Big Game 47 makes you wonder what could have been

Big Game -- you hear those words in Napa, CA, and you are either referring to
the Blue & Gold of Napa High or the Burgundy & Gold of Vintage High.

The 47th edition will take place on Friday night between the Vintage Crushers
and Napa  ….. I am holding my nose as my fingers hit the keyboard ….. Grizzlies.
Writing that mascot name makes me vomit in my mouth but I get through it. They
will always be Indians to me. Nice work, NVUSD School Board, you bumbs.  

The event draws people like nobody’s business even if the matchup on the field
has largely been uncompelling lately. Napa, who is formerly known as the Indians
and is now the Grizzlies of this past August, won 14 of the last 15 contests from
2002-2016 by an average score of 33.4-11.4 since 2002 before the Crushers broke
the streak with a 14-7 win a year ago. The previous time Vintage beat Napa was in
2005, 28-7. That season, Vintage won a share of the league title with Napa and
Vacaville as members of the Monticello Empire League. In that span, the question
was not if Napa would win Big Game but by how much? One can make the same
argument now but replace the teams.

Napa enters the game without a win in 2018. Vintage is 7-2 and winners of seven
straight. The Crushers clinched no worse than a tie for the Vine Valley Athletic
League crown and are a monster favorite to win Friday’s game.

Much has changed the last two years. For openers, Dylan Leach, who was Napa’s
defensive coordinator from 2010-2015 under now former head coach Troy Mott,
returned to his roots to become Vintage’s head coach. Leach, who is a 1992
graduate of the school, was a Vintage assistant from 2000-2009. The common
thought became “The MEL title has been going through Vacaville and Napa. Can
Leach assemble a staff to elevate what has been a mostly mid-tier Vintage program
the last 15 or so years and challenge those teams?”

For Napa, the last two years have been one firestorm after another that has resulted
in outrage and decreased alumni support. Without rehashing extensive details, those
storms have been: a) Mascot change, b) Hazing scandal that led to philosophical
differences with the administration that later led to Mott and the entire staff resigning,
c) Two more football coaching changes have happened (Jesus Martinez and Tom
Petithomme) and d) The removal of Annie Petrie as principal. Petrie will be replaced
by Frank Silva and is slated to move to another position within the district. Though I
have taken my jabs at Petrie as a principal in this space, I don’t dislike her personally.
The move was best for everyone involved, and I include for Petrie’s sake.

On the field, in 2016, Napa went 7-4 and beat Vintage 35-0 in Big Game to clinch
sole possession of the MEL title. Vintage went 5-5 in Leach’s first year despite losing
four of six games at one point. The last two seasons have been a complete reversal
as the Crushers have compiled a record of 14-5. On the other hand, Napa’s elevator
has gone from good to bad without stopping at mediocre. The program has gone
3-15 the last two years and last tasted a victory on Oct. 27, 2017, a 49-14 win over
Armijo (Fairfield).

Napa leads the all-time Big Game series 28-16-2 but a loss on Friday would put the
2018 team in not-so-select company. Napa enters the game 0-9 and dating back to
1911 has had only four winless seasons (1920, 0-4-1; 1937, 0-6; 1942, 0-5-1; 1955,
0-8).

Another change within the last two years has been Napa, Vintage, and American
Canyon leaving the CIF Sac Joaquin Section for the North Coast Section. Those
three schools along with Justin-Siena, which vacated the SJS for NCS in 2000, all
joined the Vine Valley Athletic League with Casa Grande, Petaluma and Sonoma.

One could argue that changing leagues coupled with Napa’s demise has accelerated
Vintage’s ascent. The VVAL has no team on par Vacaville or 2002-2016 edition of
Napa. However, if you’re a Crusher fan, what happened at Napa isn’t your fault and
you shouldn’t apologize. These points should not be summarily dismissed but if you
think Vintage’s rise is solely based on these factors, you’re not giving Leach, his staff
and players credit. They have done enough heavy lifting on their own to where their
arrow would have pointed upward anyhow, just a matter of what trajectory.

When Napa was dominating this rivalry, I followed the Indians from afar. I long
admired Mott’s leadership from and would go to Napa games if I was not
professionally conflicted. However, I longed for Vintage to reverse the trend to make
the rivalry compelling.

Though my freelance duties often take me to American Canyon, I am thrilled that
Vintage has bounced back and am a fan of Leach. I see a man that leads with
conviction but knows how to delegate. However, as a fan/writer, I feel robbed. I
wish the firestorms at Napa did not happen/would have been handled better and
Mott would have stayed. I wish that the Indians kept winning while the Crushers
kept rising but if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Just think, we could have had two trains colliding full speed. The narrative could
have been: “Could Leach’s rising Crushers knock off Mott’s Indians?” The other
subplot is, Mott was an offensive minded coach that appreciated good defense.
Leach is a defensive minded coach but on fourth down, he will roll the dice with
any offensive coach. Translation, neither one coaches scared.

Big Game will still draw the biggest crowd of the year so it’s not going to hurt
financially. I just can’t help but lament how both teams could have ushered in the
VVAL era with the league title potentially being decided on Friday.

Though Vintage and American Canyon has become the more compelling matchup,
the Big Game still stands on its own.