Napa High football identity looks like a departure from past

Though outsiders think of the Napa Valley and see miles of vineyards adorning the
landscape, those who make the fabric of the community have contributed to a
coveted high school football tradition in various pockets of the valley.

That tradition starts from American Canyon to the South. American Canyon High
opened its doors in 2010 but in a short time, the Wolves have made some noise.
Venture North on Highway 29 and Napa, Vintage and Justin-Siena have had their
days in the sun. Go even further North on Highway 29 where the communities are
rural by population but urban by energy, St. Helena and Calistoga have also had
their Golden Ages of football.

As the 2018 season approaches, one would be hard-pressed to find a program
where 2016 seems like yesteryear more than Napa High. As Archie and Edith
Bunker once sang: “Those were the days!” The last 18 months have one firestorm
after another with soon-to-be former Napa Valley Unified School District
superintendent Patrick Sweeney and Napa High principal Annie Petrie along with
the NVUSD Board of Trustees being the biggest lightning rods. The school has
been through four athletic directors in that time: Brian King, Kelly Van Winden,
Thomas Sims and now Tom Petithomme, who has since been named the interim
football head coach.

The Reader’s Digest version: For openers, Napa High will no longer be known as
the Indians. The mascot will be formally retired on June 30, 2018. Troy Mott, who
is a 1989 Napa High graduate, resigned in March 2017 amid a philosophical dispute
with both the school’s administration and NVUSD. The dispute centered around a
hazing scandal and the powers that be wanting control over which assistant
coaches Mott, who is a former Napa High quarterback and three-sport athlete, kept.
Mott and his assistants played hardball and resigned.

Several applicants submitted their resumes but rescinded their names from
consideration upon hearing of the incendiary situation that surrounded the school
and program. School officials mandated to either find a head coach by June 15,
2017, or cancel the season. Perhaps, it was an idle threat but Napa High without a
football season? That would have gone over like a screen door in a submarine.

Jesus Martinez, who is a 2004 Napa High graduate -- and like Mott -- a former
Indians quarterback, stepped in to replace Mott (94-35 from 2006-2016) when no
one wanted to go anywhere near that job. The team struggled to a 3-6 campaign
in 2017. While Martinez was not viewed as the perfect coach, the thinking was that
with a quieter (at least in public) and entire offseason, the program could get its
footing back. Martinez was on the JV staff for ten years, nine as an assistant and
one as head coach.

In mid-April, Sims resigned as athletic director. Six weeks later on the first week of
June, Petithomme was named athletic director. Less than two weeks later, Martinez
was shown the door and Petithomme was named the interim coach.

Suffice it to say between the mascot changing, the district’s handling of the hazing
scandal, the resignation of Mott and dismissal of Martinez along with a few other
messy parting of ways from coaches of other sports, community members and
alumni alike have fired verbal slings and arrows, things have been an industrial
strength mess. Though I graduated from Justin-Siena in 1991, I am not a Napa
High alum but with several family members having graduated from there, I am
one by osmosis. Therefore, I have felt outraged by this chain of events.

The 2017 season marked the end of an era for Napa High football while 2018 marks
a turning of the page. From 1979 to 2017 coaching transitions went as follows: Les
Franco to Bob Herlocker to Jerry Dunlap to Troy Mott to Jesus Martinez. The
common denominator was that the transition went to a fellow assistant coach that
was already on staff. The new coach may have had a different leadership style but
the identity of the program would largely stay the same in that most of the assistant
coaches would remain, the schemes would not deviate and neither would the
expectations.

Martinez, however, had some deviation from the norm in that Mott’s entire varsity
staff walked out but being a Napa High alum himself and the fact that he had fellow
alums like Juan Martinez (his brother), Manny Aguirre and Jeremy Wooten on staff
ensured that there was still a connection to the past. As of this writing, Petithomme’s
two varsity assistants are Alex Russ and Anthony Armstrong. There are a total of
nine coaches between the freshmen, JV and varsity levels at present with the
intention of perhaps adding more.

For 40 years, if not longer, Napa High football stood for something. In that span, the
program was about the following to name a few: a) Being more physical and better
conditioned even if you did not have better athletes, b) Team first culture that
prepared the next generation. Translation, win or lose, Napa played with a hard edge.
They were “all day suckers,” with the underlying message being, “Suckers, we’re
going to be here all day.” Granted, there have been a few Napa football players that
went on to play Saturdays and Sundays like Steve Hendrickson, John Boyett and
Mike Gibson to name a few. For the most part, however, Napa football was also
heavily compromised of getting mid-level kids to buy into the team first concept.
Eighth graders dreamed of wearing Blue & Gold, some of which lived in Burgundy
& Gold -- as in Vintage -- territory.

This is the end of Napa High football as we knew it for 40 years. Don’t get anything
twisted, I’m not writing a program obituary. I do not know Petithomme and nor do I
wish to disparage him but the program will look and feel different from the last 40
years. What does it translate to in the win column? I do not know but I hope for the
best.

From the outside looking in, however, it feels like the powers that be have the
mindset of eliminating what they perceive as a “Dukes of Hazzard mentality.” It’s
like they feel Napa High football was too much the good old boy network.
Unfortunately politics are the lifeblood for some, as if they are trying to cleanse for
a just and noble cause. Loyalty and dedication have been fibers for Napa High
football but this administration’s actions reek of seeing those qualities as a threat.
Is it because they don’t value those qualities? I don’t have the answer.

Any more, I feel like I’m out of answers and I believe I am not alone in that sentiment.