Yeah, we know. It’s La Serna’s League to lose. It’s La Serna left, La Serna right and La Serna up the middle. When you talk about the Del Rio you talk about La Serna. No, I’m not going to be that guy that makes a bold prediction that La Serna will not win the Del Rio. But the truth is you don’t have to win the league to have a successful season. At least not this league.
La Serna went undefeated in the Del Rio last year and went on the win the CIF Championship…in Division 4. Santa Fe, who finished second and made the playoffs was in Division 12. Once the regular season is over you don’t have to see La Serna again. Win a few non-league games, finish second or third in league and make a playoff run. It can be done. Nobody is going to beat La Serna…at least not right now. Andy George has done a remarkable job in bringing the program up to elite status. But for the rest of the Del Rio there is hope on the horizon. Just get to the playoffs and then anything can happen.
Speaking of La Serna, yes the Lancers are good…real good. They have a ton of talent coming back. Here are a few of their key players.
Offense: Jaden Campos -Tackle Senior, Kaimana Tufaga- WR Senior, Zeb Bontemps- WR Junior, Elijah Blu Flores- RB Senior, Grady Long – Quarterback Sophomore, Jordan Bonilla- Quarterback Sophomore.
Defense- Eli Perez -Linebacker Senior, Kaimana Tufaga – DB Senior, Etoagwara Onyenegecha- DB Sophomore, Emre Law – LB/ DE – Senior.
We could list several more but for the sake of time and space we mentioned these. If you get a chance check out Tufaga. This dude is special.
“This Lancer team has been working tirelessly for each other to make their own mark and write their own chapter in La Serna Football History. We have a great mix of veteran leadership and exciting young players eager to establish themselves,” George said. “We are making strides each day. It’s been fun watching this team develop, and all of our coaches are excited to see these impressive young men put it together on the field and just play football the way this game is meant to be played.”
Santa Fe had a great year last season under head coach Ryan Bateman. The Chiefs went 9-4 overall and advanced to the Semi-Finals of the CIF Division 12 playoffs before losing to Yucca Valley.
On offense Devin Clark will be the primary running back. As a sophomore, he was a part of the 1-2 punch with Tariq Bush, an All-Leaguer, and now looks to carry the load this season. Andrew Lopez will make the switch from wide receiver to starting quarterback and is poised for a big year. He’s the leader of the offense and has continued to excel in his new role.
On defense Matt Hernandez is a two-year starter at cornerback. He was All-League and is the leader of the secondary. Michael Moreno will anchor the defense at defensive end. He’s another two-year starter, and All Leaguer, and brings a ton of physicality to the front 6.
“It’s been exciting to watch our transformation this summer. We’ve gotten better in a lot of areas and our locker room camaraderie is palpable. Where we lack in size, we’ll make up with speed, athleticism, and moxie. This is a special group of young men and they’re poised for a great year,” Bateman said
Second place is definitely in the sights for Santa Fe.
California went 2-8 last year and missed the playoffs. Longtime assistant coach Patrick Winchell has taken over as head coach and is anxious to get the Condors back on track.
Offensively Ricky Gonzales is back at quarterback. Gonzales is a senior and a team leader. He was voted captain by his teammates and has had a very good spring and summer. Gonzales is a three-year varsity letterman on the Cal Baseball team too. Senior Joshua Ibarra, another great athlete will be at running back. It’s actually his first year playing football but he is a three-year varsity letterman on the Cal Baseball team. He’s also the fastest player on the team and will be the number one back. Senior Damion Vargas will be paving the road on the offensive line He’s a two-year starter, and another team leader who was voted captain by his teammates. According to Winchell he has worked very hard since the end of last season and is in great shape.
On defense Adrian Guerrero, a senior will anchor the D-Line. He is a two-year starter who was voted captain by his teammates. He moves very good for a defensive tackle and could be very good in the box. Junior Nick Coronado had some varsity reps as a sophomore last year. He seems to have bought in to what Cal is trying to do as a program and defensively. Winchell feels that if he continues to grow as he has this spring and summer he will be pretty good. Frankie Gallardo, a junior, will lead the secondary at defensive back. He’s a two-year starter at DB and has had a good summer both offensively and defensively. Winchell stated that Gallardo has the potential to be one of the top defensive backs in the area if he continues to work.
“Our numbers are pretty good. We have 58 varsity players who have been working since April. It’s a good group of kids that have bought into what we are trying to build. Night lifts in Spring to morning lifts this summer. This group has put in the work and I am intrigued to see how they react under the lights,” Winchell said.
If the Condors can improve to .500 and sneak into third place in the Del Rio they may have a shot at the post season.
El Rancho, like Cal, went 2-8 overall least year. The Dons actually won their first two games over Don Lugo and Bell Gardens before falling on hard times. Bell Gardens won a CIF title last season. El Rancho has several starters coming back and it’s just a matter of everything coming together and the team staying healthy.
Here’s a quick look at some key players on offense and defense.
Offense: OL- Saul Barcenas 12 OL- Eric Cortes 12 QB- Ryan Dominguez 12 WR- Andrew Guerrero 12 WR- Giovanni Montenegro-12 RB/WR- Phoenix Navarro- 12 RB- Braylon Morrison- 10.
Defense: DL- Diego Diaz- 12 DL- Francisco Cordova- 12 LB- Julian Acero 12 LB- Javier Hernandez 12 SS- Adrian Orihuela 11 CB- Nathan Carlos 10 FS- Ray Madrid – 10.
The pieces are there. Nearly all of the players listed on offense are returners including Dominguez. Now El Rancho just needs to show up and show out on Friday nights.
“We’re looking to bounce back from a very disappointing season that was not up to ER standards. We have a lot of players who have Friday night playing time but we have to learn to finish. We’ve had a productive off season and a very competitive camp,” said head coach Adrian Medrano.
Whittier also went 2-8 in 2023. The Cardinals did manage to get a victory over El Rancho. Jimmy Walker has taken over as head coach replacing Todd Quinsey who was dismissed after just one season. Whitter seemingly had Jesse Ceniceros in its sights as the new head coach but hired Walker instead.
Whittier has 4 starters returning on offense and 4 on defense but both the quarterback and running back will be first year starters. The Cards have a couple winnable games in the non-league schedule. They will need a couple of ones there and in league to have a shot at a successful season.
Projected Order of Finish
- La Serna – The Lancers get better every year.
- Santa Fe – Coach Ryan Bateman has the Chiefs relevant again.
- El Rancho – A healthy Dons team will bounce back.
- California – HC Patrick Winchell bringing the energy.
- Whittier – Cards may need another year or two to break through.
Loading ...
Just thinking as an add on comment to ? it seems I read every season that LS has a few studs sitting out a wait out period only to be fresh and humgry to play the 4 league games and the play-offs. That wait out solution is a bunch of baloney.
Heard the same, LS brass are not happy with the move. You want to earn the moniker of big boy you will do so in the gateway.
If LS would have to compete for a playoff spot in the Gateway League they would quickly fall through the cracks and they know it. The way it is now they can heal for an entire 6 weeks to be ready for play off runs. In the Gateway they have to compete all year. That is why La Serna will be dragged kicking and crying to not be re-leagued
Pretty close assessment. Change is coming in 2025. Rumor has it that Montebello district schools are joining the Del Rio League schools minus La Serna.
False, El Rancho beat LS twice in baseball last season. They were undefeated in Football and Basketball though.
@ Sports Man,
You are only slightly correct. The Whittier School District consists of 5 schools so it does have a strong influence. But leaguing is not determined by a district, it is determined by a whole region. The Del Rio League is a part of the Foothill region which extends from La Serna to Lynwood and all the way to Hart. So you have about 70 schools all voting on leaguing. So those 5 schools in the Whittier District need to listen to their Superintendent and vote the same. El Rancho is kind of an outsider in the Del Rio League because they are the only school that is not in the Whittier District.
Unlike other areas of Southern California, their region has not had much movement over the last 20 years with the exception of the creation of the 605 league and the combination of the Suburban and San Gabriel leagues forming a conference. The Mt. SAC, Orange County, and Desert Regions all have much more movement. The Long Beach schools are similar to the Foothill Region in that they have stayed very stagnant. No reason for the LB Unified schools to be playing Poly every year.
People say La Serna should go to the Freeway League. That’s not possible because the Freeway League is in Orange County. Besides, even if they did, the Orange County region has completely revamped their way of doing things by using the calpreps algorithms to determine their leagues for football. Some regions are going to football only leagues, others keep all sports the same.
From all rumors I’m hearing, however, there seems to be a lot of chatter about movement in the Foothill region and the Del Rio in particular. La Serna is clearly dominate in not only football, but in most sports with the exception of a few. So, I am hearing that the Whittier District schools finally stood up and said they wanted change with some prompting from their league mate El Rancho. This was much to the chagrin of La Serna who would like to continue their dominance. The change would include the Del Rio League schools sans La Serna joining Montebello, Schurr, and Bell Gardens to create a league. This would now leave Alhambra, Keppel, and San Gabriel to join the El Monte schools to create a league. The big conference of the San Gabriel and Suburban Leagues would go back to being split up and La Serna would join Warren, Downey, La Mirada, and Mayfair to form a public school league that is comparable to the Baseline and Sunset Leagues. Not sure how accurate any of this is, but sources are pretty reliable.
Anonymous? The school district is the ones who keep LS in the local league, or does not choose to keep LS within the local schools league. if the school district chooses to keep LS in the same league, then La Serna administration, and their very good staff , have no power to move to a different league (although they may think a better league of play will be better for LS) . WUHSD makes this decison ( I am not claiming 100% that i am correct) , and all the commentary and bs, even though you are correct LS is just too good to be playing such lesser , easy , uncompetitive teams!
La Serna went undefeated in league for the big 3 sports (football, basketball, and baseball) last year. It’s great for them, but it shows that they need to swim in a bigger pool. Or at least not invade the small pool of their current league mates.
@Bottom Line,
And the reason open enrollment helped is because the have nots in Whittier want to send their kids to the school where the haves live. Add in good coaching, and from that point on, more and more kids wanted to come. It’s the perfect storm for La Serna. And it happens in the water sports and basketball too.
Bottom line,
You are absolutely correct. Not much else you can do about it.
This notion that La Serna performed a miracle by building great sports teams from scratch is rubbish. Open enrollment is what happened “from scratch.”
Anonymous
August 15, 2024 – 1:25 pm | Permalink
La Serna , I suggest not claim truth, deserves transfers and out of boundary players
Anonymous? Can you supply evidence (real reliable evidence) supporting your suggestion. I interpret your suggestion as you truly think it is pure truth. Hey , I do not know much on you claim, but I do know that it is possible that LS does “EARN” some out of location athletes playing football for them. I agree that LS staff is very, very solid and has been for many years. I do believe ‘if LS football does get a few transfers, or players that live out of their boundary, WELL THEY DESERVE IT.” They built a great program from scratch ; meaning LS was basically very average before they started (with new staff and remain super solid with George and his hard working staff) winning consistently. Do you think they get out of boundary players in other sports, such as in their very solid baseball program. I am not disagreeing fully with you, but I do think they deserve to draw players into their program. I 100% respect almost all of your comment.
There is no
More Freeway League in football
At LS: Too many lies to count. Does Trump write your posts for you?
Who the f cares, it’s 2024 everyone is 0-0, time to prove it on the field
I think that moniker belongs to Corona Centennial!
Tufaga been a friendly hills resident since 2001
La Serna needs to go to the freeway league.
La Serna the pride of the Del Rio league. And best public school program in SoCal. Doing it
with local home grown kids. Imagine if they would get transfers and and kids from other
schools how much more dominate they would be. They are coached up the right way, and
don’t have a need to look past their school boundaries to get talent.
Don’t buy injury excuse. They seem to use it every year. Put serious time in the weight room. Grapevine says ER has behavior and attendance issues and poor work ethic among players. Did Whittier and Cal have injuries too? Whittier a -40 rated team beat em last year. Wow!!! To many excuses. It’s football. Everyone has injuries. Good thing is nowhere to go but up I guess.
What about their D14 schedule last year ? Thats salesmanship
Notice Adrian Medrano has not made one excuse or even mentioned the insane amount of injuries his program had last season, all he could say is next man up we gotta figure it out. It’s difficult when you have a handful of freshmen in your varsity starting lineup on Friday nights and down to your 5th string Running Back and lost a handful of 2 way starters by week 5. I don’t foresee that happening in 2024. Expect the Del Rio to normalize in 2024 with LS finishing #1 with ER 2nd.
Nothing ER can do other than show results on the field. Good luck to everyone.
Okay lets get this party started. Time for the ER faithful to bust out and get the MVS rolling.
Bateman at Santa Fe is a total surprise, showing what a difference salesmanship can make in the process of getting participation and getting kids to play with passion. I believe that a lack of salesmanship explains why ER, Whittier and Cal all finished 2-8 in ’23. A lot of guys are good at designing offenses and defenses, but far fewer are masters of the human element.