With a ton of talent returning, Crushers look to run the table and win third straight league title in shortened spring season
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
It’s hard to stay perfect. That’s something that the Vintage football program has been since moving to the Vine Valley Athletic League in 2018.
Last season, they went 10-2 overall, with a 6-0 VVAL record. They beat Redwood-Larkspur in the first round of the CIF North Coast Section Division 2 playoffs first round before losing to Campolindo-Moraga in the semifinals.
Vintage enters the season ranked No. 9 in the CIF North Coast Section MaxPreps Top 25 preseason rankings. They’re also ranked No. 20 in the SportsStars Magazine NorCal Preseason Top 20 Rankings.
“It’s a really nice feeling knowing that all our hard work has kind of paid off,” Vintage senior wide receiver Sam Neal said. “Not that we only did it for the rankings, but just to know that well everything we’ve done to put our program at the level it’s at and the fact that it’s recognized, it’s a nice feeling.”
“It’s an honor for these kids to see their hard work pay off,” Vintage head coach Dylan Leach explained. “Here’s the thing, you don’t get these honors unless the previous class did it and they didn’t get that honor unless the previous class did that.”
Another thing that comes with rankings is expectations.
“If we do what we’re supposed to do and we run the table, then I’m going to go to my grave telling everyone that this was a section championship type team,” Leach said of the expectations. “There’s no way I wouldn’t.”
Plenty of talent returning
They wouldn’t be a section championship type of team if they didn’t have a bunch of talent. This season, that is the case for the Crushers.
When the season kicks off, the Crushers will be loaded with talent.
Under center, Jacob Aaron and Bill Chaidez will both return.
On the offensive line, they’ll return Preston Gullum, Louie Canepa, Wyatt Chaidez, and Connor Smith are all returning.
When it comes to catching the ball, they’ve got weapons back there too with Sam Neal and Reid McCaffrey leading the way. When it comes to doing what they do best, which is running the ball Vintage has a nice amount of running backs. Leading them is Dylan Smith and Ian Avalos. Nick Schuttish is also back as the tight end.
“I think we are senior-heavy in a sense. But I think the push in the program the last four years has been to the point where we could get through and play with the junior and sophomore kids that we have now,” Leach said. “I feel like with that group that we would have some success.”
Over the summer, Gullum, Canepa, and Dylan Smith all took part in the Xclusive Speed Bay Area camp.
The Schedule
By being the league champion, the Crushers will be the only ones who don’t have a bye this season. They will also play a league-only schedule. However, by being the league champion over the last two seasons, the Crushers will be the only team to play everyone in the league and also not have a bye.
“I mean, that’s great” Leach explained. “To be honest, if we would’ve had that bye we would’ve went and played another team somewhere.”
For the players, it was more about just playing football.
“Six games, five games, four games, it really didn’t matter to me,” Neal added. “What I really wanted was just to play football and just getting the opportunity to play is all I could ever ask for. There was a time, like four or five months ago when I really thought I wasn’t going to be able to play. So just being able to play six games is a blessing.”
“It’s just getting the most out of the situation we’re in right now,” Connor Smith added. “Getting those six games, it’s going to be great.”
On top of that, there will be no playoffs around the state as well. Ever since entering the CIF North Coast Section, the Crushers have played in the section semifinals.
The Crushers also lost all their nonleague games. They had a loaded schedule in the nonleague portion of the schedule. They were supposed to face Bellarmine College Prep-San Jose, El Cerrito, San Ramon Valley of Danville, and Valencia.
“The preseason hurt in a sense for a few reasons,” Leach said. “One, I felt like we had established probably one of the top five league or preseason schedules in all of California. If you look at San Ramon, that was going to be the number six and number seven team in the North Coast Section right off the bat and then play El Cerrito who’s an up-and-coming team every year. Obviously, I was most excited about taking this group down to LA and playing down there. That would’ve been an awesome trip. These kids deserved it and I missed out on that because I don’t know when those things will happen again. We had played long and hard and we made it happen and that would’ve been a great opportunity. Then, coming back up here and able to revenge our only loss of the season the year before.”
The game with San Ramon Valley would’ve been a rematch from the 2018 CIF North Coast Section semifinals. San Ramon Valley beat Vintage in that game 14-3.
Vintage will begin the season on March 12th when they visit Casa Grande-Petaluma. Last season, the Crushers won 39-14. However, Casa Grande is an up-and-coming program that is going to be a tough test for Vintage right away.
“Their defense is solid,” said assistant head coach Dennis Raines. “They return a defensive lineman who might have been one of the best all-around players we faced all last year. He gave us fits. He’s going to be a handful again this year and we look forward to that challenge.”
They will play their first home game on March 19th when they host Petaluma.
On March 26th, it’ll be the annual game against American Canyon. This has been the game that has decided the VVAL title the last two seasons.
Vintage will play their final home game of the season on April 2nd when they host Sonoma Valley. This game didn’t happen last season after Sonoma Valley didn’t have enough players eligible to field a team.
The Crushers will be on the road for the final two games of the season, but they won’t even leave Napa. April 9th they’ll head down Trower Avenue for their annual matchup with Justin-Siena. Last year, they beat Justin-Siena 48-7. Then, they’ll end the season as the road team against crosstown rival Napa in Big Game XLIV (49) on April 16th. In last year’s Big Game, Vintage was able to win 26-20 in a nail-biter to secure their second straight VVAL title.
A few coaching changes
With every new season, comes a few tweaks to the coaching staff.
On the varsity staff, there will be a slight tweak when it comes to the offense. Leach moves over to coach the offensive line and Raines will coach the quarterbacks. It’s a change that Leach did to honor his father, Bill, who passed away last spring.
“To be honest with you, the plan was to dive more into the offensive line side,” Leach said of the change. “I’m really doing that to honor my father who passed away last March because he was such a great line coach to me and that was the reason behind that. But at the same time, it also gets to a point where you kinda have to be everywhere as a coach and I don’t get that opportunity to spend that much time down there.”
The change has also made the coaches more well-rounded.
“You know, it’s been a challenge,” Raines added. “One thing that the guys that I’ve coached under have always done is they found ways to challenge me as a coach. Dylan, at times I think goes out of his way to make me uncomfortable. I know it comes from a good spot and he wants to see me grow in the game. I’ve spent close to 20 years coaching in high school sports. I’ve never coached a guy who didn’t have his hand in the ground, whether it tight ends or offensive line or defensive line. This was a challenge and a challenge that I loved and accepted and wanted to do everything I could to make us a better program.”
For the players, the change has taken some getting used to hearing a different voice. Luckily, it’s been more about fine-tuning at this point than teaching.
“I would say at this point, they can tell us what to do and Jacob and I are able to run it,” Bill Chaidez explained. “I feel like Raines is there to make sure we’re on little things like footwork, foot placement. Those things, he’s always on.”
Navigating the pandemic
Just like everyone else, COVID-19 has thrown many roadblocks in the way.
When they returned to practicing in July, they were in small groups. In that time, the coaches have had to keep all 140 kids and the coaching staff in the program engaged and motivated.
“I think the hardest part of us, in my position, was to keep 140 kids and staff engaged and trying my best to do that and being the positive rock,” Leach explained.
The pandemic has made the team even closer.
“I think this pandemic has made our like team camaraderie all-around better and everybody vibes with each other pretty well,” Aaron said. “It’s kind of like we’re all on the same page. I think this pandemic has also created anger for a lot of people and they just want it to end and that’s good to use out on the football field. I think that’s also another thing that I think this team has in it. It’s good to be used on the field hitting stuff.”
Something else that they will have to deal with is the fast turnaround right into the new season next fall. But Leach is more worried about the current six-game season.
“It’s unprecedented. I do know that we will not be able to turn right around and go into spring ball,” he said. “The seniors will get a huge outgoing from us, whatever we’ve got to do to be sure that they understand how much we care about them.”
