Big Game on chopping block after latest proposal passes that would move schools out from same league in football-only league
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
The high school football season always seems to fly by. When that’s the case, it means the regular season is about to culminate with Big Game.
When Napa and Vintage meet this Friday night at Memorial Stadium in Big Game LI (51), it could be one of the last times the football game takes place in its normal spot on the calendar. This is due to a proposed realignment that will form four different divisions for football only.
All that’s left to make this a reality is a vote by the CIF North Coast Section realignment committee. Once passed, Vintage will be in Group 1 and Napa will be in Group 3, which means the teams will not meet in the league season. It also means the two schools will have to work together to make a non-league game happen that will start in 2024 when the new football realignment takes effect.
Vote on Ukiah/Montgomery proposal
25 yes
3 no pic.twitter.com/CqOK3bGXHI— Gus Morris (@JustGusPD) October 19, 2022
The league realignment will have a major impact on all three Napa schools, as they will all be facing different teams when league play gets underway. The Crushers will be placed with the best programs in the North Bay. This includes Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa, Marin Catholic-Kentfield, San Marin, Rancho Coate, and Windsor. This will do wonders for the Crushers’ strength of schedule when it comes to the CIF North Coast Section playoffs, as they will face top-notch programs. The travel won’t be terrible, but there could theoretically be a few trips to Marin for games. Going to Sonoma County is normal with the current Vine Valley Athletic League.
With Napa, the league will involve a tad bit more travel and some easier league game. Where it gets a bit weird is the fact that they would face St. Vincent de Paul of Petaluma who is currently a division 7 team, whereas the Grizzlies are a division 2 team. As far as travel is concerned, it wouldn’t be too bad with the majority of trips being to Santa Rosa to face Maria Carillo, Montgomery, and Santa Rosa. There could also be a trip to Sebastopol to face Analy. The longest trip would be to face Ukiah.
Finally, there is Justin-Siena who will be in group 2. Oddly enough, this will feature very few tweaks to the league schedule. They will still face Casa Grande, Petaluma, and American Canyon. Additionally, they will face old Marin County Athletic League foes Redwood and Tamalpais.
Don’t get me wrong, I like that league play would be more even across the board. The current format doesn’t do much good for the smaller schools and doesn’t give that many tough games to the bigger schools. It is by no means perfect. Where I take issue with it is the fact that the Napa Valley Unified School District schools came to the CIF NCS as a package deal. This realignment splits all of them up and kind of defeats the purpose of the move four years ago. In the case of Justin-Siena, they left the MCAL to play games that were closer. This proposal has them going back to Marin County. The pro is that it is just for a game or two as opposed to a game over there practically every week. The community interest has really gone up since all four local schools joined the VVAL four years ago, and I’d hate to see that go. But at least it will still be there for every other sport.
All of that is fine and dandy, but there are a lot of real concerns that will need to be ironed out. One of the biggest is the fact that Napa and Vintage share Memorial Stadium. If the schools are in different leagues, managing the stadium schedule is going to be a little bit more of a challenge.
The stadium is just one issue when it comes to realignment. When you take Big Game being a nonleague game into consideration, it gets even weirder. The Crushers are in a league where there would only be five league games, which means the other half of the schedule would be filled with nonleague contests. Meanwhile, Napa is in a league where there would be six league contests, leaving four games to fill with other opponents. This only leaves a four-week window to play Big Game and the week the game is played would change from year-to-year. All of this will do more to hurt the rivalry’s health in the long term.
Ideally, the best way to make Big Game a thing every year is to play it in the fourth game of the season. This leaves each team three games before to tune up, while also putting it far enough back so it doesn’t have to happen right away. In order for this to work, the game must stay this week of the season. With all of that being said, there is one caveat. The fourth game of the season has typically been Fortinet Championship week. It would make for one of the busiest weeks ever around town if you throw Big Game into Fortinet Tournament week. The thing is both of these events happen just once a year. In order for Big Game to happen in the preseason, it also can’t be a homecoming game for either school.
The one pro of this is that everyone could do a nonleague schedule where they don’t even have to leave the county. Even though it likely won’t become a reality, a team like Napa can face American Canyon, Justin-Siena, and Vintage all in the nonleague, while also having one more game to mess around with and fill with someone who isn’t inside the county. The same can be said for Vintage and Justin-Siena.
Big Game has produced some of the most electric sports moments in our town’s history. From Rich Harbison’s 75-yard touchdown scamper in 1982 to Conrad Alvarez’s monster contest where he ran the ball 39 times for 281 yards that still stand to this day, to the streak where Napa won 11 straight under Troy Mott, and now where Vintage has won the last five under Dylan Leach. All of this must be remembered and in order for that to happen, the game has to be played on a yearly basis. There are numerous moments that I’m sure I’m missing. One thing is for sure and that is if you went to Napa or Vintage, Big Game was always one of the weeks you looked forward to the most. After all, the beauty of Big Game is that you get to face those who you grew up with and played sports with. Plus, Napa-Vintage is a very friendly rivalry because our community is one where everyone knows each other.
That was certainly a lot to take in. If there is one thing that needs to be taken from this, it is that the Big Game should never die even if the two schools aren’t in the same league. If Big Game falls by the wayside, it means the ball was dropped somewhere. This simply can’t happen because Big Game is sacred to our community.
Big Game LI will (51) will kick off at 7 pm from Memorial Stadium on Friday night. The JV game will start at 4:45. Tickets can be purchased at both high schools throughout the week and at the Memorial Stadium box office starting at 3 pm on Friday. Vintage enters the game with a 5-4 record and 4-1 mark in VVAL and Napa comes in with a 2-6 mark and 0-4 record in league play. The game is also part of the Great American Rivalry Series. Vintage won this year’s return of Little Big Game at the freshman level on September 8th by a score of 56-0. Napa leads the all-time series 29-19-2 with Vintage having won the last five matchups.
