Live Oak coming off full-pads camp In his first season as head
coach after decades as an assistant, Rick Booth said he had one
overarching focus for the Live Oak High football program this
summer. .
“My goal when I took over this job on May 6, as I told the boys,
was as a team we need to get stronger,” Booth said. “I expect them
to improve every day, get better every practice. If we can do those
things, we’ll be able to compete.” Sobrato finishes active summer
During summer workouts,
Sobrato High football players wore a t-shirt with a simple
motto: “Nobody Outworks Us.” And, true to their credo, the Bulldogs
and Coach Jeff Patterson stayed busy this summer. The first-year
varsity program joined several other schools’ well-established
varsity football programs at the Compet
itive Edge camp, and also competed in a home-and-home 7-on-7
passing drill series with Carmel. And, Sobrato’s players noticed
how much they improved with the work.
Live Oak coming off full-pads camp
In his first season as head coach after decades as an assistant, Rick Booth said he had one overarching focus for the Live Oak High football program this summer. .
“My goal when I took over this job on May 6, as I told the boys, was as a team we need to get stronger,” Booth said. “I expect them to improve every day, get better every practice. If we can do those things, we’ll be able to compete.”
According to seniors Dustin Muhn and Nathan Goldie, both returning all-league first-teamers, the Acorns made conditioning a priority this summer.
“In general, we’re a smaller team than last year, and we have to work harder,” Muhn said. “We want to take our strength development and put it into play now.”
“We’re looking forward to seeing how our conditioning is (in fall practice),” Goldie said.
In fact, the duo were part of a group that spent weekends running a steep hill near campus under the guidance of coach Bart Nielsen.
Live Oak completed its summer workouts with a full pads fundamentals camp last week, and will begin official twice-daily fall practices on Monday.
Booth said a total of about 115 players (including 50 varsity and 35 freshmen) attended summer workouts, with about 75-90 attending every day.
The Acorns have a considerably younger team this season in terms of experience, and Booth said he realizes that will be an issue.
“We have a lot of learning to do,” he said.
LO will field a varsity, JV and freshman team this season, it’s last in the Tri-County Athletic League. The Acorns move to the Blossom Valley Athletic League next season.
Booth said the Acorn program stayed away from the traditional multi-team camps and 7-on-7 drills against other teams this summer for two reasons.
First, Booth said he prefers any contact to be with full pads and with proper technique.
And, he said that LO is focusing its fundraising efforts on paying for a mid-season trip to play defending Nevada state champion Truckee.
LO will conduct its annual Green and Gold intra-squad scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 20 at LO, with JV vs. freshmen starting at 10am and varsity at 11am. Team captains will be elected then.
The Acorns will also scrimmage at Santa Cruz on Friday, Aug. 26 at 7pm, then play their season-opener vs. Silver Creek on Friday, Sept. 2 at 7pm.
LO begins its TCAL schedule by playing at North Salinas on Oct. 14.
Sobrato finishes active summer
During summer workouts, Sobrato High football players wore a t-shirt with a simple motto: “Nobody Outworks Us.”
And, true to their credo, the Bulldogs and Coach Jeff Patterson stayed busy this summer. The first-year varsity program joined several other schools’ well-established varsity football programs at the Competitive Edge camp, and also competed in a home-and-home 7-on-7 passing drill series with Carmel.
And, Sobrato’s players noticed how much they improved with the work.
“When we started out at the Competitive Edge camp, we weren’t doing that well,” linebacker Itzcaly Valencia said. “But by the last day, we were able to play with Gilroy and Oak Grove.”
“We started slow in our first 7-on-7, but we really came together as a team in the second (drill),” linebacker Juvenal Rodriguez said.
So, when the Bulldogs begin twice-daily fall practices on Monday, they will have plenty of work under their belts, despite their obvious lack of overall experience.
Patterson said he will go with about 24 junior and sophomore players on the varsity this season, with the remaining 40-45 players on the Frosh-Soph (about 30-35 freshmen).
After playing a largely freshman-oriented schedule last year, Sobrato will move to a full varsity line-up this year, and Patterson is enthused despite not having any seniors on the team.
“The No. 1 thing is the dedication of the kids,” Patterson said. “The kids who are going to be on the varsity were here every day (during summer workouts). They want to win, they want to succeed. In Gonzales, the talent wasn’t close to what I have here. I can’t wait to see what we can do.”
The Bulldogs will hold an overnight team-building camp beginning on Wednesday, then conduct its Maroon and White intra-squad scrimmage on Saturday at 11am at Sobrato.
On Friday, Aug. 26, Sobrato will travel to scrimmage against Gonzales at 4pm, then is scheduled to open its regular-season schedule at Cupertino on Friday, Sept. 9 at 7pm.
The Bulldogs have one long road trip scheduled for this season, on Nov. 11 when they travel to Fortuna Union for the season finale.
“The kids have grown so much since spring practice, since that first camp,” Patterson said. “I can’t wait to see them strap on the pads and get after it.
“I think they’ll be better than they expect. I think we’re going to surprise some people.”
