Comments on: East Bay Football Preseason Super Poll

By: Kyle Bonagura

Kyle Bonagura — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:10:04 +0000

Don’t get me wrong, in no way am I saying that O’Dowd won’t have a good season or challenge for the HAAL title. I’ve had good experiences in the few times I’ve talked with Perenon and respect the program and have some friends who went through it.

From everything I’ve heard, this is the year the Dragons may make the jump into the upper echelon of the East Bay. But based on recent history I couldn’t make them a top-10 team on my preseason poll. That may very well change and losing to YV in the first round at home certainly didn’t help their momentum going into this year. (especially after I picked O’Dowd to win the 2A east bay title last year)

By: O'Dad

O'Dad — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:42:17 +0000

Kyle, I hear you brother. Thats why the team is working so hard this year to turn that around. I suppose my point is- everyone seems to be able to find things to slam BOD about, while I’m sure there are other teams, even traditional powers, that some stat like this could be pointed out. IF Bod were to go undefeated some year, the naysayers would still come up with all kinds of things to bash them with. I am speaking of the public(fans), not you guys , as you seem to have the posture of “show me, dont tell me”, which I respect.

By: KBonagura

KBonagura — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:06:23 +0000

O’Dad- Here is where I’m coming from. Over the past three years, O’Dowd is 1-13 against teams that finished the season with a winning record. With that win coming last year against Arroyo, which was 6-5.

Before I’m willing to include the Dragons in any discussion with the top teams they’ve got to turn that around. I covered them against Kennedy last year and was very impressed with the defense, but I couldn’t say the same about the offense.

By: PHS04

PHS04 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:43:56 +0000

Berkeley has to go through Pitt in the regular season to even be considered for anything special.. Depending on how badly Pittsburg dismantles Berkeley I just hope they get a NCS playoff rematch..

By: Michael Bower

Michael Bower — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:14:52 +0000

I would throw the previous years out the window for this season’s O’Dowd squad. The Dragons are going to be very good and are certainly worthy of being in our poll.

By: Jimmy Durkin

Jimmy Durkin — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:14:02 +0000

O’Dad is correct here. I’m guessing O’Dowd would’ve liked to have a tougher schedule because they have a pretty good team this year. Contracts didn’t allow that. But watch out for the Dragons. Anyone who hasn’t seen Chris Martin play should check him out. I saw him last year as a sophomore and he’s a beast. Their backfield should be pretty good this year too. And when you actually look at it, O’Dowd is a smaller school (although a traditional power) so you can’t really blame them for who they play. Are they they quality of the top EBAL schools? No. But they also have half the enrollment.

By: O'Dad

O'Dad — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:10:35 +0000

Maybe, but in years past the HAAL could be brutal. They already play mostly big school classified teams in league. I do know that they would have scheduled a much tougher pre-season this year had they been able to get out of existing contracts. They want to have a tougher schedule for this years team, and will be making new scheduling contracts for next year.

By: Kyle Bonagura

Kyle Bonagura — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:59:08 +0000

That was in reference to the regular season. When Coach was talking about how O’Dowd never played strong teams, I looked up their past schedules and it’s a pretty accurate statement.

And when they have scheduled tougher opponents in non-league, the Dragons haven’t done too well. Could that be the reasoning for softening up the schedule? Maybe.

O’Dowd has definitely been a major player in its classification, but when were grouping it with the higher level as well (the East Bay Poll), O’Dowd hasn’t matched up over the past 5-7 years or so.

By: O'Dad

O'Dad — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:48:30 +0000

Kyle and Coach, I here your arguments and I respect them. I know BOD played Foothill and some other powers in recent years in pre-season. It has just been the last few that the schedule is a little soft in pre-season. I won’t name them, but, i see other teams get a pass on this same subject. Also, Kyle, I believe your history may be off a little. BOD has won 3 NCS championships in the last 11 years, with the last coming in 2004. They have been to the NCS title game about 7-8 times in the past 20 years. Perenon has AVERAGED 9 wins per year over the last 20 years Other than DLS, BOD and James Logan are the only schools with that success over the last 20 years. Look it up…

By: Steve R. Waterhouse

Steve R. Waterhouse — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:34:01 +0000

Way to go out on a limb there EBAL Fan.