A look at Friday night's Week Zero high school football games.Channel Islands at Santa Barbara: The Dons are going with a youth movement as coach Jaime Melgoza is expected to start as many as 10 sophomores. One of those varsity rookies is quarterback Shawn Ramos. ... Channel Islands also has an inexperienced QB in Malcolm Allen. But the Raiders do have some solid players in running back Ty Camarillo and tight end Jeremiah Valoaga. The verdict: The Dons are too green. Channel Islands 14-7.Cabrillo … [Read more...]
PREP FOOTBALL PREVIEW VIDEO SERIES: San Marcos Royals

This year’s San Marcos squad is a lot different than the one that won the city title behind an experienced line and up-the-gut attack.“I’d say the opposite. We have a lot of speed… I’d say our speed guys are our strongest point,” said running back Jon Kim, one of the few seniors who saw significant playing time for the Royals last year.San Marcos let out a big sigh of relief when coach Jeff Hesselmeyer returned for his second season. The longtime local football guru was in danger … [Read more...]
Bishop Diego ranked No. 10 in CIF Eastern Division
Bishop Diego received the No. 10 ranking in a CIF-SS preseason football poll.The Cardinals, who return several starting players, are 10th in the Eastern Division poll. The leagues represented in this division are Frontier, Academy, Mountain Valley, Alpha, Ambassador and De Anza.St. Margaret’s of the Academy League is the No. 1 team in the division.In other divisions that include local teams, Santa Ynez is ranked third in the Northwest Division and Carpinteria is listed among othersIn … [Read more...]
PREP FOOTBALL PREVIEW VIDEO SERIES: Bishop Diego

Their dues have been paid.The young Bishop Diego football players who have taken some lumps the past couple of years are ready to deliver some of their own.The expectations are higher this year at Bishop, because the Cardinals have more experienced players than they’ve had since the CIF finalist team of 2007.“We’re pretty excited,” Bishop coach Tom Crawford said. “We feel the past couple of years we didn’t perform very well. We were very inexperienced.“Last year, … [Read more...]
FOOTBALL PREVIEW VIDEO SERIES: Dos Pueblos Chargers

St. Bonaventure is gone, leaving the Channel League football race up for grabs. Dos Pueblos may have won just three games last year, but make no mistake — the Chargers are contenders this year.Senior quarterback Michael Spiritosanto has never played under center, but was a standout running back before breaking his thumb last season. He still played defense, not missing a game with the injury. As a two-year starter at third base on the baseball team, he's got an arm to throw should he need to … [Read more...]
Summer Status Update: Carpinteria Football
The Friday night lights were switched off in early November last year.For the first time in memory, not one South Coast school that plays 11-man football — Santa Barbara, San Marcos, Dos Pueblos, Carpinteria and Bishop Diego — made the postseason.Why did this happen and what are the coaches of these programs doing to turn things around? Presidiosports.com contacted each coach to find some answers.Carpinteria High finished the 2009 football season on a high note by winning its last … [Read more...]
Summer Status Update: Dos Pueblos Football
Local high school football teams just completed their spring-early summer workouts and will now, under CIF rules, take a 21-day dead period before they reconvene to begin training for the regular season.For the first time in decades, all five Santa Barbara area schools that play 11-man football are coming off a season when not one of them made the CIF-SS playoffs.Presidiosports.com asked the local football coaches what they’re doing to turn things around.Here is our Q&A with Dos … [Read more...]
Summer Status Update: Bishop Diego Football
The Friday night lights were switched off by the second week of November last year. For the first time in memory, not one South Coast school that plays 11-man football — Santa Barbara, San Marcos, Dos Pueblos, Carpinteria and Bishop Diego — made the postseason. Why did this happen and what are the coaches of these programs doing to turn things around? Presidiosports.com contacted each coach to find some answers. Tom Crawford guided Bishop Diego to the CIF final in 2007. That team was loaded … [Read more...]
Summer Status Update: San Marcos Football

Jeff Hesselmeyer knows all about the cycles high school football teams go through. He’s experienced the highs and lows for more than 35 years as a coach in the Santa Barbara area.Hesselmeyer enters his second year as the head coach at San Marcos. As far as the three local Channel League teams missing the CIF playoffs last season, he surmised that the area was in the downward part of the cycle.“For our league, the Ventura schools had some really exceptional players last year. Of course, … [Read more...]


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