SGV/Whittier Prep Sports Zone: Monday Morning Quarterback, Offseason Edition, Part 2

We go inside El Rancho's "Crack at Dawn Commitment" workout; check in with Ryan Bateman at Santa Fe; and much more.

El Rancho players going throw a recent workout. (Escarcega)

PICO RIVERA – Football coaches are a bunch of resilient people. Many fight the ongoing physical battles to remain on the sidelines on Friday night and coach student-athletes as best they can. It doesn't matter if the team they are associated with had a 13-1 record or a 5-5 record last season, when the calendar reaches May, it's time to wash away what happened the previous season and provide a clean slate.

For the veteran assistant coach Greg Stelich it means getting up at the crack of dawn and heading over to El Rancho High School for another session of "Crack At Dawn Commitment." These workouts are nothing new – they happen all over the country. It doesn't matter if it's pro, college, or high school, these workouts are a signal that football season is around the corner.

The purpose of these workouts is simple, to increase the conditioning levels of the athletes and to get them out of their comfort zone. There are different ways of doing it. Over at St. Paul, it's called "The Crucible."

On this morning, Stelich opens the front gate to allow two young football players to make their way into the gym and help with the setup of the agility station. The weather on this particular morning is a reminder of what Friday nights are going to be when you get to November and December – cloudy, gloomy with a nice chill in the air.

"This is still the greatest job in the world," Setlich says as he makes his way to the equipment bin that is near the football field. "This was how I first got involved in the game. It was this and coaching freshman football. Today we still have too many young coaches that want to get to the top too fast. You have to pay your dues. We've all done it."

Before he could continue, he had a problem on his hands, he forgot to combination to the lock that opens the bin. He calls head coach Adrian Medrano with this question, "I know that this is the 1,000,000th time I've asked, but what is the combo to the lock........... Ok, thanks!"

After getting the lock opened and handing over bags and other stuff to players standing nearby, Setlich recalls a time in which coaching football was a bit simpler and to his days as a successful football coach at Don Lugo.

"That was a lot of fun," Setlich said. "We had it going over there. Tremendous players, and great coaches, I enjoyed my time over there. But things change and I'm so happy to be here. Adrian does a great job with these kids, and I still get the enjoyment of coaching and putting together a game plan for Friday nights.

"I still remember breaking down film with the old 8-millimeter film," Setlich continues as he walks slowly from the bin to the gym. "After that, it was VHS tapes and you had to meet somewhere to make the exchange. That was another part of paying your dues when you were a young coach. The varsity coaches would be grading the tape, and young guys – like myself – would have to go to these parking lots to exchange the film. With today's technology, now you can send film at the click of a button.

Before he could continue, he is finally reunited with Medrano. Both of them crack a joke and they're off to the gym. For Medrano, the "Crack at Dawn Commitment," is a program tradition. In today's language, you find out who's "All-In" when it comes to the success of the program.

"I love these workouts," Medrano said. "You get to see the team develop right in front of your eyes. The players are that you want as leaders have to thrive in these types of conditions."

El Rancho coaches meet before a recent workout. (Escarcega)

There is a reminder for the football players that are arriving that they don't have to be in the gym. This is their choice. They can choose to be part of the spirit activities that are occurring at the same time in front of the school. Students were coloring the building blue and white for "Spirit Week" and were enjoying themselves. "I know that we're having a great time, but football is still important here," one of the students said.

"From a community point of view, football is still important here and is a strong fabric of Pico Rivera," Medrano said. "Look at the attendance for our football games. It's a full house here every Friday night. When it comes to Friday Night Lights, El Rancho football games remain the best bang for your buck in this city."

Medrano is not naive to know that there is a lot of work ahead for him this summer. He has a team that is light on varsity experience but heavy on potential. With a handful of kids returning that includes linebackers, Phoenix Navarro and Julian Acero, Medrano knows that getting back to the CIF Southern Section playoffs is not going to be easy.

"We know that there's a lot of work ahead of us, but these workouts give us an idea of what our team will look like from a conditioning point of view," Medrano said. "For us, it is time for us to get to work."

El Rancho football players during a recent workout. (Escarcega)

At 6:45, the team is called to order and lined up in front of Medrano. Right above them, is a banner colored in Blue and White that recognizes the 1966 National Championship team. It's a reminder that greatness is there to be reached if you are willing to do the work to get there.

A couple of kids arrive a minute late. The price of coming in late is simple, you have to bear crawl from one end of the gym to the other. These players put their stuff down and don't question it. However, they catch a compassionate Medrano, who says, "Stay here, you are good."

It's one of the few times that the players will see a compassionate side of Medrano. That wouldn’t be the case for several other players, who did bear crawls after arriving on campus at 7.

On a full day, more than 80 football players would be in the gym doing these workouts. However, with many of them playing other sports (baseball, track, etc), 40-45 players were in attendance on this particular this morning.

As the gym is being prepared for the agility stations that the players are about to do, Medrano has a simple message for his players, "Let's start off our week great," Medrano implores.

And with that, the players are grouped up and then told to go to different stations. One of those is the agility bags with Medrano. Another is core work with an assistant coach, another does quick gassers and another quick footwork drills.

It doesn't take long for players to work up a sweat and find a trash can to withdraw the previous night's dinner – all to the pleasure of Medrano. "I love it!!" Medrano barks out.

There's a saying from former USC strength and conditioning coach Chris Carlisle that "It's easy to want it on Saturdays in the fall at the Coliseum with a full house of fans cheering you on. But how bad do you want it in the winter when there is no one watching." On this morning, El Rancho players are finding this out the hard way.

At 7:18 a.m. fatigue is starting to kick in as players rotate from one station to another. Several of the players walk to the station, which catches the attention of Medrano. "MOVE TO YOUR NEXT STATION…. NO WALKING!!!" implores Medrano.

Some players came to the hard realization that they had brought the wrong shoes to the workout. "You need basketball shoes," one lineman says as he has trouble finding his footing while doing some movement drills. Bring the wrong shoes to a workout and it has the makings of a long morning.

Over at the agility bags, one of the "skill" players stumbles to the floor after hitting the bags with their feet. Medrano offers positive encouragement to finish the drill. "Come on now, get up, get up, FINISH!!"

At 7:22 a.m., it's time for another rotation and it becomes apparent that fatigue is kicking in hard. Linemen are seen breathing hard with their hands on their hips. For them, they are reminded by one of the assistant coaches that "technique is now very crucial." Over at the agility station, another coach implores "We need to focus right now."

Meanwhile, Medrano senses that his players are getting lazy and barks out, "QUIT BEING LAZY." It is at these moments where you find your "Alpha" players or the players that work through the fatigue.

At 7:32 a.m., it's time for a water break. At all colleges and Div. 1 high school football programs, there are water bottles all over the place for players to use. At El Rancho, that is not the case, each player is responsible for their own water if they don't want to use the water fountain in the gym. Most of the players come prepared with water or Gatorade.

Medrano finds Sabino Sanchez, a 6-foot, 250-pound returning lineman, looks at him straight in the eyes, and says, "We have to finish."

The final 15 minutes consist of gassers and various forms of conditioning. Players are asked to go from a bear crawl to a full sprint. Again, trash cans are located at various points of the gym with players using them consistently.

At 7:47 a.m. Medrano says the magic words, "LINE UP." The workout ends, and the administrative part of the workout begins. He reminds them about having a nice lunch and hydrating following the workout. There are the spirit pack reminders along with a nice nugget that they'll be involved in passing league competition with Pioneer later on in the week.

For Medrano and his El Rancho players, another "Crack at Down Commitment" workout is completed. Which means it's another step closer to the start of the football season. It's another step closer to stepping onto the football field in August and hearing the sweet dulcitones of the legendary Armando "Armie" Briones welcoming everyone to another season of El Rancho football.

In the meantime, much like teams throughout the area, the work continues.

El Rancho football team stretching out before a recent workout. (Escarcega)

BATEMAN LOVES THE PROGRESS AT SANTA FE

Ryan Bateman was one of the first coaches to take over an area football program when he was hired at Santa Fe High School during the winter.

As he prepares for his first spring football practice season, the Santa Fe alum is excited about his team and the progress that they have made.

"I feel great about the progress that we've made in such a small amount of time," Bateman said. "We've gone through a complete program overhaul and our athletes continue to rise to the occasion daily. The weight room intensity is awesome. Our practices are sharp, fast, and energetic. Team chemistry and camaraderie are palpable.

Among the players returning that Bateman is high on include Adrian Huguez (QB), Jacob Reyes (WR), Dom Pichardo (LB), and lineman Alexi Diaz. Throw in the key newcomers that include Elijah Aguirre (ATH), Alex Soria (DB), Samuel Zamora (LB), and Joseph Madden (ATH), you can understand why hopes are high in Santa Fe Springs.

"I'm well aware of our recent struggles, but the puddle of sweat and determined faces at the end of the workout tells a different story. We believe in us. And that's something that I'm not sure existed within our program in recent years."

Santa Fe opens the season on August 25th, with a home game against Burbank at Pioneer High School.

THINGS ARE GETTING INTERESTING IN ORANGE COUNTY

The MT. SAC area just completed the tedious task of releaguing for football and other sports recently and now it's Orange County's turn to do the same. As you can well imagine, things are getting interesting with massive changes around the corner.

According to excellent reporting from Steve Fryer of the Orange County Register, teams in Orange County could be realigned using the ratings from Calpreps.com. That's nothing new – those ratings were used by the Mt. SAC area to place teams into their appropriate.

However, unlike the Mt. SAC area which equally rated the two ratings from 2021 and 2022 and averaged them out to give them a power rating; in Orange County, they want to weigh the ratings with teams getting 65% of their rating from 2022 and 35% from 2021. We spoke with an administrator from the Sunset League that wished to remain anonymous that indicated that the spread could widen to 75%-25%.

After accumulating the power points from those two years, teams would then be placed into leagues based on the highest to the lowest. Conceivably, the top six teams (which could include public schools Los Alamitos and Mission Viejo) could be placed into the Trinity League with national powerhouse schools Mater Dei and St. John Bosco.

That would not be music ringing in the ears of Mission Viejo coach Chad Johnson, who was once the Offensive Coordinator at St. John Bosco. According to Johnson, it all comes down to resources.

"When I was at Bosco, we had an admissions department that helped us get out there to get kids and we had a much higher budget," Johnson said to Steve Fryer of The Register. "I know coaches who were at my school who went from being a varsity coach here to working at Santa Margarita as a freshman coach where they're making three times more than they made here.

"I want a budget that matches the teams we're going to be in a league with, an advancement department to run a gala, and a golf tournament to raise money as Mater Dei does. If we can do that, then put us in that league."

That is why Johnson has endorsed another proposal that would leave the Trinity League school membership alone (Bosco, Mater Dei, Orange Lutheran, Santa Margarita, JSerra, and Servite/Rosary) and to use the power points methodology to place the rest of the 69 football teams in Orange County.

The team that appears to be in the crosshairs is La Habra. According to numbers published by Fryer, La Habra has won 21 out of the 25 Freeway League football championships. 93 out of its 95 league games and last season went 5-0 in the league, with the average winning margin at around 29 points.

As OC Register reporter Michael Huntley pointed out in our last podcast, the Freeway League is the last league where schools from the same district comprise the league (Fullerton Union Unified). And it should be mentioned that teams such as Sonora and Troy are getting much better with the talent being dispersed nicely within the three schools.

In the new proposal, La Habra would be in a football-only league that would include San Clemente, Edison, and Yorba Linda. La Habra's other sports would remain in the Freeway League which includes Buena Park, Fullerton, Sonora, Sunny Hills, and Troy in its membership.

One thing you can be sure of is that athletic directors from the Mt. SAC area are watching very closely. As one member of the ad-hoc committee told me last week, "the 65%-35% methodology is something that we can embrace. But we would want to look at the numbers starting next year and see if there is a real difference from averaging the ratings equally."

Schools will be returning to the meeting table on May 15th at Christ Cathedral to discuss the proposals and make the final determination of what the leagues will look like in 2024. Get your popcorn ready.

SPEAKING OF THE FOOTBALL DIVISIONS

At the final CIF Southern Section Federation Council Meeting, members of the media were able to interview incoming section commissioner Mike West about several subjects, one of them being the new football division alignment system. In a nutshell, don't look for any change.

"I'm very pleased with the new system, the playoff divisions as they are," West said. "From a single year of data, it makes a lot of sense of we can pull it off and the Southern Section's been able to do that with the rating systems that are there and so on. For a school that has never had a history of being able to get into the playoffs, to not only be able to get into it, and actually make a run, it makes a lot of sense.

"You never know what kids you're going to have. If you go two years back, you might have had a some really great student at that point in time," West continued. "And it evolves and then your kind of stuck for another couple of years in that division. Whereas if you can actually compete against those and I know that I matchup well with, it makes a ton of sense. And that's why I think we really need to look at that as best we can for other sports."

It was that last sentence that caught the eye of everyone after the meeting with me tweeting out a prediction that the system was going to be used in other sports.

Lo and behold, two weeks later, CIF Southern Section Commissioner Rob Wigod wrote in his monthly message that it was time for other sports to use the same system as football is using to determine its playoff divisions.

To those that are clamoring for a return to the old system of geography-based divisions – much like those old flip phones that you used to back in the day – those days are over.

AND IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH

Change is happening in Northern California, and it has caught the attention of the powerhouse teams in Southern California.

The Central Coast Section has decided to join the North Coast Section in having an open division in the playoffs with the top two teams going to the state regional final or Open Division Final. According to reporting from the San Jose Mercury News Darren Sabedra, "The rationale for the move was for an additional CCS team (six in all) to advance beyond the section playoffs and that two of the six would come from the section's strongest division."

For those that are involved with the CIF Southern Section football playoffs, this move could have a lot of momentum if it is presented to the section's Federation Council. If that were to happen, the winner of the D-1 final would go to the state open division final and the loser would go to D-1A final and probably win it.

It would also mean that one team would be exempted from playing in the state playoffs, which would most likely be the section's Div. 14 champion.

Stay tuned!

STATE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE TO BE HELD AT NEUTRAL SITES

During last week's final state federation council meeting of the year, Executive Director Ron Nocetti announced that the state football playoffs that are not part of the original five divisions that are played at host sites will be moved to Community Colleges.

The decision was made after a bill was drawn up on February 14, 2023, by state senator Melissa Hurtado (D-CA16) in which the bill "would require the CIF Interscholastic Federation to hold all state football championship games at a neutral location, as defined, that is comparable to the location of all other championship games."

SB 486 State Senate Bill

This development came in the aftermath of the Division 5-A final in which coach Jerald Pierucci, the coach of Shafter High, called out the state office after losing to Orland, 20-7, in poor playing conditions. Never mind the fact that schools, such as El Monte, have won on similar conditions in the past.

Nocetti pointed out that those games being held at host sites was what the federation had decided when they expanded the divisions from 5 to 14 due to expenses and other considerations. However, Nocetti and his staff have decided to go to community colleges and will have a plan in place before the bill hits the Senate floor.

Look for the original five divisional games (which includes the Open Division final) to remain at Saddleback College in South Orange County.

Another bill that is on its way to the assembly floor that has the full endorsement of the CIF State office is AB 1653 which is sponsored by Assemblyperson Kate Sanchez (R-AD71). It would require "the written emergency action plan to also include the location and procedures to be followed in the event of a heat illness related to the athletic program's activities or events. The bill would also require (CIF), in consultation with the State Department of Education to, no later than July 1, 2024, develop guidelines, procedures, and safety standards for the prevention and management of extertional heat illness, as provided."

AB1653 Legislative Bill

As you can see, the overall health of student-athletes during the heat waves of July and August is being addressed in Sacramento. We'll be talking about these two bills and more when we have our end-of-the-year podcasts with Nocetti and Wigod in June.

FINALLY…

I've talked with everyone from the San Fernando Valley down to South Orange County and everyone is fired up for girls flag football – except for those in the San Gabriel Valley.

The stories coming out of the schools are amazing. One school had a sign-up meeting with the paperwork ready for 50 girls – and 95 came out. Another school had more than 100 girls sign up when they had their initial sign-up meeting.

I know that when the subject of girls flag football came up with area athletic directors, you would have thought we were talking about physics. The fact of the matter is that girls flag football is here to stay and has the complete support of the National Football League (NFL).

If you need any evidence, consider this story that came from Orange County. One of the school districts sent a letter to the Los Angeles Chargers asking for support for its girls flag football program. The Chargers responded by sending out boxes filled with flags, practice uniforms, football, stopwatches, whistles, and much more.

It's time for our area schools to step up to the plate and get the ball rolling when it comes to girls flag football. I have some ideas on how you can recruit girls to play.

1) Find girls wrestlers. They are tough and are athletes. You'd be surprised how many of them want to hit the field.

2) Find volleyball players. With many of them not playing because of the extraordinary talent in the area, it shouldn't be that hard to get a few to move from the hard courts to the football field.

3) Find basketball players. I'm sure from within that group you can find a quarterback.

As for the resources part of the job, it sounds like all you have to do is send a letter to either the Chargers or the Rams and they will send you a truckload of stuff.

As for when to play your games, you might want to take a page out of what a school in Orange County is doing and play your games on Monday Night. Call it "Monday Night Lights" if you will.

The time has arrived for area schools to start embracing girls flag football. Nothing would be more enjoyable for yours truly than to cover a sectional final that involves an area school.

Let's get to work!