First in an occasional series
No mascot? No problem.
The scrimmage was over, and the team without a nickname had played well. West County High School, the generic new handle for the recently — and controversially — consolidated Analy and El Molino high schools, had gotten the better of St. Vincent de Paul, a prep school in Petaluma. Highlights for West County included a surprisingly potent rushing attack, and the pinpoint passing of junior quarterback Sammy Long.
As parents and fans filed out of Chip Castleberry Stadium on the Sebastopol campus formerly known as Analy, a pair of 40-something men commented approvingly on the red-cushioned blocking sleds, and the red umbrellas outside the cafeteria.
El Molino closed in June because of budget shortfalls and declining enrollment. Until then, however, the Forestville school’s primary color had been red, its mascot a lion, its archrival: Analy.
Walking past the tiger statue just outside the stadium — Analy’s mascot — one of the men suggested getting rid of it.
“Or just put a mane on it,” suggested his friend, and they had a laugh.
It was 10 days after classes started at the newly merged, freshly rebranded West County high. With their focus on obsolete school colors and mascots, those men were, in their way, trying to turn back the clock.
They have plenty of company.
At a Wednesday school board meeting, a group of parents announced they had enough signatures to put two members of the board up for a recall. In April, a group of parents sued the West Sonoma County Union High School District to block the consolidation.
With that anger boiling over in the background, head football coach Dan Bourdon and his right hand man, assistant head coach Jerod Brown, have spent the past four months working to unify the squad, to create strong bonds between young men whose once-bitter rivals are now beside them in the huddle.
Bourdon was Analy’s head coach last season. Brown was El Molino’s. They, too, had been rivals. But the friendship they’ve forged since the end of last season — when El Molino stunned the favored Tigers in the 56th and final Golden Apple Bowl — has set the tone for the teenagers who look up to them.
While it remains to be seen what kind of win-loss record the Ligers will post this season, — they won a thriller in their Friday night opener, squeaking by Santa Rosa, 35-34 — they’ve already made gigantic strides coming together as a team.
Rivalry is over
“The first few days were kind of weird,” acknowledged senior wide receiver and Analy product Josh Kidd. “It was mostly El Mo guys sticking with El Mo guys; Analy sticking with Analy.”
So, the players called a meeting. “We had a little talk,” he recalled. “We said, ‘We’re all gonna be one team, sooner or later. So we might as well start getting comfortable, start talking to each other now.’”
And they did.
Was that players meeting on the field? In the locker room? “Actually, it was on Snapchat,” said Kidd.
“We just sort of realized, hey, the rivalry’s done,” said Isaac Rodrigues, a senior lineman who is taking four Advance Placement classes this fall. “Now, these guys over here, including the guys who came over from El Molino, I consider them some of my closest friends.”
He motioned, as he spoke, to a herd of linemen lumbering through a drill. Among them was center and ex-El Mo Lion, Travis Bardella.
“We knew that if we didn’t gel, fast, we weren’t going to be any good,” he said. “So it was like, let’s put all this aside, and get together.”
Things were pretty awkward for a few days, agreed former Lion Manuel Ruiz Flores, “out there practicing with guys you were supposed to dislike.” But now, said the senior wide receiver, “I’m friends with practically everybody on this roster.”
By reaching out to their new teammates, rather than pushing them away, the players took a cue from Bourdon and his staff, a young, dynamic group of ex-Lions and former Tigers with exceptional chemistry.
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