Braves are youthful in some spots, but still primed to compete in 2019
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
The first year of the Vine Valley Athletic League was quite an adventure for the Justin-Siena football team.
The Braves finished the season 5-7 with a 1-5 record in the VVAL, but they lost a fair share of games by only one possession. They ultimately lost in the quarterfinals of the CIF North Coast Section Division IV playoffs.
Braves are young, but experienced
However, when the ball is kicked off to begin the season it will be a young team that takes the field for Justin-Siena.
But, Justin-Siena coach Brandon LaRocco isn’t all that worried about it.
“No, not at all because those guys have been working really hard this summer,” he explained of the youthfulness on the team. “So our juniors have been very committed to being here and learning and working hard in the offseason. So, I’m feeling pretty good.”
Justin-Siena’s main returner is do-it-all senior Solomone Anitoni. This season, it will be key to get the ball in his hands as many times as possible.
“He’ll be playing offense and defense this year,” LaRocco explained how he plans to use his top returner. “We find ways to get the ball in Solomone’s hands in a lot of different ways. Sometimes it’s down the field. Sometimes, it’s little dump passes in the flat. Sometimes we just hand the ball to him. So, kick return all that stuff. A little bit of everything.”
Other returners to the team include Nolan Dunkle, Marcus Nunes, Grant Koehler, Miles Williams, and Blake Hoban.
“You know we’re young at some important spots,” LaRocco said. “We’re young at quarterback. Obviously, we have a first-year varsity quarterback. We’re young at running back. But we have veterans in some spots too. We return three out of five offensive linemen from last year. We lost some guys in the wide receiver spots, but we have guys that had a lot of reps last year. So I feel pretty good about them stepping in and filling in those roles.”
The offseason was busy
It was a busy summer for the Braves as they faced other local schools in 7-on-7 matchups. They also took part in the De La Salle 7-on-7 passing tournament on June 22nd. At the passing tournament were teams like Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa, Serra-San Mateo, Central Catholic-Modesto, Downey-Modesto, and Monterey Trail-Elk Grove.
“I feel like I feel like our team’s coming along pretty well actually,” Anitnoni explained.
Preseason schedule should provide a good variety
The non-league portion of the schedule should provide some good competition to get Justin-Siena ready for league play.
On August 23rd they’ll open up the season against Piedmont at home. Recently, Piedmont’s coach stepped down. Then, they’ll visit Healdsburg on August 30th. Last year, Justin-Siena beat Healdsburg 61-0. On September 6th, they’ll visit Armijo-Fairfield. Justin-Siena won 40-14 in last season’s meeting. To conclude the non-league portion of the schedule Justin-Siena will host Archbishop Riordan-San Francisco on September 13th. It will be Riordan’s second trip to Napa in as many seasons, as they beat Napa 40-31 last season.
“I think we see a lot of different stuff,” LaRocco emphasized. “You know, Piedmont we’ve built a nice rivalry with over the last ten years. So, that’s probably our most legitimate rival at this point because we’ve played them every season for the opening game for the last seven or eight years and twice in the playoffs.
“Armijo’s got a lot of size. I think it’s important for us to see size early because the VVAL everybody’s bigger than us,” the coach added. “We’re the small team, so it’s good to see some size. Riordan’s just got a lot of good athletes and they play in space. So, everyone presents a different kind of look.”
For more of an in-depth look at the Braves non-league schedule go here.
League schedule should provide some good matchups
Vine Valley Athletic League play is where the schedule will stiffen up for the Braves. On September 20th, they’ll open league play against Casa Grande-Petaluma. Other league highlights for Justin-Siena includes it’s first-ever games played at Napa Memorial Stadium in back-to-back weeks of October 11th when they face Napa High and October 18th when they visit Vintage. Last year, they beat Napa 36-35 in their annual matchup before losing 48-6 to Vintage the following week.
“To be honest, I don’t think it means anything to me or my team honestly, is we’re just gonna treat it like another game,” Anitoni said of the games played at Memorial Stadium in consecutive weeks. “And, you know, just play our game really, we won’t really let the whole fan base and everything like that get to us.”
“The thing is not all of our kids are from Napa,” LaRocco said of the games played at Napa Memorial Stadium. “So, for the kids that are from Napa it’ll probably be pretty exciting. But it’ll be cool. You know, it’s a cool facility. The locker rooms and the end zones are cool, so I think they’ll be excited.”
On September 27th they’ll host Sonoma Valley. They’ll end the regular season on November 1st when they host American Canyon, which comes after their bye week on October 25th.
“Sonoma is developing very quickly into our league rival,” LaRocco said of the meeting with the Dragons. “That game last year was an intense one, so we’re looking forward to getting back here and having a better outcome this year.”
New year, new playoff division
If they were to qualify for the CIF NCS playoffs they would be placed in the eight-team Division VI bracket. At the conclusion of last season, the NCS removed the Open division, which pushed everybody down a division or two. In Justin-Siena’s case, it bumped them down two divisions.
To get a look at the new landscape of the division go here.
“Division six is a lot of the schools that used to be in division four,” LaRocco said of the new playoff division placement. “So, it’s St. Mary’s-Berkeley, it’s Fort Bragg. It’s a lot of schools we’ve seen before, and we’ve played in historic rivalries in the playoffs since the early 2000s.
“It’s competitive, though,” LaRocco added. “There’s a lot of good teams in that division. So, you know, at the end of the day, we just control where we can control where we are. We just play we play and that’s what we do.”
New coach joins the staff
New to the varsity coaching staff this year is Diano Pachote, a 2014 Justin-Siena graduate. Pachote was a three-year starter at running back for Justin-Siena, including their 2012 CIF NCS section championship team. Pachote played four years of college football at Chapman University in Southern California. He’ll be the assistant offensive line and linebackers coach.
“He brings a really good energy to our staff,” LaRocco explained of the newest addition to the coaching staff. “Diano is a really hard worker, and he very quickly earned the respect of the players. He also has a good eye for detail, which is incredibly important when coaching the offensive line.”
