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Last year the Amador Valley High School flag football team showed a lot of promise, as the young team started fast but ended the season losing their last three games to finish 15-7 overall.
This year the Dons entered the season with a lot of experience and jumped out to a 10-2 mark, including a 13-12 win over Cardinal Newman last Friday, ending a 29-game winning streak by the Cardinals.
Cardinal Newman went 24-0 last season and entered the Amador game 5-0 this year. But this Amador team is different, returning a lot of key players.
The two Amador losses came to Beckman of Irvine in a tournament in San Luis Obispo by finals of 26-6 and 20-13. Beckman is the No. 5 ranked team in the state
“We had a lot of new players last year and we weren’t consistent a lot,” said Amador’s second-year coach, Ryan Wittmer. “This year we have a lot of returning players.”
At the forefront is Amador quarterback Riley Harrington. The senior is in her fourth as the starter.
“Riley makes everything to do on the field easier,” Wittmer said. “It’s like having a coach on the field.”
Sydney Nissen has 10 rushing touchdowns for the Dons, with Reese Fogerty leading the way for the receiving corps with seven touchdowns.
But the key has been the Amador defense this year.
“Our defense has been good all year,” Wittmer said.
Sabella Stout has been a demon on the pass-rush all season, already with 30 sacks. Summer Brown has seven picks this year, and linebacker Isabella Beatty has been huge in the middle of the field, with Fogerty and Kaylin Causey playing great at the safety spots.
Wittmer also had high praise for Evangeline Freschi for her play.
Of equal importance for the Dons is that while the team has more experienced players, they also have a coach with more experience.
Wittmer played and coached football at Washington High in Fremont. He then spent time as the quarterbacks coach at California High for the football team.
But Wittmer also has a pair of daughters who wanted to play flag football – and since he lives across the street from Amador, it made sense to take over the Amador flag program.
He has Madison, a senior, and Faith, a sophomore, as daughters on the team. Wittmer has learned on the job.
“There’s a lot of concepts that are the same,” Wittmer said of flag compared to tackle. “You just have to tweak things to fit the game.”
Having coached for a while, Wittmer was a sponge last year.
“I learned a lot last year,” Wittmer said. “I have watched a lot of film as well, learning from what other teams do as well. The year has been three times better than last year.”
Wittmer is also the first to add that despite the great start, there’s still a lot of work to do, like a Sept. 22 game with San Ramon Valley and the gauntlet that is the East Bay Athletic League.
“We’re having fun and everyone is excited,” Wittmer said. “We’ll see where this takes us.”
Foothill girls’ volleyball
The Falcons enjoyed a great week, winning a pair of EBAL games, then going 3-1 in the Bay Area Classic tournament.
In a 25-16, 25-23, 25-12 win over Granada, the highlights came from Ilayda Caglar (18 kills, 9 digs), Kait Vogel (19 digs, 11 kills, 10 service points), Sahej Toor (4 kills, 1 block) and Olivia So (16 digs, 2 aces).
Two days later they handed Carondelet a 25-18, 18-25, 25-14, 22-25, 17-15 loss. This time the highlights were from Caglar (25 kills, 16 digs, 3 aces), Vogel (23 digs, 15 kills, 12 service points), Makenzie Bulaon (37 assists, 12 digs) and Addie Boeschenstein (10 kills, 1 block).
In the Bay Area Classic, Foothill beat Palo Alto (25-18, 26-24), beat Saint Francis (25-20, 25-21), lost to Rocklin (25-17, 19-25, 10-15) and beat Valley Christian (25-18, 25-20).
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
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