Two of the top players in the East Bay are QB Ben Wooldridge from Foothill of Pleasanton and WR Baylei Coston from Freedom of Oakley. Coston is a top returnee from team that went 11-0 last season before losing to De La Salle and St. Mary’s of Stockton. Photos: Emma McLaughlin/Prep2Prep.com & Berry Evans III/SportStars.
Our final stop for Northern California on our annual tour of the state’s top preseason players and teams based on a selection of key players is the East Bay portion of the CIF North Coast Section. This is the place where De La Salle of Concord has ruled since 1992. That should be the case again in 2017, but Pittsburg and San Ramon Valley have some talented players as well.
Note: These preseason all-section teams will be done in the same 30-player format as the annual Cal-Hi Sports All-State Football Teams. They are based on a combination of what the players did last season and college recruiting. Not every all-section team will have writeups of every player. Some will have an intro, then lists.
Related Teams (Gold Club): CIF Sac-Joaquin Section | Inland Empire (CIFSS) | CIF Central Section | Orange County (CIFSS) | CIF San Diego Section | CIF Northern Section| Long Beach/South Bay (CIFSS) | CIF Central Coast Section | Ventura/Santa Barbara/SLO (CIFSS) | CIF L.A. City Section | San Gabriel Valley (CIFSS) | CIF North Coast Section (Redwood Empire)
Coming Next: San Fernando Valley (CIFSS)
We hope you consider a Gold Club membership on CalHiSports.com to view all the preseason all section teams. The preseason All-State Team, which was done for the 32nd consecutive year, is a free story, but state record updates and more of the football content will be for our Gold Club members only. You can sign up today for just $9.99 for three months, which by the way will carry you through most of the upcoming season. For details, CLICK HERE.
The East Bay portion of the CIF North Coast Section has been dominated since 1992 by De La Salle so it’s no surprise the Spartans dominate the All-NCS East Bay preseason selections.
There are some questions about this year’s team but the bottom line is that head coach Justin Alumbaugh returns three All-East Bay Athletic League First Team, one Second Team, and six Honorable Mention selections that conceivably could have been second or first team selections if the EBAL didn’t have to spread things around. Nine of the 10 have found a place somewhere on this list and a few others could have made it but nine players is a lofty number.
