The Abridged version:
- Several Sacramento area high school teams have bounced back this season after a down year.
- Destiny Christian and Whitney are among the teams with winning records after down years in 2025.
- Hiram Johnson is undefeated this season after going winless last season.
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In high school football, teams can bounce back in quick order. Sometimes in just one season.
Sometimes it takes a new coach. Or a healthy roster. Or an emerging quarterback or defensive stopper. In the Sacramento area high school landscape, scores of teams that took it on the chin in 2025 are now doling out the welts and bruises.
Take Destiny Christian Academy of Sacramento. The Lions, once known as the Capital Christian Cougars, went 5-6 in 2025. The season ended with a crushing CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoff loss to Woodcreek of Roseville, 42-14.
DCA vowed to get better and has, surging to a 7-0 start under first-year head coach Antuan Simmons. He was on the coaching staff in previous seasons, but is heading a program for the first time, and the results are stunning. DCA opened the season with a 28-12 victory over preseason regionally ranked No. 4 Inderkum. Also on the schedule: A 10-9 victory over a Yuba City team that is 6-1, and then the whopper win last Friday.
DCA went toe-to-toe with the storied Grant Pacers, winners of 10 section titles and three CIF state crowns. Holding off Grant 28-27 registers as the greatest win in program history, dating back to the Capital Christian days. The campus located off Highway 50 near Rancho Cordova opened for high school instruction more than 40 years ago.
Simmons has been at the forefront, and he has the backing of athletic director Aaron Garcia and school pastor Scott Hagan, who frantically took in the Grant game. Hagan was bouncing off the walls that night because everyone around him was, too. DCA has size in the trenches, a skilled quarterback in Vinny Scott and rolling momentum as a serious threat to win a CIF section Division III crown.
DCA is ranked third in our JoeD Top 25 section rankings, right behind Folsom and Oak Ridge.
Other bounce-back teams
Whitney: The Wildcats of Placer County went 2-9 in 2025 and are 5-2 now, a credit to impressive first-year coach Brian Brickey and a motivated group of seniors determined to catch a glimpse of the program’s past glory.
Whitney has a 35-34 nonleague win over Twelve Bridges of Lincoln, a 55-0 effort over a defending section champion in Roseville, a 35-33 win over Jesuit, a competitive loss to Folsom and a 31-28 last-second setback to rival Rocklin. Brad Duncan has passed for 14 touchdowns, and Cash Stevens is one of the section’s best two-way talents.
Bella Vista: Two years after enduring an 0-10 season and one year removed from a 3-8 campaign, the Broncos of Fair Oaks and the San Juan Unified School District are 5-2 and in the Capital Valley Conference title chase under second-year coach Jason Ott, an alum of the school.
Bella Vista has forever been a powerhouse academic school and the football team has players, too. Serious players, including school rushing record holder Dvaughn Norwood, a running back, receiver Christian Taylor and a three-year varsity veteran in quarterback Jack Singley.
BV won the neighborhood rivalry games this fall, too, topping Casa Roble 48-9 and Del Campo 54-0.
Hiram Johnson: The Warriors of the Sacramento City Unified School District agonized through an 0-10 campaign in 2025, and the same coach and a lot of players returned for better results.
Hiram Johnson is 7-0 under spirited coach Will Buck, and the Warriors are 4-0 in the Greater Sacramento League. Hiram Johnson isn’t playing Sierra Foothill League monsters such as Folsom, Del Oro, Oak Ridge, Whitney or Rocklin, but the team has impressed in taking on programs similar to their own. Jacob Wavrin has 13 touchdowns and Auskar Tolbert has helped lead the defensive attack for the Division IV Warriors.
Foothill: The Mustangs of North Sacramento and the Twin Rivers Unified School District went 3-7 last season and are 6-1 under second-year coach Alex Gomes, who worked wonders several years ago in turning Hiram Johnson around.
The most wins for this program over the past 20-plus seasons are eight, so the Mustangs are on their way. A Greater Sacramento League showdown for the championship looms on Oct. 30 against Hiram Johnson on Foothill’s sparkling new field.
Joshua Pilgard has passed for 20 touchdowns, Tijai Harbison has nine scores and averages 110 yards receiving and Ramon Giles and Jonvan Duvall have led a young defense for the Division V Mustangs.
River City: The Raiders of West Sacramento went 6-4 in coach Marcus Tribble’s first season as head coach in 2023, dipped to 2-8 in 2024 and managed a 4-6 showing last fall.
The team is 6-1, in the heat of the Monticello Empire League race with Solano County bruisers Vanden and Vacaville and a threat to jolt the section Division III bracket. The loss was 26-14 to Center, which is undefeated. The regular season ends with games at Vanden and Vacaville. The Raiders could not script this any better.
Tank Alvaraez has nine touchdowns as a running back, and Salvador Valadez has 14 quarterback hurries to lead the defense.
Center: The Cougars of Antelope labored through a 1-9 season in 2024 and won four times last fall. They are 7-0 now, the program’s best start since the 12-1 team of 2019.
There is stability in the coaching ranks as head coach Digol JBeily has been with the program for more than 20 years. He is one of the school’s all-time great athletes, from the late 1980s, and he soldiers on as a coach and leader because he knows what high school sports can do for a young man.
The Division VI Cougars are in the thick of the Pioneer Valley League championship race and are paced by duel-threat quarterback Sincere Howard.
