This is the first in a series of posts comparing two local rivals who both may be toward the top of the preseason state football rankings. We’ll write up what we think these teams will be like heading into the season, then we hope to see what their fans have to say through comments, reaction.
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What The Teams Accomplished Last Season: Chaminade (14-2) won the CIF Division II state bowl game and CIF Southern Section Western Division title. The Eagles were No. 3 in the final overall state rankings. Alemany (10-3) lost in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division semifinals to eventual CIF Open Division state bowl game champion St. John Bosco of Bellflower. The Warriors also were co-champions of the Serra League, the seventh straight year they’ve been either the co-champ or champ of their league.
Chaminade’s Brandyn Lee tries to break away during last December’s CIF D2 state bowl game. Photo: Scott Kurtz.
Shapshot of Alemany: The Warriors have been the top team in the Mission League over the last several years and it will be interesting to see if they can continue with Chaminade and Serra joining. Coach Dean Herrington also needs to replace a graduated quarterback (Alif Grayes), but in general he’s got more returning talent than the Eagles, including wideout Desean Holmes (committed to USC). Looking over the schedule, it looks like there’s a good chance Alemany will be unbeaten entering an Oct. 3 matchup against Chaminade.
Top Players for Chaminade: OL Bar Milo (top 100 state recruit); WR Dymond Lee (led team with 44 catches but possibility he could switch to athletic QB); WR Brandyn Lee (Wisconsin commit).
More Top Players for Alemany: RB/DB Dominic Davis (10.47 in 100 meters); LB/DE Tyree Thompson (all-league); WR Brandon Pierce (all-league); OL Sione Taufahema (all-league, 6-2, 325).
Recent History Between These Two: Since the San Fernando Valley schools located 16 miles from each other have been in different leagues, the last meeting came in 2011 when Alemany won 38-14 behind junior receiver Steven Mitchell. He caught nine passes for 151 yards and two TDs.
Hunch As To Where Each Team Should Be Ranked In The Preseason: Chaminade at best around 18 to 20. Alemany close to Top 10 but probably around 12 to 15. If anyone out there thinks either team is too high, too low or shouldn’t be even in the preseason Top 50, please respond to this post.
Next Preseason Duel: St. Mary’s (Stockton) vs. Lincoln (Stockton).
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
3 Comments
Not much research put into this article. Tell me something I dont know and if you are going to say one team has more talent than another and then list only one single player on that team it would seem Calhisports is just taking a shot in the darknoidea
Do some research, line the talent up position by position and see what you get. Thats how I would do it.
There is more than one player mentioned from each team. It was about two hours of work looking up players and info. Plus, these were teams that were seen last year. Your approach is fine, but that’s about a full day or more of work for what is intended to be a 600 to 800 word post. If this doesn’t work and the only comments and reactions are negative (which is what we always get from you anyway no matter what we do), we will try a different approach.
I for one appreciate the content I get from this site. Keep up the good work!