Dissa and Data: Fort Bragg honors former coach Jack Moyer

Last Saturday night Fort Bragg celebrated its all-decades teams - 1980s, 1990s, 2000s - in a reunion dinner organized by coach Roy Perkins and his staff. Perkins said 512 former Timberwolves football players were invited to the event and players from the 1979 and 2009 NCS championship teams were there.

“This is a big celebration of the history of Fort Bragg football,” Perkins said. “It’s not often that you are a part of something like this.”

The centerpiece of the night was the honoring of former Fort Bragg coach Jack Moyer, who coached the Timberwolves from 1978-2010 and won seven NCS championships.

“This was not your average football coach,” said Perkins, who mentored under Moyer for 22 years as his assistant coach. “Jack taught me about the importance of discipline and daily accountability from the kids … which was more important than the score.”

Great shakes at Piner

The postgame handshake is a sports ritual. When the battle is over, the opponents can relax and congratulate or console one another.

At Piner, they have taken the concept a step further. Before each league game, right after the coin toss, the Prospectors cross the field to shake hands with their occasionally startled foes in a display of sportsmanship. They started it with the Elsie Allen game on Sept. 25.

“We don’t want to fight them,” Piner coach John Antonio said. “We want to play a good football game. It’s a way to show our respect.”

Antonio said he borrowed the idea from Marin Catholic, and the coach has noticed at least one positive outcome.

“The kids don’t talk trash during the game,” Antonio said. “It’s kind of hard to do that when you’ve looked a guy in the eye and shaken his hand.”

Jaguars go pink

The Windsor High School football team looked like the pros in Friday’s game against Casa Grande in Petaluma.

The Jaguars showed their support of breast cancer colorfully, joining professional and college players in donning pink gear in October for Breast Cancer Awareness month.

A handful of players - including many on the junior varsity team and a couple of varsity athletes - wore pink cleats, socks or other gear in support of awareness, research and the thousands in Sonoma County who have been affected by the potentially deadly disease.

Nuño’s comeback

Healdsburg High and Santa Rosa Junior College alum Omar Nuño scored a hat trick in Chico State’s 5-2 win against Cal State East Bay Oct. 2 on his way to being named the California Collegiate Athletic Association Player of the Week for Sept. 28–Oct. 4.

Nuño, who was the 2014 Big 8 Conference Offensive Player of the Year for the Bear Cubs, scored his three goals in the first 30 minutes of the game. He has seven goals on the season - not a bad tally considering Nuño broke his foot in July while playing with the Sonoma County Sol. It was unclear at the start of the season if he would recover fast enough to suit up for the Wildcats.

Wallace’s big night

Despite seven penalties in the first half of Cardinal Newman’s game against Maria Carrillo on Friday, the Cardinals put up 33 unanswered points, as well, eventually besting the Pumas 47-14.

Newman’s Damian Wallace scored three of his four touchdowns in the first half, and snagged two interceptions on defense in the second half. Wallace will need to help piece together another strong outing when Cardinal Newman faces North Bay League rival Rancho Cotate at home on Friday. Kickoff is 7 p.m.

Upper Lake on the rise

Upper Lake’s football team is in the midst of a turnaround season. After going 0-10 last year while playing 11-man football, the Cougars are currently 3-1 while competing in 8-man.

“We picked up speed and additional players,” second-year coach Frank Gudmundson said. “Several guys that just played basketball last year have joined the team and our quarterback moved to this area from Florida.”

That would be Derek Pritchard. In his first year playing QB, Pritchard has thrown 12 touchdown passes.

Isaac Navarez has also been a difference maker. He plays in the offensive backfield and is a linebacker and captain on defense. “He’s a great team leader and is just so smooth. It doesn’t look like he’s putting in any effort,” Gudmundson said.

Junior running back Andreas Santos has also been impressive while scoring seven times.

Upper Lake is coming off a 44-16 win against Tomales and will host perennial NCL III powerhouse Anderson Valley on Saturday.

Kerry Benefield, Phil Barber, Lori A. Carter, Allie Colosky, Howard Senzell and Richard J. Marcus contributed to this report.