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In the end, the flag football game between Amador Valley and San Ramon Valley came down to the last play of the game, something a meeting of the top two teams in the area warrants.
This time it was Amador that did the job, scoring on the final play of the game to get the 13-12 win last week.
It was everything a matchup of this magnitude deserved. Flag football is rapidly growing, not just at the high school level but in college and even internationally.
College scholarships for flag football are increasing every year and it is certainly a more cost-efficient sport than football.
With the next Olympic Games featuring flag football, the exposure of the sport will only grow. There are even rumblings that football as we know it – at least locally in the high school ranks – could go the route of flag football.
In many ways it makes sense. There are programs in the Bay Area that are seeing a decline in numbers, thus hampering their programs. Dougherty Valley had to cancel its program last year because of the inability to compete. Mt. Diablo did the same this year. Player safety is paramount, and filling out rosters with 14-year-old kids to take on 18-year-old young men is not the wisest move in most cases.
Dougherty Valley has come back this year with a team and playing smaller schools while not playing East Bay Athletic League teams, have jumped out to a 4-1 mark this season. The Wildcats are playing a schedule of schools that 10 years would not have been imagined.
It’s great to see Dougherty Valley playing again, but the writing is on the wall.
In many areas, the numbers are down and they are not coming back. The demographics have shifted towards a group where football is not the sport of choice.
You see it at the schools, and you see it in youth leagues. I used to coach in the Pleasanton Junior Football League. There were four teams in every division, and we had at least 22 players on every team.
All the games were played against other teams from Pleasanton.
There is no PJFL any longer and now there is one team at every age group, and they play teams from other cities. The lack of numbers carries on to the high schools and in turn, the decline in the programs.
Some areas are still thriving. Take Danville for example. San Ramon Valley has numbers for its freshman program that rivals the total numbers for all the teams in the Pleasanton schools.
There was a time when it was unthinkable to have freshmen or even sophomores on the varsity team. Now they are fixtures not just on the roster, but as key players.
There are some who refuse to believe that this is the direction we are headed, while others acknowledge the direction.
Look, there is no more fanatical football fan than myself. I watch college football from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every Saturday, and on Sunday it’s all about the NFL. I compete in several fantasy football leagues and other football contests such as DraftKings.
Each week I watch high school games from across the country on a streaming service. Plain and simple – I love football.
But I also am willing to embrace whatever the future holds rather than lodge my head in the sand.
I have said for a couple of years that one of two things is going to happen. One, there is going to be one team per city, such as Amador and Foothill fielding one football team. I can see leagues collapse and new leagues forming that cover much more geography than leagues currently do.
Or two, flag football will enter the equation, and each school will field a flag team.
I have spoken with local coaches and mostly they concede what is happening. Mostly they do so reluctantly, but they at least agree with the direction we are headed.
This is not something that is hitting the entire country, as there are geographic areas of the United States where it is impossible to imagine no football.
This is what we face in Northern California. It’s not good or bad, but rather the reality we are living.
Game of the Week
Livermore at Monte Vista football – Friday, Oct. 2, 7 p.m.
This used to be an EBAL game, but now it’s non-league with the Mustangs in the Mountain Division and the Cowboys in the Valley Division.
Livermore is the defending champion in the Valley and thus far seems like the team to beat this year, starting out with a 3-1 mark.
The Cowboys opened with a 27-24 loss at Ripon but came back with wins over Amador Valley (13-0), Burton (61-0) and Hayward (23-20).
Monte Vista has stormed out to a 5-0 mark, clicking on both sides of the ball. The Mustangs opened the season with a 27-10 win over Marin Catholic and that has turned out to be the low-water mark in their point totals thus far.
In their last game, the Mustangs beat Dublin 37-14 and in their last four games are averaging 37.75 points per game.
A convincing win by Monte Vista legitimizes the strength of the Mountain Division, while a Livermore win would be putting the Cowboys to elite team status.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation. To sign up for free, visit here.
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