, Frontier; Julio Regia, South
DL: Tim King, Centennial; John Northrup, North; Ruben Suarez, North
LB: Ted Agu, Frontier; Will Harvey, Frontier; Andrew Nabors, Centennial; Steven Roberson, South
DB: Chris Bowie, Stockdale; Stephen Casabosas, Centennial; Levi Chavez, South; Tyler Dogins, Ridgeview
K/P: David Sanchez, West
Photos:
Centennial High School's Bryan Maxwell, left; West High School's David Born, center; and North High School's Julian Dean-Johnson pose as if they were campaigning from the back of a train for a portrait.
Related Stories:
- Stockdale High: Ex-Frontier coach brought in to build winning program
- South High: Rebels may have pieces in place to achieve first winning season since ’95
- Ridgeview High: Wolf Pack has several question marks as it tries to rebound from 1-9 season
- North High: Stars have the experience, talent to have a breakout season
- Frontier High: Last year's starters returns for first SWYL season
- Centennial High: Maxwell’s team-first attitude perfect role for young Hawks
- West High: Pair of behemoths give Vikings a distinct advantage up front
That might not be as patriotic as a presidential election, and the campaign signs are made with magic markers instead of computerized graphics. But something about a class president election is captivating, nonetheless.
So is the SWYL race.
There’s Centennial, which has won nine of the 12 league titles contested since the Golden Hawks entered the league in 1996.
But this year, CHS has just four starters returning from a league champion team that reached the Division I Central Section semifinals.
Golden Hawks coach Bryan Nixon partook in a bit of political correctness when he didn’t leave out a single league team when asked who might win the league.
“I think there’s a lot of parity and it should be an exciting league race,” Nixon said. “... You can’t leave anyone out.”
West finally broke Centennial’s 32-game unbeaten league run in 2004, then won SWYL titles itself in ’05 and ’06.
The Vikings have plenty of talent — David Born is 6-foot-8, 350 pounds’ worth of big-time recruit, and Dion Curry and Nate Wiley provide plenty of speed — but are breaking in a new offense and defense under first-year coach Chad Grider.
“The great thing about our league is if the team’s maybe an underdog, they’ll get you,” Grider said. “It’s up in the air. I wouldn’t say there’s one better team than the other. I think we’re all going to be competing and it’ll be a fun year.”
One of the league’s perennial contenders, Stockdale, also has a new coach in Mike Snow, who moved from Frontier in the offseason.
Snow brings the Wing-T to a school chock-full of talented athletes, but also one that limped down the stretch in the 2007 SWYL election and finished 2-3.
New to the race is Frontier, which was an independent last year in its first year of varsity football. With the new league comes a new coach — Rich Cornford from West.
Then there are teams given about as much respect as third-party candidates: North, South and Ridgeview.
All three hope to make some inroads in early-season polls (also known as non-league games) and be a surprise during the election season.
“The thing for us, more than anything, is to try to improve every day,” North coach Mark Camps said. “Then we’ll see if our kids can set their expectation level, with how they play individually and as a team, see how far they want to set that standard.”
Another intriguing story in the SWYL this year is the coaching carousel that took place at Frontier, Stockdale and West in the offseason.
You don’t often see campaign managers switch their support to a rival candidate, but it happened twice in the offseason.
Stockdale hired Snow away from Frontier first, leaving the Titans in a lurch — Snow was the only coach the school had known in its two years, and Snow didn’t stay for even one class to graduate.
He said the move was best for his family, and denied any suggestions that he wasn’t happy with Frontier’s administration or community.
“There is no smoking gun,” Snow said at the time of his hire.
Frontier filled its vacancy with yet another SWYL coach, Rich Cornford of West. Cornford was straight-forward about his reason for moving — he lives five minutes from Frontier and four or five times that from West.
“With all these job openings, I just said, ‘I’m extremely happy at West. The only job that would ever pull me away would be Frontier,’” Cornford said at the time.
West filled its opening with another familiar name, though this one didn’t come from within the SWYL. Grider, a former West player and assistant, takes on the head coaching job after a brief stint coaching linebackers at Bakersfield College.
“It has kind of been an interesting year,” Frontier athletic director Ryan Geivet said in February. “It’s one of those things that happens every once in a while; all you can do is move forward and find the person who’s right for your school.”
All of the shifting around allows teams a fresh start in 2008 — which is apropos, considering how wide-open this election promises to be.