BY HAROLD ABEND
In an effort to make the Redwood Empire Conference of the CIF North Coast Section more compatible with the competitive equity model of play that the state CIF and most of the other 10 CIF Sections have moved to for many sports, the Conference has re-aligned itself with that in mind for the upcoming football season.
The result is the Redwood Empire Conference, consisting of the North Bay League, Marin County Athletic League and the Vine Valley Athletic League has been re-aligned into four different leagues, RE FB 1 or the “A” league, RE FB 2 or the “B” league, RE FB 3 or the “C” league, and the RE FB 4 or the “D” league.
The RE FB “A” league may not have the same level of play as the East Bay Athletic League of the Valley Conference, but looking at the composition of the league that will be known as the Adobe League, the six teams placed in the new league will now rival the Bay Valley Athletic League of the Valley Conference and the Diablo Athletic League of the Valley Conference for consideration as the second toughest league in the entire CIF North Coast Section.
The six members of the Adobe League, Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa, Marin Catholic-Kentfield, Rancho Cotate-Rohnert Park, San Marin-Novato, Vintage-Napa and Windsor, have won at least one CIFNCS football championship every year since 2015, except in 2020 when there were no title games due to the pandemic, and in 2018 when the title was vacated.
The Adobe League has had its share of state CIF Bowl Game championships as well with five combined for three teams since 2019.
The Adobe could be up for grabs, but most analysts and rankings websites have Marin Catholic and Cardinal Newman ranked 1-2 to start the season with a couple of others having it reversed.
Cardinal Newman
2023 Record: 11-2
Second place North Bay League – Oak Division
CIF North Coast Section Division 3 runner-up
First game: Casa Grande on August 30 in Petaluma
Cardinal Newman has won one of the five state championships produced by the Adobe League but it was in the top division of the five titles when the Cardinals claimed the 2019 Division 3-AA championship with a 31-14 victory over El Camino-Oceanside.
Since then Newman has made it to the NCS title game in 2021, 2022 and 2023, but each time they have fallen to Redwood Empire Catholic School rival Marin Catholic, losing 42-7 in the 2021 Division 4 title game, and 48-22 once again in the 2022 Division 4 championship, and finally 24-3 last year in the Division 3 title game.
The big question among the Cardinal Newman faithful is can they end the losing streak if they face Marin Catholic once again, but the playoffs are a long ways off and even before league begins fourth-year head coach Richard Sanchez and his Cardinals will have their work cut out for themselves. The good news is despite losing some formidable talent, including San Francisco Chronicle All Metro First Team and Cal-Hi Sports All State Medium Schools Second Team selection Zach Homan, Sanchez returns a majority of the starters from the 2023 team so the outlook look good.
“We spent a lot of time this summer look at film on the Adobe League teams but right now we have to focus on Casa Grande,” said Sanchez on picture day at Cardinal Newman earlier this month, and whose team opens August 30 on the road in Petaluma at Casa Grande. “Down the list we’ve got Vacaville after that, Armijo (Fairfield) we’ve got Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland), Pleasant Valley (Chico) is big and tough. The only positive thing about our league this year is we’ve got a bye before we start playing.”
“The other good thing after that is we have Windsor after that bye, and that’s always a good start to our league,” Sanchez continued. “After that we have Rancho Cotate (Rohnert Park), Windsor and San Marin-Novato before Marin Catholic but we have to take it one game at a time. They’ll all juggernauts. Hopefully we’re competitive and we stay healthy because the depth is the biggest concern of mine right now.”
Overall depth may be a concern for Sanchez but one place where the Cardinals will be deep with returning starters is on defense.
Leading the charge will be 6-foot-3, 255-pound senior defensive end Jesse Myers. Myers, who committed to Oregon State in late June, was a Cal-Hi Sports All State Juniors Third Team honoree on defense and an All North Bay League First Team selection on defense. He finished with 41 total tackles last season with a whopping 10.5 of them sacks. Myers is rated 3-Stars as an edge by 247Sports.com and had nine solid D1 offers before committing to become a Beaver.
An up and coming defensive lineman to look for is 6-foot-4, 293-pound sophomore nose guard Kahlio Vaetoe. He was an Second Team All North Bay League – Oak Division and Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire Second Team honoree. Vaetoe has grown an inch and put on 30 pounds and according to Sanchez had D1 college potential. A third lineman that Sanchez said is looking good is 6-foot-2, 250-pound defensive end Jimmy McKenzie.
The linebacking corps is solid as well and will be anchored by 6-foot-1, 215-pound senior Logan Rodriguez, an All NBL – Oak First Team and Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire First Team. Joining him will be Zach Raia, a 5-foot-11, 222-pound senior that was an All NBL – Oak Second Team selection last season.
The defensive backfield will also be strong with 5-foot-11, 186-pound senior Jamari Gentry as the top returner. With Zach Homan gone it will mean Gentry will likely be the primary running back as well.
There are many others but three players to look for are junior center Devon Bertoli, a Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire First Team honoree, senior offensive lineman Aidan Woods and sophomore wide receiver Zion Cargill.
Quarterback was up in the air when we visited on picture day, but the front-runners are seniors Wyatt Knechtle and Jayson Colter.
The Cardinals also return the top placekicker in the entire Redwood Empire in senior Patrick Gardner, the kicker on the Cal-Hi Sports Redwood Empire Preseason First Team.
Marin Catholic
2023 Record: 14-1
Second place Marin County Athletic League
CIF North Coast Section Division 3 champion
CIF State Northern Regional 3-A Bowl and state 3-A Bowl Game champion
First game: Inderkum-Sacramento at home on August 31
Marin Catholic has played for a CIF state Bowl Game championship four times, and that is the most of any team in the Redwood Empire portion of the CIF North Coast Section. They lost two heartbreakers in their first two appearances, 24-20 to Serra-Gardena in 2009 and 38-35 in 2012 to Madison-San Diego.
The Wildcats broke the ice in 2021 when they won the state CIF Division 4-AA Bowl Game championship with a 33-14 victory over Central Valley Christian-Visalia, and then last year they were the 3-A state champion after a 38-18 victory over Mayfair-Lakewood.
The Wildcats lost a ton of talent from the state championship team, most notably the San Francisco Chronicle Player of the Year Charles Williams, and sack machine Mario Crocitto, but head coach Mazi Moayed, who according to Cal-Hi Sports is one of the fastest coaches to reach 100 wins and has one of the highest winning percentages of any coach with at least 100 victories, returns a lot of talent despite not having any Cal-Hi Sports All State underclass honorees. 
Who will replace Williams is the big question? The primary running back will be 5-9, 190-pound junior Kyle Conroy. He was on the JV team last year but according to Moayed he was “good enough to play up last year” but with Williams getting just about all the carries last season Conroy had to bide his time, and his time is now
Quarterback looks to be set and Moayed is looking for big things from 6-foot-2, 200-pound junior Caedon Afsharipour. Last season he was an All Marin County Athletic League Honorable Mention at quarterback after passing for 2,054 yards and 22 TDs with six interceptions, but he did it in 10 games after being replaced as the starter for the playoffs. Afsharipour was a Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire Second Team selection.
Afsharipour will have two very solid receivers to throw to in 6-foot-4, 220-pound San Jose State-committed senior Braiden Bachich-Dixon, and 6-foot-4, 230-pound senior tight end Jordan Rogers, who also plays edge on defense. Bachich-Dixon was a Second Team All MCAL wide receiver and a Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire First Team receiver, and Rogers was Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire First Team Multi-Purpose.
Pass blocking for Afsharipour and opening holes for Conroy will be 6-foot-5, 250-pound All MCAL First Team offensive lineman, San Francisco Chronicle All Metro Honorable Mention OL/DL, and Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire First Team offensive lineman Sam Connelly. The 3-Star prospect has committed to Yale.
Anchoring the defensive line will be 6-foot-2, 230-pound junior Vince Tarantino. Last season as a sophomore he had 47 tackles including 12 sacks, and that earned him a Second Team All MCAL selection and Cal-Hi Sports Redwood Empire First Team honors on the defensive line.
Other players to watch for are junior defensive back Jared Geissberger, an All MCAL Honorable Mention defensive back and a Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire Second Team defensive back, senior defensive back Jude Baker, a Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire Second Team selection, and senior linebacker Noah DiRenzo who was also selected to the Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire Second Team.
Marin Catholic opens at home on Saturday, August 31 at home against an Inderkum-Sacramento team that made a strong playoff run before falling only by a score of 36-29 to eventual State CIF Division 1-A Bowl Game champion Folsom in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division 1 semifinals, so the Wildcats will be in deep right out of the box. From there it doesn’t get an easier as Marin Catholic hosts St. Mary’s-Stockton and the top-seeded Rams made it all the way to the CIFSJS Division 2 title game before being upset by Rocklin. The third non-league game is against Manteca. The powerful running game of the Buffaloes carried the No. 4 seed all the way to the CIFSJS D2 semifinals before bowing out 41-12 to a St. Mary’s team that had already blitzed them 44-7 early on last season.
No one can say Marin Catholic has shied away from playing the toughest non league schedule of anyone in the new Adobe League. The bottom line is if Marin Catholic is preparing for the kind of competition, and even better than what they will see in the Adobe League.
Windsor
2023 record: 10-2-1
First place North Bay League – Oak Division
CIF North Coast Section Division 2 runner-up
First game: Analy on August 30 in Sebastopol
Of all the top teams in the Adobe League based on competitive equity Windsor has not won a CIF state championship, but part of the reason is the road they have had to travel, based on a formula that has mixed enrollment and competitive equity the past few years, has had had the Jaguars face teams in a higher division come playoff time.
A perfect example is last season when after winning the North Bay League – Oak Division championship the Jaguars were in Division 2 for the NCS playoffs where as the No. 2 seed they made all the way to the title game before losing a heartbreaker to top-seeded El Cerrito, 34-31 after leading 31-21 after three quarters.
Before getting moved back up Windsor won an NCS championship in D2 in 2011 and D3 in 2021 when they lost in the CIF Northern Regional Division 3-AA Bowl Game to eventual CIF 3-AA state champion Vanden-Fairfield.
Head coach DJ Sexton loses a ton of talent, including his quarterback, three leading rushers, six of his seven leading wide receivers, and his three leading tacklers, so this very well could be a re-building year.
His brother and quarterback Judson Anderson has graduated but 6-foot-195-pound senior two-way star Hayden Anderson is back, and by all accounts he is projected as the top player not only on the Jaguars and the Adobe League, but in the entire Redwood Empire portion of the North Coast Section.
Last season on offense Hayden had a team-leading 72 pass receptions for 840 yards and 12 TDs, he rushed for 199 yards and three more scores, and had 135 yards combined on kickoff and punt returns. As a defensive back Anderson had 36 total tackles including a sack, three interceptions including two he returned for pick sixes, a forced fumble and a blocked punt.
The awards and honors for the UNLV-bound Anderson include:
Cal-Hi Sports All State Juniors Second Team Multi-Purpose and All State Second Team Medium Schools as a defensive back, San Francisco Chronicle All Metro Second Team All Purpose on defense, and the North Bay League – Oak Division Co-Offensive Player of the Year with his brother Judson, and finally Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire
Other Windsor players to look for this season are junior defensive lineman Marcello McFarland, senior two-way linemen Jacob Byrn and TJ Allen, senior running back Wyatt Morris and sophomore quarterback Carter Vose.
Windsor does not have as challenging non-league schedule and opens with host Analy of the new RE 3 Bay League which is a “C” league in the new Redwood Empire Conference Football. From there they host Hayward before facing a Campolindo-Moraga team they played to a 14-14 tie last season after Campolindo eschewed an overtime period. Windsor closes out the non-league schedule with Dublin and Eureka before opening Adobe play with visiting Cardinal Newman.
San Marin
2023 record: 12-1
First place Marin County Athletic League
CIF North Coast Section Division 4 runner-up
First game: College Park-Pleasant Hill on the road August 30
The sleeper in the new Adobe League could very well be San Marin, although with two state championships under its belt some analysts may not feel the Mustangs are really under the radar.
The state championships came in 2021 when San Marin bested Independence-Bakersfield, 20-14 in the state CIF 5-AA Bowl Game championship. In 2022 the CIF moved the Mustangs up two notches to 4-A and they were an even more impressive wiener after taking down Granada Hills Charter 32-8.
On paper San Marin head coach Dominic DiMare may have the most returning talent from a team that broke the ice last season and defeated Marin Catholic 10-6 last year in its league finale before the NCS Division 4 top seed rolled past Kennedy-Fremont and Maria Carrillo-Santa Rosa before falling 24-7 to Acalanes-Lafayette in the championship title game.
The Mustangs lose last season’s top quarterback in the Redwood Empire with the graduation of Dominic Ingrassia, and also their leading rusher but 6-foot-3, 190-pund junior Daniel Rolovich, the Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire First Team quarterback and the son of former Marin Catholic star quarterback and recent Washington State head coach and Mustangs assistant Nick Rolovich, looks poised to have a breakout season.
His primary target will be Wesley Timmel. The 6-foot-1, 175-pound senior was the favorite target of Ingrassia last season after catching 63 passes for 1,221 yards and 17 touchdowns. Timmel was a Cal-Hi Sports All State Juniors Third Team wide receiver, a San Francisco Chronicle All Metro Second Team wide receiver, an all Marin County Athletic League First Team wide receiver, and a Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire First Team Multi-Purpose due to his work on defense and special teams.
It’s not just Rolovich and Timmel that should make some noise for San Marin this season.
Defensive lineman Liam McMann is back after the 6-foot-4, 225 senior was named San Francisco Chronicle All Metro Honorable Mention and All MCAL First Team defense last season, and a Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire First Team selection this season.
San Marin also sports the top punter not only in the Adobe League but the entire Redwood Empire in junior Nate Mandelbrot, a 4-Star prospect by Chris Sailer kicking and the punter on the Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire First Team.
Another player to look for is senior running back Jonah Lozano, a Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Second Team selection who was six yards shy of being last season’s leading rusher.
San Marin hasn’t scheduled the toughest non-league opponents but they haven’t scheduled any real softies and their road to the playoffs doesn’t require playing larger schools in higher divisions. DiMare and his charges open on the road in Pleasant Hill at College Park and then they host Foothill-Palo Cedro from the CIF Northern Section. From there the Mustangs host Moreau Catholic-Hayward travel to Petaluma for a showdown with Casa Grande, and then close out the non-league schedule at Ukiah before hosting arch-rival Marin Catholic in an Adobe opener.
Rancho Cotate
2023 record: 7-5
Third place North Bay League – Oak Division
CIF North Coast Section Division 2 semifinalist
First game: Ukiah on the road August 30
For some teams what Rancho Cotate did last year would be a great season. A third-place finish in the tough North Bay League – Oak Division and a first round 40-18 drubbing of third-seeded Granada-Livermore before giving Windsor all it could handle before falling 14-7 in the NCS Division 2 semifinals after suffering a 35-7 loss to the same team in league play.
However, for head coach Gehrig Hotaling and Rancho Cotate their history since Hotaling took the helm from his mentor Ed Conroy and even during Conroy’s tenure has the Cougars chasing loftier goals.
Under Hotaling the Cougars have been in the mix pretty much every year but the only time they really cashed in was in 2019 when they won the NCS Division 3 Championship as the No. 2 seed in a 7-0 defensive slugfest over top-seeded Las Lomas-Walnut Creek. From there Rancho Cotate won the state CIF Northern Regional 3-A Bowl Game championship with a 10-0 blanking of host Sierra-Manteca before falling 42-21 to visiting Bakersfield Christian in the 3-A state championship.
Whether not Rancho Cotate can get to where they were in 2019 is a big question but we’re sure Hotaling and his Cougars would like to make some noise in the new Adobe league and the playoffs to follow.
Rancho Cotate graduated the majority of its skill position players but they do have a solid two-way returning starter in 5-foot-8, 170-pound senior running back/defensive back Gio Martinez. The leading returning rusher and wide receiver had 259 yards and four TDs last season on the ground and a team-high 427 yards and seven TDs receiving. On defense he had 26 tackles and a fumble recovery. Martinez also returned kicks.
On defense the top returners are 6-foot-1, 205-pound senior edge Levi Sage and 5-foot-11, 185-pound senior linebacker Eric Rodriguez. Sage, an All North Bay League – Oak Division First Team Defensive Linemen was also selected to the Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire First Team Defensive Linemen. Rodriguez was the No. 5 reporting leading tackler in the entire NCS last season and will return with the most tackles after recording 123 total tackles last season. The All NBL – Oak First Team linebacker was also selected to that position for the Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire First Team.
Rancho Cotate opens at a Ukiah team that is now in the same RE 3 Bay League as Analy. From there the Cougars host Redwood-Larkspur and Casa Grande of the RE 2 Valley League, and then they close out the non-league schedule on the road with Freedom-Oakley and Montgomery-Santa Rosa of the RE 3 Bay League before opening Adobe action at home with Vintage.
Vintage
2023 record: 5-6
Third place Vine Valley Athletic League
CIF North Coast Section Division 2 first round
First game: Las Lomas-Walnut Creek at home on August 30
Despite a third-place finish in the Vine Valley Athletic League behind Casa Grande and American Canyon it was Vintage that was placed in the Adobe League based on competitive equity and the fact the Crushers were the only team from the VVAL in the NCS D2 playoffs last season albeit as the No. 7 seed they were behind a fourth-seeded Redwood that was placed in the RE 2 Valley League.
Since joining the NCS after previously playing in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Vintage hasn’t won any championships but they’ve been competitive and even drew the No. 2 seed in the 2019 D2 playoffs before losing in the semifinals to Campolindo.
Vintage didn’t place any players on any all state teams and none on the Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Redwood Empire First Team but they did have two players that made the Second Team.
Lorenzo Webb, a 6-foot-1, 225-pound junior was an All VVAL First Team selection last season to go with the Cal-Hi Sports preseason honors. Senior placekicker Henry Drozdowicz was also a Cal-Hi Sports Preseason Second Team selection.
Two other Crushers player to watch for that were selected All VVAL Honorable Mention are senior lineman Colby Jenson and junior quarterback Blake Porter.
Vintage opens at home against Las Lomas but after that they play some old foes from the CIFSJS when they face host Fairfield then travel to Wood-Vacaville. From there they host Jesse Bethel-Vallejo of the NCS Bay Shore Conference and then cross-town arch rival Napa of the RE 2 Valley League before starting Adobe action on the road at Rancho Cotate.