You have got to hand it to Analy. After having the best season in school history, they are not tip toeing into 2013.
Instead when they host Pittsburg on Friday Night to open the 2013 season, they are meeting one of the best programs in Northern California.
To know the program you really have to be paying attention, because they are easy to miss.
Since 2003 Pittsburg has finished over .500 in every season except 2010, when they went 5-6. Even in that season they won the Bay Valley championship, a league they have won six times in the last decade.
The record overall the last ten years is 83-38-1 and in Bay Valley play during that time they are 49-7.
In comparison Rancho Cotate is 77-37-2 and 53-16-1.
Rancho Cotate and Pittsburg has something in common besides the successful programs. They both also have large shadows to overcome.
Rancho Cotate’s is Cardinal Newman, which they have been able to overcome two of the last three seasons.
Pittsburg’s shadow seems impossible to overcome. They are a Division 1 team in the East Bay and the East Bay Division 1 world is all about De LaSalle. During this past decade they are 0-10 vs. De LaSalle, including three losses in the NCS Division 1 championship game. The closest score of the ten games was 35-14.
We could have gone back farther than that. The last team in that Division to win an NCS Championship besides De LaSalle was Pittsburg. That was in 1991.
Yes De LaSalle has won twenty one straight NCS Championships.
There are two reasons that 2003 was the year to go back to.
No. 1: De La Salle left the Bay Valley league and gave other teams a chance to win it which Pittsburg has taken advantage of.
No. 2: 2003 and 2004 was the depth of frustration for the De LaSalle monster for Pittsburg to overcome. In 2003 and 2004 Pittsburg went a combined 20-4-1. All four losses were to De La Salle. In those four games they were outscored 131-20.
In the pre-season San Francisco Chroncile rankings Pittsburg is at No. 16. The highest Sonoma County team is Cardinal Newman at No. 14.
You can probably guess who No. 1 is.
My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net