Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Los Gatos quarterback Ryan Sorahan will lead the Wildcats into action Friday night in a scrimmage against Overfelt. The season starts for real a week later when the Cats visit San Lorenzo Valley.

Wildcats face Royals-- what's a mother to do?

By Dick Sparrer

Berit Cattolico is not quite sure what to do.

Should she sit in the Los Gatos bleachers on Friday night when her husband, Butch, takes his Wildcats up against Overfelt in the first scrimmage of the 1998 season?

Or should wander to the unfamiliar visitors bleachers to show support for her son, Joe, the head coach of the Royals?

How is a wife and mother to decide?

Well, as it turns out, Butch and Joe have made the decision easy for Berit. They've each asked her to film the scrimmage.

"She's going to film for both of us," said the Gatos coach.

So that makes it easier for Joe's mother, but what about his dad?

"Well, we sat down yesterday and had our meeting," Cattolico joked, indicating he gave a little fatherly advice to Joe not to embarrass his ol' dad in front of the hometown crowd.

Of course, it makes it easier that it's just a scrimmage and not a game, so there will be no winner or loser.

"He came and asked me [for the scrimmage]," Cattolico said. "We're running a very similar offense and a very similar defense."

Because of it, neither team has to make many adjustments for the Friday night scrimmage, making it easier to run practice sessions leading up to the event.

"Santa Teresa was like that," added Cattolico, but the Saints dropped the Cats a couple years back and Gatos has had to scrimmage Leigh for the past two seasons.

Los Gatos and Leigh will go at it in a 7 p.m. start following a 5 p.m. frosh-soph clash between Los Gatos and Overfelt. It will be the first chance for local fans to catch the Gatos teams in action this season.

The Cats won't be back home until Sept. 25 when they lost Leland in a nonleague game. Gatos opens the year with two games on the road, Sept. 12 at San Lorenzo Valley and Sept. 18 against Oak Grove at San Jose City College.

Joe Cattolico, who starred as a quarterback at Leigh in his playing days, is in his second year as the head coach at Overfelt. He took the Royals to the Central Coast Section playoffs in his first year at the helm.

But even though Joe played close to home at Leigh, he and his father have never met on opposite sides in a football game. In fact, the only time they have been involved in the same game came in 1992 at the Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game.

"That was the only time we had a game where we were on the same field," said the Gatos coach.

Not only were on the same field, they were on the same team. Butch was the coach and Joe the quarterback for the North squad that edged the South all-stars 10-7.

Los Gatos is coming off a year when the Wildcats won championships in both the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and the CCS. Cattolico expects his Cats to compete for both titles again this fall.

A complete look at the Los Gatos football team will appear in next week's issue of the Los Gatos Weekly Times, along with a season schedule and list of top returners.

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