Tough race in De Anza Division
Falcons ready to make a run for CCS playoff berth
By Dick Sparrer
There is no football race tougher or more competitive than that contested each season in the rugged De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
Each year, the division features arguably the finest top-to-bottom lineup in the entire Central Coast Section.
And 1999 is no different.
Veteran SCVAL coach Brad Metheany knows it.
"There is no single weak team in this division," said the Monta Vista head coach who previously spent a number of years at Fremont. "This is tough 'A' league competition."
"Whoever gathers their defense together the best will come out on top," he added.
And Metheany expects his Matadors to be one of those teams.
The coach picks Wilcox and Los Gatos as the division title favorites, but he's looking for his Matadors to battle for third place and an automatic CCS berth.
Fall Football: High school football game schedules.
First-year Homestead head coach Robert Ralph knows how tough the division is, too. But he also expects his Mustangs to compete for one of the division's four automatic CCS playoff berths this fall.
"We expect to be in the top half of a very, very tough league," admits Ralph as he looks to the '99 campaign. And that would be a spot in the playoffs.
Sure, he knows that Milpitas, Wilcox and Los Gatos are perennial powers and that they rank among the best in the CCS. And he's aware that Saratoga, Palo Alto and Monta Vista are traditionally solid football schools with powerful programs.
But he's mighty impressed with his Mustangs, too.
Still, most observers see it as a three-team race with Milpitas, Wilcox and Los Gatos fighting it out for the title... and everyone else battling for that fourth CCS berth.
Saratoga head coach Kurt Heinrich figures his Falcons have as good a chance as anyone to contend for a playoff spot.
Heinrich returns for his second season as the Saratoga boss, and joining him will be a handful of veterans from a team that tied for second in the division last year and earned a place in the postseason.
Nolan Ng, Bryce Allen, Erick Raich and Nate Duncan are just a few of the players who return from the Saratoga team that posted a 6-4-1 season record last fall and a solid 4-2 mark in the De Anza Division.
Allen (6 feet, 170) takes over as the Saratoga quarterback this season, and he'll be shooting passes to the likes of Raich (6 feet 1, 170) and Duncan (6 feet 3, 185).
Raich and Duncan are a pair of returning wide receivers who will serve double duty in the Saratoga defensive secondary.
Ng (5 feet 11, 170) is a returner in the Saratoga backfield and will join Raich and Duncan in the secondary.
Jason Choe (5 feet 10, 170) is another returning back for the Falcons.
In all, Saratoga had 22 juniors on last year's varsity club. Others included Kelly Mathew, Robert Meng, Todd Anderson, Dan Morse, Shawn Filip, Derek Cartmell, Neima Mirzaei, Michael Robinson, Jon Epes, Troy Cowan, Richard Hirth, Jason Findley, Andrew Bosworth, Chris Yamaguchi, Tim Moore, Max Sandigo and Justin Newmark.
The Falcons will open the 1999 season on Sept. 9, 7 p.m., when they travel to Cupertino to face the Pioneers in a nonleague game. Saratoga's home opener at Los Gatos is Sept. 17, 7:30 p.m., against Lynbrook, and the Falcons will open league play on Oct. 1 at Los Gatos against the Wildcats.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
