Monday Morning Lights: What’s next for De La Salle after stunning loss?

The off-season weight training program at De La Salle starts this afternoon. Yes, this afternoon. Three days after the storied program’s stunning 28-27 loss to Folsom in the Northern California football regionals, the Spartans will begin the heavy lifting that they hope will lead to a stronger season next fall.

The response is not surprising.

De La Salle didn’t go 30 years without losing to regional opponents by accident, it didn’t play in a state championship game every season since the California Interscholastic Federation added them to the schedule in 2006 by luck.

“Based on what we have, we absolutely have the team where we should be able to compete with everybody,” coach Justin Alumbaugh said Sunday night. “The biggest question is what are these guys going to do with the first real off-season that we’ve had in two years?

“And it starts tomorrow.”

Alumbaugh said he is excited to see what an off-season program will do for players such as tight end Cooper Flanagan and running back Charles Greer.

“Put some size on those guys,” he said.

He is encouraged by players such as Derek Thompson, Cooper Powers, Chase Tofaeono, Stef Bakiev and Tommy Rainsford returning on the offensive line. All will be seniors next fall.

The big loss will be Michigan-bound defensive back Zeke Berry, who did it all for the Spartans this season and won’t be easily replaced.

But, as Alumbaugh put it, “The cupboard is definitely not bare.”

De La Salle’s 2022 schedule will include much-anticipated rematches against St. Francis and Folsom.

In September, St. Francis ended DLS’s 318-game, 30-year unbeaten streak against regional opponents, winning 31-28.

Friday, Folsom became the first Sac-Joaquin Section team to defeat DLS during the Spartans’ decades-long run of dominance. The section was 0-45 against the Concord juggernaut since 1982.

By most teams’ standards, De La Salle’s season this fall would be celebrated as a success.

The Spartans won a 29th consecutive North Coast Section championship and beat three teams that claimed section titles, including two (Folsom and Cathedral Catholic-San Diego) that will play Friday night for the Division 1-AA state crown in Mission Viejo.

But when you play for De La Salle, with its unparalleled history of success, the standards are not like most teams. When you don’t reach the heights of your predecessors, well, you get the somber scene that unfolded late Friday night in an outdoor area between buildings on the school’s campus, where the coaches address the team on game nights in the era of COVID.

Some guys sat alone. Some were in tears. Some embraced each other.

They were one of NorCal’s top teams this season. But in the modern era of state championship games, they are the first from De La Salle that won’t play for a title.

“It’s a testament to our program that they made it every year,” Alumbaugh said moments after the Folsom loss. “It’s a testament to them that they stopped us this year.”

Now, for the first time since the pandemic shut down in March 2020, De La Salle is about to have a De La Salle-style off-season.

— Darren Sabedra

How bad will it be for Serra?

Calpreps.com’s computer has made its projection for the Open Division state championship game between Serra and national No. 1 Mater Dei-Santa Ana, which will be played Saturday night at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.

It says Mater Dei will win 48-0.

That is easily the largest point differential of the 15 championship games this weekend — the next-closest is 21 — and the widest in the Open game since Mater Dei and St. John Bosco-Bellflower elevated themselves to an entirely different level.

Calpreps predicted De La Salle to lose to Bosco by 21 in 2016 and 18 in 2019 and Mater Dei by 25 in 2017 and 14 in 2018.

Asked Sunday if he has any advice for the NorCal representative, Alumbaugh noted that he and Serra coach Patrick Walsh, a De La Salle alum, talk daily.

“Nobody has faced a team like Mater Dei unless you’ve actually played them and there is going to a natural adjustment factor,” Alumbaugh said. “We talked at length. It’s basically about finding what he feels his team can do best from the outset against what he thinks his team can do against Mater Dei.

“You’ve got to go with that, to begin with, and steady the ship a little bit. Scrap. They’re high schoolers, too. They’re loaded, obviously. They’re an incredible team. But regardless of all the exterior talk, those guys are teenagers. You can’t let the moment be too big.”

Alumbaugh added, “I told him, ‘It’s fun, man. It’s a lot of fun to challenge yourselves against an incredible team.’ People talk about the talent that Mater Dei or Bosco have. But here’s the double-whammy. They’re really well-coached. They’re not just rolling talented kids out.”

— Darren Sabedra

Wilcox’s formula for success

Mark Twain wrote: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”

Wilcox coach Paul Rosa believes that applies to his football team, which on Saturday will play for a CIF state title a second time in four seasons.

“I think our program is that way,” Rosa said. “They play way bigger than their size and I think it’s kind of a testament of the area, too. We get a lot of tough kids that are undersized, but in high school you can win with that, right? You’re not playing a bunch of recruited guys, you’re playing a regular high school team most of the time.”

A pair of unspoken heroes proved his point in the first half of this past weekend’s 35-21 victory over Manteca in the NorCal Division 2-A title game.

Christopher Sargent – all 5-foot-9, 154-pounds of him – wasn’t fooled on a trick play and made a momentum-shifting interception in the first quarter.

Later in the first half, cornerback Mitchell Gonzalez – listed at 5-7, 135 – picked off the second pass attempted by Manteca.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Chargers (10-4) are dominant in the trenches. After dropping four of its first five games, Wilcox found its groove behind a brand-new offensive line.

“Probably only one guy on this line would’ve played this year,” Rosa said.

None of the five starters from the spring returned this fall, with two lost to injury while three moved out of town.

Rosa has a simple explanation for the turnaround and current nine-game winning streak.

“Print this, because football is about your assistant coaches,” he said. “The head guy always gets the credit, but it’s really the group. Every good program has a bunch of good coaches on it. You can’t coach football with one guy, it’s impossible. And it showed. Our o-line coach had a new set of guys and it took a little while to get going. …

“I think we have six or seven guys who could be head coaches. We’re lucky in that sense – and the kids are lucky.”

— Vytas Mazeika

Folsom coach’s Bay Area roots

After his team’s historic victory at De La Salle on Friday night, Folsom coach Paul Doherty was asked what it meant to finally topple the Concord powerhouse.

Here is what he said:

“I’m a Christian Brothers kid. I went to Sacred Heart Cathedral in San Francisco. Brother Chris Brady was my principal before he took the job here at De La Salle. All you heard about when you were growing up in San Francisco was how good this team was.

“We weren’t very good at Sacred Heart. I’d come watch these guys play from a really early age. I had really good coaches in high school. They made me want to be a coach. I had a great experience playing high school football. I played for great men at Sacred Heart, the Christian Brothers organization. Molded me. Molded my family. All my brothers went to K-12 Catholic school.

“I went to college (at Menlo), met more great coaches, taught me more about life and coaching. Met my wife there. I met Doug Cosbie.”

Cosbie, now 65, played at St. Francis and Santa Clara University before moving on to the Dallas Cowboys. He brought Doherty to Sacramento to coach with him at Sacramento High. He later introduced Doherty to then-Folsom co-head coach Troy Taylor.

“Troy coached with Doug at Cal way back in the day and (Doug) said, ‘Hey, you ought to check out what Folsom’s doing. I wore out my welcome, I think, hanging around, trying to learn anything I could,” Doherty added. “Then I kind of fell into the job and finished what those guys started.”

The weekend got even better for Doherty on Saturday.

Sacred Heart Cathedral, which started the season 0-5, beat Chico 31-7 to win the NorCal Division 4-A championship.

The Irish will play Northview-Covina for the 4-A state title on Saturday night at Kezar Stadium.

— Darren Sabedra