By admin 
The off-season work is done – the weight training, the conditioning runs, the passing camps and the linemen camps.
Read more Why Wrexham Have Added Surprise Friendly After Competitive Season Starts
Now it’s a mad dash to kickoff for the 2026 high school football season.
Central Coast Section teams begin practice on Monday, Aug. 3. teams follow a week later.
The practices will get thousands of players across the Bay Area fine-tuned for the season’s opening weekend, Aug. 27-29.
From there, teams can play up to 10 regular-season games over 11 weeks before the section playoffs begin Nov. 13-14.
After three weeks of sectional competition, the winners move on to regional championships Dec. 4-5. Those survivors advance to state title games Dec. 11-12.
Starting Aug. 10, the Bay Area News Group will begin publishing league previews and all-BANG preseason player lists at all positions on its Mercury News and East Bay Times websites.
If you haven’t already, please sign up for a digital subscription and spread the word.
Your contributions keep us going.
To get you up to speed, here are 10 storylines as practices get underway:
DE LA SALLE: JONES-DREW’S TIME TO SHINE
Duece Jones-Drew was De La Salle’s third-leading rusher during an injury-plagued season last year, behind the fastest sprinter in the state, Jaden Jefferson, and Brady Smith.
Jefferson, who broke the CIF state record in the 100-meter dash in 2025, and Smith have graduated, clearing a lane for rising senior Jones-Drew to lead the Spartans’ vaunted ground attack.
He ran for 463 yards and seven touchdowns as a junior and 447 yards and five TDs as a sophomore.
The son of De La Salle legend Maurice Jones-Drew has shown flashes of greatness. In his first varsity game, two years ago, he ran for 102 yards and a touchdown in nine carries.
If he stays healthy, more games like that one could unfold this fall.
“He’s really good,” DLS coach Justin Alumbaugh said.
And just like his father did more than two decades ago, Jones-Drew will be headed for UCLA after high school.
He committed to his dad’s alma mater in June.
SF SCHOOL RETOOLS AFTER HISTORIC SEASON
Archbishop Riordan has a lot to live up to in 2026.
The Crusaders couldn’t have done much better last season, winning the West Catholic Athletic League and CCS Open Division championships and coming within a whisker of capturing the NorCal 1-AA title over Folsom.
If Riordan is to have similar success, the Crusaders will have to do it despite massive personnel departures, especially on offense.
Gone is reigning BANG player of the year Michael Mitchell, who will be in the quarterback mix this fall at Stanford, as well as his top four receivers and blind-side protector, hulking left tackle Tommy Tofi, who is now at Oregon.
Riordan does have a few key pieces to lean on.
Running back Adonyae Brown, now a senior, will be featured heavily, and defensive star DJ Sanchez will lead a unit that had far less pressure on it in 2025 but has the talent and potential to help carry the San Francisco school through the WCAL gauntlet.
But will it be good enough to keep Riordan on top?
PITTSBURG: IS THIS THE YEAR?
After decades of mostly uncompetitive losses to De La Salle, Pittsburg has tightened the gap significantly in recent seasons. Just look at the scores:
– 2025: 24-17 in NCS Open final.
– 2024: 10-7 in NCS Open final.
– 2022: 30-23 in NCS Open final.
Is this the year the Pirates finally get it done?
Since beating De La Salle 35-27 in an NCS title game in 1991, Pittsburg is 0-35 against the Spartans, with only four games decided by single digits.
Yes, three have occurred in their recent matchups.
Pittsburg will likely get another shot at DLS in the playoffs, given that the Pirates’ roster is again loaded with talent, a list of players that includes quarterback Javale Jones, wide receiver Kenneth Ward, tight end/edge rusher Terrance Murphy and running back/outside linebacker Isaiah Harrison.
De La Salle, meanwhile, is 283-0-1 against NCS opponents since the 1991 loss to Pittsburg and has captured 33 consecutive section titles.
SERRA: WHO PLAYS QB?
The Bay Area high school football community was blindsided when news emerged that Serra’s starting quarterback at the end of last season, William Orr, had withdrawn from the San Mateo school.
Serra will now have to replace the talented sophomore, who has transferred to Clayton Valley Charter.
Rising senior Caleb Bandel, who began last season as the Padres’ starter, is the likely leader in the competition. Joining him are senior Coby Trinidad, junior Jax Cannon, who was last season’s JV starter, and junior transfer Bronson Lindgren, the son of new Stanford QB coach Brian Lindgren.
Star safety Malakai Taufoou also saw extensive time under center as the Padres’ double-wing quarterback and should factor in again. That unique package was successful enough to lead Serra to the CCS Division I championship last season.
The ultimate choice – which could change over time, as it did last year – might depend on which way the Padres want to attack opponents under new offensive coordinator Mike Hill, who takes over from Darius Bell, now the head coach at Sacred Heart Cathedral.
CLAYTON VALLEY: FAMILIAR NAME TAKES OVER
Nathan Kenion is no stranger to high-level East Bay football, particularly in Concord. He played at De La Salle from 1998-2001 – peak seasons during the storied program’s national-record 151-game winning streak – and later coached at his alma mater for 15 years.
He also founded KT Prep, a 7-on-7 program that has been home to a number of college-bound players. Most recently, he coached at Diablo Valley College.
Now, Kenion has his own high school program to run.
He is entering his first season as head coach at Clayton Valley Charter, which if not for De La Salle would be the top dog in Concord.
Read more Tyson trims annual profit forecast as tight cattle supplies squeeze beef business
The Ugly Eagles lost no more than two games in six of eight seasons between 2012 and 2019 and went undefeated in league play for six years in a row under Tim Murphy, after whom the school’s field is now named. They also won a state title.
But since 2022, Clayton Valley is 26-22.
Will the Uglies stay around .500 under Kenion or elevate to a level that once seemed automatic?
VALLEY CHRISTIAN: REPLACING A LEGEND
Mike Machado enjoyed a storied tenure at Valley Christian.
The coach stepped down last winter after 29 years at the San Jose private school, a run that included seven CCS championships, including three in the section’s top division.
Tapped to replace him is Valley alum Dante Perez, who played quarterback for Machado from 2002-05 and led the Warriors to the first two CCS Open Division championships during the 2004 and 2005 seasons.
Perez came from The King’s Academy, which made the Division II playoffs last season.
He has big shoes to fill, but his ability to get the most out of a non-traditional football power could portend good things on the hilltop.
MCCLYMONDS: ALL IN FAMILY
McClymonds has towered over Oakland Athletic League football for more than a decade and a half, its only league loss since 2010 coming by forfeit two years ago.
Most of the wins have happened under Michael Peters, who took over the program in 2013 and led it to four state championships.
Peters had hinted about retiring for years. Now, it has happened.
But the head coaching job remains in the family as Peters’ son, Marcus, who spent eight seasons as a fiery NFL cornerback from 2015-23, has taken over.
Father and son share the same surname but not the same personalities.
As the Bay Area News Group reported last season, Marcus was a ball of energy on the McClymonds sideline as an assistant, yelling and gesturing while his father stayed calm and mostly quiet.
Given that Marcus never hid his emotion and swagger as a player, it’s hard to imagine that changing as he becomes the man in charge of Oakland’s top program.
BELLARMINE: WILLIAMS ERA BEGINS
Tom Williams has a tall task ahead of him at Bellarmine.
The Bells have fallen far from the days about a decade ago when they stood atop the CCS. Last year, the all-boys school went 2-8, with its only wins coming against Sobrato 6-0 and Los Altos 61-6.
The year before, they went 0-10.
So coach David Diaz-Infante was let go, and the storied San Jose private school brought in former Stanford assistant and linebacker Williams, who was also the head coach at Yale among several other stops in his career.
Williams, 56, certainly has his work cut out. The Bells’ roster is not currently equipped to compete in the modern era of the WCAL, and it will likely take years to rebuild it.
Progress in Year One is the goal, with an eye toward being competitive in Year Two. But make no mistake – Bellarmine has a long way to climb to get back to the mountaintop.
SRV: RECHARGED FOR ANOTHER RUN
When San Ramon Valley is really good, it can compete with the likes of De La Salle and Pittsburg.
Last season was more of a rebuild for the Wolves, who ended with a 42-0 loss to De La Salle in the first round of the section playoffs that came three weeks after a 56-7 loss to DLS in league play.
The growing pains last season could pay off this fall as longtime coach Aaron Becker will have experienced players on both sides of the ball.
SRV’s 6-5 finish in 2025 was its fewest win total in a full season since it finished 6-5 in 2016.
The Wolves followed with back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2017 and 2018 and then really took off in the 2020s, winning 12 games in 2022, 10 in 2023 and 11 in 2024.
Along the way, they took De La Salle to overtime in 2023 and lost to Pittsburg 35-28 in a section final in 2024.
Maybe that’ll be the case again this fall.
WILCOX: NEW LEADER IN CHARGE
For the past three seasons, Wilcox leaned on longtime coach Paul Rosa and quarterback Kai Imahara to reach the upper echelon of South Bay public schools.
Now they’re both gone.
Rosa stepped down to have more time to watch his son Brayden play at UC Davis, and Imahara transferred to Archbishop Mitty for his senior season.
Wilcox won the CCS Division II championship and the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division title in 2024 and was frequently the runner-up in the years it didn’t break through.
Rosa groomed new coach Conor Dunn, a Wilcox alum, for the position last year. Dunn says he plans to keep running the Chargers’ trademark veer offense and has a star playmaker to lean on: senior running back/safety Elijah Vallejo.
But the coach will have big shoes to fill to match Rosa’s tenure, one of the best recent runs at a South Bay public school not named Los Gatos.
Read more US farm agency staff warn trade, research, aid programs at risk from reorganization
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published August 2, 2026 at 5:42 AM.