With move to NCS, some league foes are worth keeping as opponents

Even with change, there are ways to try to keep things the same.

Beginning the 2018-2019 school year, the athletic world of Napa, Vintage and American Canyon along with, to a lesser extent, Justin-Siena will change. Napa, Vintage and American Canyon will vacate the CIF Sac Joaquin Section and move to the North Coast Section. Justin made such a move in 2000 but will be leaving the Marin County Athletic League. The four Napa County schools will be in the same league as Sonoma, Casa Grande and Petaluma.

The question becomes how much of an effort will Napa and Vintage make to keep certain Monticello Empire League foes as nonleague opponents? Which Solano County Athletic Conference schools will American Canyon keep as nonleague foes? Also, will Justin keep any MCAL foes as nonleague opponents? I actually broached the subject on Facebook and received some compelling responses.

Napa and Vintage have been archrivals since the latter opened its doors in 1972. American Canyon and Justin-Siena have intermittent history in going against Napa and Vintage, now they will have regular matchups with one another as opposed to just now and then/here and there.

From a Napa and Vintage standpoint, I would say Vacaville is a keeper. Granted, Napa is coming off its worst football season since 2001, when it went 3-7. The Indians went 3-6 in 2017. However, the MEL title race in football came down to both teams between 2002-2016. In 2017, the regular season finale was a battle of Vacaville and crosstown rival Wood for the MEL title. Vacaville and Napa coaches have already publicly expressed interested in continuing that series.

Vintage, meanwhile, went 7-2, recording its best season since 2000. The week of the North Bay wildfires that produced unsafe air quality, Vintage was scheduled to play Vacaville in what would have been a highly anticipated matchup. Unfortunately, the game did not happen. By no means am I suggesting what would have happened but it would have been nice to find out.

From an American Canyon standpoint, keeping Vanden and Benicia would make the most sense. The three teams have battled it for SCAC titles since 2012. In addition, Vanden and Benicia would represent good nonleague tests in other sports.

The common denominator with keeping Vanden, Benicia, Vacaville and possibly Wood is that those schools draw good fan support, which would help bring in admission and concession money. There is also Vallejo, Bethel, Fairfield, Rodriguez and Armijo. I would perhaps keep Armijo as a nonleague foe in sports not named football. The Indians have been an annual doormat in football but are pretty competitive in other sports. The others, I see no compelling reason to keep. I can’t entirely speak for Rodriguez but having covered some American Canyon football games that involved Vallejo, Bethel and Fairfield, those games were not competitive and drew sparse crowds.

Justin, however, is a different scenario to evaluate. The Braves have called the MCAL home for 17 years but there is not a rivalry that moves the needle. Part of that reason is because the schools are not in neighboring counties and the league already had established rivalries before Justin.

Without thinking too extensively, I would say entertain keeping any MCAL school not named Marin Catholic as a nonleague foe. The most compelling one would be Terra Linda, whose football program is now led by former Justin head coach Rich Cotruvo. The narrative constantly heard, especially when Justin athletics was at its best being led by the likes of Cotruvo, Tom Bonfigli, Mike Boles and John O’Connor to name a few was that the Braves were competitive in the MCAL despite facing schools that were double their enrollment. However, Marin Catholic draws kids from throughout the county thus thinning out the talent pools of other schools. To that end, Marin Catholic is to Marin County what De La Salle is to Contra Costa County and what Cardinal Newman is to Sonoma County.

Though change is often focused on how different things will be, keeping some things the same also has its pluses.