Football: Palisades eager to prove itself in championship division
As you loyal readers may have noticed I've been out of the blogging loop for a few weeks, but I logged on today to see what I've missed and came across my esteemed Times colleague Eric Sondheimer's report about the gutsy decision by Garfield football coach Lorenzo Hernandez to move the Bulldogs from the City's Invitational Division playoffs to the Championship Division.
Reading further, I wondered why Palisades was missing from the list of schools that have opted for the section's upper division playoffs. Not that I'm the least bit surprised the Dolphins were overlooked. You wouldn't expect a team that finished 1-9 and was dead last in the Western League last season to be lumped in with the likes of Crenshaw, Dorsey and Birmingham.
Yet, on paper at least, that's just where the Dolphins are. So if Hernandez gets kudos for bravado then so too should Palisades' second-year coach Kelly Loftus, who realizes his team will be a huge underdog should it reach the postseason.
"If they were seeding right now we'd be 23rd out of the 23 teams in the upper bracket," Loftus admitted. "We had a lousy year and nobody's expecting much from us. The good thing is that we have nowhere to go but up."
Pad practice is several weeks away but Loftus likes what he sees so far, especially from sophomore quarterback Conner Preston and senior linemen Bryce Williams and Chris Chucca. Loftus also hired former Westchester and Hamilton coach Larry Wein as his offensive coordinator.
"I have high expectations for this program and I bumped us up to show our players we believe they are capable of playing at that level," Loftus added. "It's been awhile since this school's been excited about football and we want to change that."
Loftus is Palisades' fourth head coach in the last seven seasons and the Dolphins have a 20-49 record over that span. Their last foray into the upper division playoffs was a first-round loss to Birmingham in 2000.
Working in Palisades' favor is its schedule: seven home games, including six straight to open the season. With Hamilton also jumping to the Championship Division, only two Western League teams, Fairfax and University, remain in the Invitational.
Click here for the City's 2008 football division assignments.
-- Steve Galluzzo
Good point, Steve. If Fairfax and University stopped "sandbagging" and moved up (Uni lost to Garfield 23-28 in the Invitational playoff finals and Fair lost to Garfield 0-7 in the semi-finals), then the entire Western league could brag about being a City Section "powerhouse", like the Marine league does.
Posted by: Alumni | July 25, 2008 at 01:20 PM
By the way, Hamilton chose the Championship Division, as did Cleveland in 2006. If Cleveland (along the same lines as Palisades - 1-9 season, new alumni coach from Birmingham, 'wanting to believe,' etc.) and El Camino Real (lost to Garfield in Invitational quarter-finals) moved up, then the West Valley league would be all CD, and they can finally proclaim themselves as being "tough". The other sandbagger team left, Huntington Park (lost to Uni in the Invitational semi-finals) should move up to join the CD big boys (Jordan & Garfield) in their Eastern league. This now evens out the Championship & Invitational Divisions (28 schools each) instead of the disparity now (23 & 33), giving the kids in the ID a fairer chance to make the 16 team playoffs.
Posted by: Alumni | July 25, 2008 at 05:01 PM
Taft is on the rise!
Posted by: TAFT FOOTBALL | July 26, 2008 at 07:49 AM
the western league is going to get interesting this year. the rest of the league (other than Venice) has been improving, and Venice lost some amazing talent last year. i'd say it's still a one gondola race, but it will be much closer than it's been in a while.
Posted by: oarsmanchief | July 30, 2008 at 05:39 PM