Making a case for Justin-Siena football in the VVAL

Sometimes you have to humble yourself. In the process, you feel the need to pass along
the same information to those who may share similar sentiments but have not arrived at
changing their mind yet even though you have changed yours.

Before I arrive at what I am addressing, there needs to be a modern history lesson.

I never made any public predictions but when I saw the formation of the newly established
Vine Valley Athletic League of Vintage, Napa, American Canyon, Casa Grande, Petaluma
and Sonoma with Justin-Siena joining them, I blindly told myself, “My goodness, Justin is
going to be in over its head in football.” Many other 40 and over alums have expressed
similar sentiments in part because when they played football at Justin, they remember Napa
and Vintage being powerful programs with large rosters while Justin being the smaller school
had much less volume. In that era, it would have been a pipe dream to even suggest Justin
could compete with the likes of Napa or Vintage in football.

Yours truly graduated from Justin in 1991 and played three years of football. To put it mildly,
the Braves were a mess going 7-29 in my four years there with three different head coaches.
It pains me to say it but we were a high school version of the Cleveland Browns. My
freshman year, I remember scrimmaging Napa and Vintage at Memorial Stadium. Suffice it
to say, it was pretty scary. They absolutely terrorized us. It would have been even uglier in a
real game.

Justin competed in the Superior California Athletic League with St. Helena, St. Patrick’s
(Vallejo), John Swett (Crockett), Vanden (Travis Air Force Base), Dixon and Rio Vista. In
2000, the league disbanded and Justin began a 17 year stint in the Marin County Athletic
League. While the Braves were competitive in football and some other sports, travelling
through two counties for away games became a headache. Therein lies Justin’s move to
the VVAL.

When the Braves moved to the MCAL, I remember the narrative being to the effect of, “They
are playing bigger schools. How are they going to compete?” In the process, the Braves had
Rich Cotruvo as their head coach from 1997-2015, during which time the program went
144-74 with six CIF North Coast Section Div. IV titles. Justin was also twice the runnerup and
often had records that would hold serve in the regular season against Div. II and III schools
then play Div. IV teams in the playoffs. The postseason was often a comedown for Justin.

I also think that Justin alums from my time not only remember Napa and Vintage as perennial
contenders but also only recall the 1987-1996 Braves being terrible, as opposed to the
Cotruvo led teams and Dave Shipp led teams before 1987.

I can put the “Justin can’t compete because the league has bigger schools” theory to bed now.
According to the NCS website, Justin’s enrollment is at 530 students. There have been times
the enrollment has been North of 600 but you get the point. The rest of the MCAL goes as
follows: Marin Catholic (750), San Marin (1,150), Sir Francis Drake (1,203), Novato (1,391),
Redwood (1,910), San Rafael (1,350), Tamalpais (1,574), and Terra Linda (1,235).

In its 17 seasons, Justin went 79-50 against MCAL foes. The Braves were co-champs of the
league in 2004 and 2014 with Marin Catholic and Novato. Of those 17 seasons, only three
times did Justin finish below .500 in league, one season they went exactly .500, 4-4 in 2002.
Do the math, 13 seasons of going plus-.500 in a league with schools twice your size or better.
I wouldn’t call that being “in over their head.”

In the newly formed, VVAL the enrollments are as follows: American Canyon (1,564), Casa
Grande (1,973), Justin-Siena (530), Napa (1,980), Petaluma (1,355), Sonoma (1,293)

and Vintage (1,966).

Translation, Justin will be facing the same issue it faced in the MCAL. Perhaps another
reason for pessimism was that entering this season, Brandon Larocco, who was a former
player of Cotruvo and long-time assistant, led Justin to a 6-13 mark in his first two seasons.
So far in 2018, Larocco has the Braves cooking with gas with a 3-1 record. Justin’s loss was
a 28-7 setback to 3-0 Piedmont. The three wins were by a combined 140-22 against
Healdsburg, Armijo (Fairfield) and Hercules, who are a combined 3-7. Healdsburg has since
cancelled its varsity season and Hercules has taken a hard fall after reach the NCS Div. IV
title game last last.

Strength of opponents, however, is out of their control, you play who is in front of you and
handle business. The Braves’ 40-14 win over Armijo, however, deserves some credence
because Armijo is a Div. I school. Granted, the Indians have been perennial also rans but
any time a Div. IV team beats a Div. I team, it should get your attention.

In the process, look around the rest of the VVAL, entering 2018, Casa Grande and Petaluma
have been fair-to-midland, going 77-44-1 and 61-48 respectively the previous 10 seasons.
Sonoma has struggled going 40-61 in the same span. American Canyon has gone 55-28
since opening its doors in 2010. Vintage had gone 43-59 in that span, Napa went 75-37.

However, you have to look at programs for what they are, not what they were. As I look at
the VVAL landscape, I’m not suggesting the Braves will win the title. They probably won’t
but I can see them finishing middle of the pack. I said before the season that the league
title will come down to Vintage and American Canyon and I feel no reason to back away
from that notion.

Vintage and American Canyon as it stands in 2018 are good but not great teams. For the
former, I believe head coach Dylan Leach has the Crushers on the upswing in his third
season. I think Leach is the best coach Vintage has had since Les Franco (2000-2006).
For the latter, the Wolves are 0-4 having played a brutal nonleague schedule and
acclimating to a coaching change. American Canyon is not the force it was in 2016, when
it went 11-2, but has too many good athletes not to be a factor.

Napa is struggling at 0-4 and has been through three coaching changes in three years in
part because of the fallout of a hazing scandal that led to the resignation of former head
coach Troy Mott and his assistants. There has also been the fallout of a mascot change,
from Indians to Grizzlies. The roster volume is actually bigger with Justin, who has 33
varsity players to Napa’s 28, according to maxpreps.com.

I don’t see a league title for the Braves but they will get a few. The Braves have plenty of
tools in the toolbox to contend.