Posted: Sep 02, 2021

Community College Football Strong in Sacramento

Original article written by Joe Davidson with The Sacramento Bee:

https://www.sacbee.com/sports/article253927633.html

Sometimes it takes an old relic to appreciate one.

There are two such treasures located on the campus of Sacramento City College: Hughes Stadium and Dave Whittington.

Hughes towers as a beacon of civic pride. The venerable venue opened in 1928 and has aged nicely with its cinder block look and sparkling field, and it has housed everything from midget-car races, Pink Floyd concerts, world championship track meets, boxing matches to Triple-A baseball. It is best-suited for football.

Whittington is in his 30th year as the nuts and bolts of the school’s athletic department. As head athletic trainer, he has handed out shoulder pads and chin straps to hundreds of players, or about as many times he has lent an ear as a soothing old soul to a young man trying to navigate his way. Whittington has a pretty good gauge on why the community college route — or JC ball, as most call it — works for those of all walks of life.

“I love this level of competition, and I love this place, my second home,” Whittington said within the bowels of Hughes, hauling a helmet and pads, of course. “There are ghosts in these walls, all the people, all the games, the events that have happened here.”

Whittington paused and added, “A JC helps kids. I’ve seen it so many times. I’ve seen kids come through here who started with nothing, with no idea what they want to do, and then they leave here as men. They come back and say their best years were the days spent at a JC.”

The JC fun kicks off Saturday with state-ranked No. 7 American River visiting Hughes Stadium to take on the rival Panthers at 1 p.m. No. 15 Sierra College plays at No. 5 City College of San Francisco. JC ball in this state is the best in the country. It is worth a peek. You can’t beat the views from within Hughes Stadium, or the game entertainment value, or Sierra’s cozy venue in Rocklin, or ARC’s classic old stadium that includes something largely forgotten: a real-grass field.

A HAVEN FOR THE OVERLOOKED, STILL MATURING

JC’s are a haven for the overlooked, the still-maturing, or even the four-year college bounce-back player. ARC has three of those on the offensive line alone in Dean Abdullah from Big Sky Conference member Eastern Washington, Andrew Cokley from Cal Poly and Zac Welch from Nevada, all locals ready for a college football reboot.

The bounce-backs add to the other theme of the campaign. The local rosters have never been this talent-laden, this experienced. The pandemic that wiped out the 2020 fall season and did not allow for a spring 2021 season led JC administrators to back up what four-year programs did: no player lost a year of playing eligibility.

So, some JC programs have 23-year-old tackles taking on 18-year old freshmen in practice.

“We’ve got guys in our program who are in their fourth fall with us, and it makes for tremendous depth,” ARC coach Jon Osterhout said. “From top to bottom and in between, it’s one of the most-talented rosters we’ve had in my 12 years here. Some of our incoming freshmen have gone up against guys who are men, and they’re immediately baptized. They find out what elite football is all about at this level.”

EACH JC HAS BEEN ELITE

Each local program has tasted a measure of JC elite play, or even defined it. Sac City was a national power in the 1980s and into the early 1990s under coaches Jerry Sullivan, Jeff Tisdel and Dave Griffin, with more bowl games than even Whittington can recall. Sierra College set records and made national news with a 37-game winning streak under Tisdel, ending in 2005. ARC fielded 10-0 teams in the 1960s and in the 2000s, under coach Don Dillon. The Beavers have been high in national rankings of recent seasons under Osterhout, the one-time Sacramento State All-America lineman who reminds without boast that, “I coached at the Division I college football level for 11 years, so I have an idea of what talent looks like, and the JC level has a ton of it.”

Sac City is coached by Dannie Walker, a JC product from Hartnell JC who had a scholarship at Sac State, where he knew coaching was in his future. Ben Noonan heads the Sierra program, and, he, too, is a JC guy, a product of Santa Rosa JC. Walker and Noonan are examples of what the JC route can do for a man willing to put the time in.

“I lived it, I know it,” Walker said. “At this level, we have guys who are hungry, eager, and they’re learning about life, how to be better players, how to be better students, how to be better young men. It’s a great level of play. And kids need it. They want to be coached, to be held accountable, to have structure.”

Now the fun and hard part: Making it all come together.

TALENT GALORE AND GUYS WHO DON’T MISS MEALS

ARC will use two quarterbacks — Grant Patterson and Robert Jones — and run with Chris Bush. There is ferocity in the trenches, including Kelvin Jackson at 6-foot-3 and 295 pounds. He never misses a meal. Sac City will start Jacob Stewart at quarterback and he’ll work behind Isaiah Carter, a 6-4, 340-pound shadow-casting tackle. The Panthers have a host of fast stoppers on defense under coordinator and one-time Panther John Herlily, including Isaiah Bobbitt-Byars, who expected to be a scholarship player coming out of Cosumnes Oaks High School and still expects to get that ride.

Sierra is led by returning 2019 quarterback Qyntyn Pilcher of Alaska, who reached out to coach Noonan in the summer of 2017 in hopes of a fresh start, and receiver Matt Smart. The defense is headed by linebacker Roy Johnson, defensive tackle Tyree Jenkins and safety Tyson Ybarra.

“I feel confident that every head JC coach in California feels like their roster is loaded, but the programs that remained engaged with their student-athletes over the last 620-plus days since we played an actual game will have the most success on the field,” Noonan said. “I tell former and current players that I love them, and they say it back, and there’s nothing pretend or fake about that. Life is about relationships, and JC sports matter in developing those valuable connections.”