Just when the 2021 high school football season for perennial national power
De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) turned positive, so did a pair of COVID-19 tests. Now, the Spartans head into their East Bay Athletic League opener Friday against undefeated
California (San Ramon) short-handed, including the absence of their fully vaccinated head coach Justin Alumbaugh.
Friday's 7 p.m. home game comes a week after the Spartans responded to a resounding loss on national television to Baltimore power and nationally ranked St. Frances Academy with an equally resounding 31-10 win at then Northern California's win Folsom.
"We'll be fine," Alumbaugh said Wednesday night from his quarantined office at home. He's been vaccinated since February. "We have a 70-man roster, we'll be missing some guys, but this isn't a case of some sort of De La Salle 'B' team showing up. There will be no excuses."
A few days after the win over Folsom, one player from De La Salle tested positive to COVID-19. Others will have to sit out due to county coronavirus protocols, he said. Alumbaugh said he's asymptomatic and cannot reveal who or how many players will be out.
De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh was actually much more upbeat than this picture reveals following last week's 31-10 win over Folsom.
Photo by Dennis Lee
"We've followed every California and health guideline and protocol there is," Alumbaugh said, noting that every player on Folsom has been cleared and all California High staff and officials have been informed. "Everything has be done by the book. We are very careful. This is not easy."
Because Alumbaugh has two small children and a wife, he decided to test as well on Monday and his result came back positive. "Funny thing I was planning to get the booster shot this week," he said. "It sucks. It really sucks mostly because I've had to look at my kids through a window all week. They don't understand."
Alumbaugh said he's used technology all week to coach from afar. Every practice is streamed and recorded. He'll actually be able to coach Friday as well with a head set, again watching on a stream. And there's a bonus.
Former longtime defensive coordinator Terry Eidson has volunteered to come out of retirement and will be coach on the sideline Friday. Current defensive coordinator Nate Kenion will fill in as head coach.
"Maybe there's a silver lining," Alumbaugh said.
It's been a trying, up-and-down year for the Spartans, who opened the season ranked No. 17 nationally.
After a pair of impressive opening wins, De La Salle's remarkable 318-game unbeaten streak against Northern California opponents North of the Fresno region was snapped at Saint Francis (Mountain View) 31-28 on Sept. 10. Though Saint Francis earned it, the Spartans turned the ball over three times, once inside the Lancers' 5-yard line in the fourth quarter.
The next week, the Spartans found themselves down 14-0 to San Diego and state power Cathedral Catholic, only to rebound by scoring seven of the game's next eight touchdowns in a 49-21 home win. The following week, also at home, ultra talented St. Frances Academy had its way with the Spartans, leading 42-14 early in the third quarter.
Again, they rebounded with two touchdowns down the stretch to lose 42-28, before last week's wire-to-wire win at then unbeaten Folsom, propelled by an 88-yard opening kickoff return for touchdown by four-star athlete
Zeke Berry. The victory wasn't perfect, but it was physical and spirited, just like Alumbaugh likes them.
"I'm proud of the kids and the coaches," he said after the Folsom win. "It wasn't pretty but it was a Spartan effort. Physical. Played hard. Gratifying. The defense played great."
Playing and coaching short-handed, they'll have to play with even more spirit against a sound, disciplined California team "that plays hard and is well coached," Alumbaugh said. "That makes them very dangerous."
De La Salle has yet another streak to uphold, a 253-game unbeaten streak against North Coast Section teams that is also 30 years. The last time the Spartans lost to a NCS squad was 35-27 in the 1991 3A title game to Pittsburg at the Oakland Coliseum. The only blemish since then was a 17-17 tie with Clayton Valley (Concord) in 2004.
Besides being well coached and hard-working, California features the potent passing combination of quarterback
Teddy Booras (1,202 yards passing, 17 touchdowns) and senior receiver
Jake Calcagno (50 catches, 766 yards, 12 TDs).
