Class struggle: New league to be packed with contenders, leaving little margin for error
Last Updated Thursday, Oct 15 2009 11:26 PM
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Rod Thornburg / Special to The Californian Liberty VS Centennial Football #4 Dillon Meadows of Liberty side steps two Centennial defenders.
When Stockdale visits Liberty tonight for a football power struggle, it'll be a landmark of sorts.
There will be some good inter-divisional matchups the rest of the way, and plenty of mismatches, but tonight's 7:30 game marks the last time two Central Section Division I teams will meet in Kern County in the regular season.
"Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, this is a game we need to play well in," Liberty coach Tony Mills said. "It's important when you play a Division I school, especially one you could see in the playoffs, that you play well right now."
But the non-league game between the Mustangs (4-1) and Patriots (3-2) is a landmark for another reason: it'll be the last regular-season meeting of county Division I teams that isn't a league game.
Next year, these teams, plus Bakersfield and Centennial, Division II Frontier and Independence, which hasn't yet been placed in a division, will join together in a yet-to-be-named league that will rival the powerful Tri-River Athletic Conference in Fresno County.
That means games like Stockdale-Liberty will happen every week in the last half of the regular season.
"I like it," Stockdale coach Mike Snow said. "It helps solidify us down here a little more in competing with the TRAC when it comes to seeding in the playoffs. We still play each other (now), but having a league of Division I and good Division II teams, I think it'll benefit us."
There are downsides, too. Instead of getting tough games out of the way early, teams will have to beat themselves up nearly every week in October and November, hoping to win a league title, and then try to get healthy for a playoff run.
"We're so thin, we'll get beat up," Bakersfield coach Paul Golla said. "Right now we're down three kids after going against a great Centennial team and a great Liberty team. Hopefully we surive this week against a good Garces team."
Golla, whose Drillers (3-2, 0-1 SEYL) play at Garces (3-2, 2-0) in another 7:30 p.m. game, said even in the current league setup, you can't look past teams -- for instance, Division III Golden Valley upset the Drillers last year, as did D-III Ridgeview against Stockdale. But with the current setup, there's at least an opportunity for league leaders to get a big lead against a lower-division team and rest starters. That won't happen, Golla said, in next year's league.
"Not possible," he said. "It's not even fathomable. You're playing Frontier, Centennial, Liberty, Stockdale, you're playing the best in the Valley every week. And for the teams that have depth, that's a good thing. But teams that don't have depth? It's hold on."
Still, none of the schools headed to the new league seem to be dumbing down their non-league schedule to find easy games. Liberty will play Clovis East and Clovis-Buchanan out of the TRAC the next two years, and Golla said Bakersfield has called every Southern Section power it can to add quality games.
"You better play a couple of better teams," Frontier coach Rich Cornford said. "If you go into a (league) game and you've never faced anybody with speed, that's going to throw your guys off. If you haven't played a Wing-T team until you play Stockdale, you're in trouble. I think it's important that you play quality competition."
That's not always the case in the current league setup. Some of the teams in the SEYL and SWYL don't compare with even the lower-level teams in the TRAC.
"With the scenario of the Division I league, you're going to have to ... be on top of your game every week to win," Mills said. "You win a league of that caliber, that's saying something."
Still, there are good games to be found in the rest of this year's schedule, too. In addition to Stockdale-Liberty -- which pits the Mustangs' three-headed running attack of Malik Henderson, Spenser Prince and Nic Shannon against Liberty's stingy defense -- there's Ridgeview (5-1, 1-1 SWYL) visiting Frontier (5-0, 2-0) and the BHS-Garces tilt.
"This is definitely a big game," Cornford said. "We tell our kids, 'This is another test that people are wondering about: Are we the product of playing bad teams, or are we legit?' This is a chance to prove we're legit."
The Division II Titans also get tests in Weeks 9 and 10 against Stockdale and Centennial in what should be two more enticing previews of what's coming next season.
"I'm looking forward to that power league," Cornford said. "It will be a big game week after week after week, and as long as you're on the positive side of some of them, that's a good thing."
