Despite losing lots of weapons, Braves are ready to hit the field and continue program’s run of success in spring season
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
The last two seasons have been very successful for the Justin-Siena football program.
Last season was especially good. The Braves went 8-4 and 3-3 in the Vine Valley Athletic League. They made the CIF North Coast Section Division 6 playoffs where they beat Lower Lake in the first round before having their season come to an end against Kennedy-Richmond in the semifinals.
But when they kick off their spring season, things couldn’t be more different than the last time they strapped it up.
The Braves lost a lot of talent due to graduation last year. However, that doesn’t mean bad things are ahead for Justin-Siena. They return running back/linebacker Noah Young, quarterback Hudson Beers, wide receiver Seth Morrison, Angel Garcia, Wyatt Humphries, Kyle Wall, Caden Parlet, Myles Martin, Issac Domingez, and Josh Tichy.
“Obviously, having Hudson and Noah back is a good starting point,” Justin-Siena head coach Brandon LaRocco said. “We lost a lot of good receivers to graduation. You know, three college-level receivers. But we have good guys coming up. I watched Noah’s progression as a running back and getting a little bit more experienced under his belt a little bit more physicality this year is a little bit bigger a little bit faster all the things you want to see as a kid gets older. Hudson’s understanding of the offense obviously has evolved as he’s gotten more reps in the system and his ability to place the ball where he wants it has gotten a lot better. I’ve noticed that definitely in practice this year.”
In January, Beers was named as one of the top 10 quarterbacks to watch in the North Coast Section by Scorebook Live. He was also named the No. 3 quarterback to watch in the Bay Area by West Coast Preps in their preseason rankings.
Justin-Siena also enters the season ranked 23rd in the CIF North Coast Section MaxPreps Top 25 preseason rankings.
“I thought it was kind of cool,” Beers said. “I like looking at those rankings and seeing who they have above us or who they might have below us – things like that. It’s cool to be on that list and be recognized.”
“I think it’s humbling to be included with those kinds of schools,” LaRocco emphasized. “We’re talking about some of the best football schools in California, especially in Northern California, right? It’s humbling to be mentioned with those guys. But rankings without meeting expectation, like it’s nice and all. It’s a nice thing to have people recognize the effort that our kids have put into kind of re-establishing our program. All the credit goes to them and the effort they put into that. It is what it is it’s a preseason ranking.”
The Schedule
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the season has been pushed to a six-week span. This means a league-only schedule will be played.
It also means there won’t be any nonleague or playoff games played this season. Had they had a normal season, the Braves would’ve faced Healdsburg, Piedmont, Archbishop Riordan-San Francisco, and St, Mary’s-Berekely.
In the first game of the season, Justin-Siena will host Petaluma on March 12th.
“It’s a tough run game to start against,” LaRocco said of the season-opener. “I think a good triple-option team, that’s the hardest in my opinion. That’s the hardest run game to stop in high school football.”
After that, they’ll visit Sonoma Valley on March 19th. The matchup with Sonoma Valley has become a rivalry game over the last two years.
Then, they will host Napa on March 26th in the first of their crosstown rivalry matchups for the season. Last season, their game with Napa was close for the first half. In the end, Napa won 42-14.
After the game against Napa, they’re scheduled to have their bye week at the midpoint of the season. Instead of taking the bye week off, they’ll host St. Vincent de Paul of Petaluma on April 3rd. The game has a special 2 pm start time.
After the bye, they’ll host the other of their two crosstown rivals – Vintage on April 9th. The Braves hung around in the first quarter before the game got away and Vintage won 48-7.
They’ll end the season with a trip to American Canyon. Last season, they beat the Wolves in the season finale.
The Braves won’t be facing Casa Grande-Petaluma, the one team that’s been a bit of a thorn in their side over the last few seasons due to the short season. The game against the Gauchos would’ve been a revenge game after they beat Justin-Siena 41-34 last season.
“We want to play everybody,” LaRocco explained. “As much as we can, we want to get on the field with everybody. We don’t want to lose any games. Obviously, we’ve had two really tight games against those guys. So it’s a competitive game for us. The last two years they’ve gotten the better out of it the last two years, but it just sucks to be losing the game at all.”
“I was kind of bummed when I heard we weren’t playing them just because we want to play the full league schedule,” Beers said. “I have some seven-on-seven teammates that are on that team, so it was kind of like we were excited to play each other and see who comes out on top.”
Navigating COVID-19
The pandemic has been something that every school has had to deal with. But in some cases, it’s given Justin-Siena some slight edges over their competition.
Since they’re a private school, they can do things a little bit different compared to other schools. One example of this is film. Since the team has 25 players, they can go to their digital media center and be socially distanced when they watch film.
“I think for us, we have a couple of advantages. Generally, a small team is not an advantage,” LaRocco explained. “But in this case, our ability to get into a space and be safely distanced, we have buildings on our campus that can handle 25 guys, because that’s what we’re sitting at on varsity level this year.”
Just like everyone else, when they first started doing conditioning over the summer they were in pods. The first time the whole team returned was when padded practices began on February 26th.
“It’s been pretty good so far,” LaRocco said of moving into a full team environment. “The first time you get the team on the field, it just feels different because we’ve been in such small groups for so long. I think in a lot of senses, it’s a little crazy.”
“It’s definitely been a lot of fun so far,” Beers added. “I don’t know about everyone else, but personally I convinced myself that we weren’t going to play this year. I just didn’t think it was gonna happen. So now that’s actually happening and being out there with everyone, it’s really exciting.”
Due to the pandemic, the Braves didn’t have 7-on-7 games or tournaments to help with their passing game either.
“You never want to lose reps as a coach. Reps are such a crucial part,” LaRocco emphasized. “Every coach wants more reps. There’s one thing that we know to be true is that coaches always want more reps. So we’re never satisfied with that stuff.”
“The lack of seven-on-seven you would think would impact us negatively,” Beers added. “But I think, our receiving corps this year we’re really tight-knit. We played together on JV and we built that chemistry pretty quickly in the last month or so. I think the lack of it at first would seem like it would have been a big deal, but not it doesn’t seem to have affected us other than the loss of reps.”
Another thing the Braves will also be dealing with will be the quick turnaround into the fall season off of the spring season.
“Honestly, the most concerning thing really is just making sure we get our gear we’re conditioning back in time,” LaRocco said. “That’s a tight tuner on that window. But in terms of like recovery of the kids, we’ve been training pretty hard. It’s a shortened season. It’s six games. Usually, we’re used to playing double that. I think in terms of physical impact, it’s recoverable. The recovery time is about half, but the games are about half, so it should be okay. The interesting part is going to be the summer because we’re going to get a late start in the summer because of the second season pushing into June a little bit more. So that’s going to kind of push us back from when we could start so and I’m not exactly sure what spring ball will look. Frankly, I haven’t thought that far ahead. But just kind of thinking about that stuff, those would be the things I’m thinking about.”
Coaching changes
There is always a few tweaks to the coaching staff each season it seems like and this season is no different.
On the varsity staff, 2017 Justin-Siena graduate Aiden Willard joins the staff to help coach the quarterbacks.
“He just happened to be in town while he’s doing digital schooling, so it worked out,” LaRocco explained. “He wants to be around the game and obviously we love having him around. Having been at Oregon State and having been at that highest level of college football and in a power five conference, I think he brings a lot of insight to the table on how to do things maybe just a little differently than what we do.”
“It’s been really good,” Beers added. “Having Aiden there with all the experience he has, has really benefited the quarterbacks. His knowledge of the game and everything he’s learned at Oregon State, he’s brought along taught us and it helps out a lot.”
The only other coaching change comes at the JV level. Longtime head coach Dennis Fechter retired in the offseason, which led to Spencer Jockey being moved down to take over.
