‘You can feel the difference’: Excitement, relief as high school football returns in Sonoma County

Last school year, a few months after the football season had ended, Montgomery head coach Vertis Patton started informing his players about the start of spring workouts and practices. These days, it’s a standard occurrence for most programs, a way to bring the team together to set goals and begin preparations for the following season.

But his messages were met with confusion from his players.

“None of our seniors knew what that was because they had never had a spring practice,” said Patton, explaining it was another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic that has wreaked havoc on youth sports since its onset. “It was a different feeling from that point on, just realizing that they haven’t had a regular year of football with an offseason and everything.”

Luckily for the Vikings and the thousands of other high school football players in Sonoma County and the North Bay, the upcoming season is shaping up to be the most regular year of football since before the pandemic.

The 2022 season kicks off on Friday in a far better place and with a much brighter outlook than it did a year ago. With the rollout of vaccines and a better understanding of COVID-19, many of the regulations and restrictions that were in place last fall that hamstrung high school sports have been rolled back, giving players and coaches the sense that this season will be their most normal in years.

“It does feel normal,” Santa Rosa head coach Roy Keegan said. “Kids are out there running around, playing, typical high school normalcy, where the past couple years it didn’t feel like that at all. Campus was empty, kids struggling with Zoom, coaching (while) holding Zoom workouts … So this feels good.”

While COVID-19 is still present, protocols and restrictions were loosened for this school year. Testing and quarantining mandates that schools and teams operated under last year are now just recommendations from the Sonoma County Department of Public Health, which is in line with guidance from the state.

Guidelines recommend that students who test positive or show symptoms stay home for at least five days, among other precautions. But students who are exposed and remain asymptomatic no longer need to isolate, just test three to five days after exposure, a key change to a mandate that led to cancellations, postponements and forfeits last season.

“Our job is to give student-athletes the most opportunities we can, and it was difficult to do that with the situation we were in over the past two years,” said Joe Ellwood, athletic director at Analy High School and co-commissioner of the North Bay League. “It’s nobody’s fault, but our kids really suffered because of it … The sense of normalcy is much more comforting this year, and you can feel the difference.”

Coaches say they still expect cases to pop up on their teams and will follow the necessary guidelines to prevent any potential outbreaks, but they also recognize that COVID likely won’t impact their seasons as much as it has the past two years.

“Now we know what it is,” Patton said. “We understand it, we know what it can do, and now everyone is just moving on with their lives and getting back to normal.”

The focus can now return to what happens on the field, and if this season even comes close to matching last year’s thrilling league races, then fans are in for a treat.

Rancho Cotate, The Press Democrat’s top-ranked preseason team this fall, is the defending champion in the North Bay League Oak division, the county’s most competitive league. The Cougars outlasted both Cardinal Newman and Windsor to narrowly clinch the league crown. All three teams should be a factor again this fall.

Following two consecutive successful seasons, Santa Rosa and Montgomery, the two largest public high schools in the city, have been bumped up to the Oak from the NBL-Redwood, the league’s lower division. Both teams shared the league title with St. Vincent last season.

St. Vincent once again figures to be a favorite in the Redwood but will have stiff competition from Healdsburg and Piner, as well as newcomers Ukiah and Maria Carrillo, which dropped down from the Oak Division.

Farther south in the Vine Valley Athletic League, Casa Grande will look to defend its first-ever VVAL crown and win back-to-back league titles for the first time since the 2007-08 seasons. The Gauchos will face competition from Napa powerhouse Vintage and crosstown rival Petaluma, among others.

There will also be a few new faces guiding teams in their fall campaigns. Dean “DJ” Sexton takes the reins at Windsor after the departure of Paul Cronin — the longtime Cardinal Newman coach who, in his one season at Windsor, led the Jaguars to a North Coast Section title and to the NorCal playoffs last year.

And farther north, Taylor Galloway — the nephew of former St. Vincent head coach Gary Galloway — is the new head coach at Cloverdale, replacing former Santa Rosa Junior College and Piner star Greg Alexander.

And for how much has changed, there are some things that never do.

It’s when the sun goes down and the lights come on, those ticket booths open and home and visiting fans alike take to the stands, their anticipation finally getting its due after a week of waiting for a beloved Friday night ritual.

It’s when the players don their uniforms, not only ready to represent a school, but a community. The whistles, the cheers, the boos, the teammates on the sidelines — it all makes for an atmosphere uniquely its own.

High school football is back.

You can reach Staff Writer Gus Morris at 707-304-9372 or gus.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @JustGusPD.

You can reach Staff Writer Kienan O’Doherty at 415-887-8650 or kienan.odoherty@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kodoherty22.