After a full offseason to get comfortable with playbook and new life injected into team, Vintage looks for success against the best the North Bay has to offer
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
It’s nice when you have a whole offseason to learn the offseason with your quarterback.
Entering the 2024 season, this will be the case for junior quarterback Blake Porter. He has now had a full amount of time to learn the playbook and get acclimated after a trial-by-fire portion at the end of last season.
Porter has also had much more time to get acclimated as the signal caller after more of a trial-by-fire period last season, where he was thrust into the starting job.
“It’s been awesome being able to be out there with all my players and like all my team and being out there practicing the plays and knowing the plays and having a play sheet and everything,” Porter said of his comfort in the offense. “So I Know when I’m going into the season. Everything about that last year, I kind of got thrown right into it, and I had to pick it up all in a week, and it was definitely a struggle. So this has definitely been a lot better so far.
For the Vintage football program, things are looking up. After going 5-6 last season with a record of 4-2 in league play, their season ended in the first round of the playoffs.
But there are many new faces on this young squad with plenty of potential in 2024. After all, they are getting a strong group of players joining them who have done lots of winning in the lower levels.
One of the main reasons is that the new lineman that came up is a much-needed boost.
“First and foremost, I would start with the line,” Vintage head coach Dylan Leach said. “The JV line has been amazing. There’s about 9 to 10 of them that are just always together. They lift together, they play together, (and) they hang out afterwards. When we leave the field, they go play catch.”
While winning is something that is never guaranteed when moving up to the next level, it is promising that there is a group that has done lots of winning and has experienced what it means to win consistently.
To go along with all of this, they also have a fair number of players returning as well. They are led by Porter, Drake Sampton, Colby Jensen, Lucas Henry, Miles Henry, Jay Ruiz, Henry Drozdowicz, and Owen Ferguson.
Meanwhile, the returners have been key to helping get the new group up to speed about what is needed to compete.
“It’s going to help us because they’re going to know what they’re talking about, and if we listen to them, it’s going to be huge,” Porter explained. “It’s definitely gonna help us, and we’re gonna have a successful season.”
Busy summer of playing quality competition
It was a very busy summer when it came to seeing other competitions for the Crushers. It all began when they were at the Santa Rosa Junior College 7-on-7 tournament where the lineman won the lineman challenge.
“It went good,” Jensen said of winning the lineman competition. “Vintage came out, looked dominant, did our part. Those felt nice to win.”
In that same passing tournament, the skill players lost in the semifinals and went 4-2 on the day. But also reassured that there was a quality group of linemen up front.
“Seeing the linemen do that is awesome,” Porter added. “ It just really gives me a lot of like, trust in them and respect, because they’re going to be working hard for me up front. That just gave all of us a step up, just to keep going, just keep trying hard, and just get better and better every single day. Having those big guys in front of us helping us out and blocking for us.”
They also did joint practices with Casa Grande, Hayward, and James Logan. All of these teams are some of the best in the North Coast Section.
With Vintage and Casa Grande not being in the same league anymore, it was important to keep meeting up with each other for good competition. It also helps that schematically they are very different, which helps each other see what needs to be worked on.
“I mean, John, they do good things over there, and they know how to compete, and they know how to coach,” Leach said of doing a joint practice with old league rival Casa Grande. “So we enjoy that. I feel like as long as we’re not in the same league, John and I will come together and work as many times as we can together, because I think it benefits them, in a sense that creating a different attitude and toughness about defending the run game and dealing with that. And it helps us tremendously, and in learning from them on pass Pro and other things that could help us moving forward in the passing game.”
New season, massive changes to the non-league schedule
It’s rare to see a somewhat easy non-league schedule for Vintage. But this is what they’ll have in 2024.
The season will begin on August 30th against Las Lomas-Walnut Creek. On September 6th, they’ll visit Fairfield. Then they will come home and face Wood of Vacaville on September 13th and Bethel-Vallejo on September 20th.
Vintage will have its bye week the week of September 27th before playing their final non-league game against Napa High on October 4th in Big Game LIII (53). It will be the first non-league Big Game in series history. It will also be a Vintage home game in 2024.
In Big Game LII (52) last year, Vintage beat Napa 54-19.
Many of the opponents on the non-league schedule are very close, which was a focus after traveling all over the Bay Area in previous years.
“That was a huge part of it,” Leach said of the non-league games featuring teams that are close to town. “Obviously, we still have Las Lomas who was 13-1 and lost in the semifinals to Cardinal Newman. So that’s a really good team. I believe Fairfield went to the playoffs last year, and so we’re going to play some local teams Wood too, and Bethel that have a ton of talent and a ton of speed. And I would be remised if I didn’t say that it had a lot to do with proximity.”
Welcome to the Adobe Division, Crushers
Unlike their local counterparts where most of the new league is the same, this is not the case for the Crushers who will be playing in the Redwood Empire Conference – Adobe Divison this season.
This is a league composed of the best teams in the North Bay, which means Vintage will be playing stiff competition every week during the league season. However, this is something they are looking forward to after scheduling traditional powerhouses in their non-league.
Vintage will begin league play on October 11th with a trip to Rohnert Park to face Rancho Cotate. They will play their lonely Saturday game of the season on October 19th when they visit Marin Catholic-Kentfield, which will start at 2 pm.
Their first home game in the new league will be against Windsor on October 25th. The two met last season with Windsor beating Vintage 49-13 in the first round of the CIF North Coast Section Division 2 playoffs.
On November 1st, they’ll visit San Marin in Novato.
Finally, they’ll end the season against Cardinal Newman on November 8th. These teams have played each other for the last three years with every game being very close.
“A great opportunity for our players and our coaches, to compete against the best of the best,” Leach said of the move to the best league the North Bay can offer. “If you look at the six-team league, four teams played for a section championship team, and I believe two of them went on the states.”
The Adobe Division is set to become one of the best leagues in Northern California in its debut season.
A few changes to the coaching staff
In 2024, there will be a few minor changes to the coaching staff.
Returning to coach the outside linebackers and ends is Mike Odell.
New to the coaching staff is Garrett Sathre who is coaching the defensive backs.
