Coaching carousel in the PAL Lake

Which brings up to the Lake Division, where four of the six schools will be breaking in new coaches for 2019. Woodside’s Justin Andrews in the longest tenured coach in the division, having served as head coach since 2014. Capuchino’s Jay Oca is next on the list, entering his second year with the Mustangs.

The rest, however, are all in their first years with their schools: El Camnino (Rustin Mayorga), Jefferson (Sergio Portela Jr.), Mills (Kevin Thorson) and South City (Tau Elisaia).

The good news is, other than South City which struggled to a 0-10 record and demotion from the Ocean to the Lake, the rest of the division was fairly competitive. Capuchino and Jefferson are the only holdovers that had winning records last season with 6-4 marks (2018 Lake Division champ Carlmont went 10-3 and was promoted to the Ocean Division). Both Woodside and El Camino were one win away from .500 records as both finished 4-6. Mills managed to win three games in 2018.

Carlmont’s dominance in 2018 was the exception the Lake Division rule, which usually sees three or four teams vying for the division title in a race that usually isn’t decided until the final weeks of the regular season.

There was a lot of buzz for Capuchino last season as Oca appeared to reinvigorate the program, placing 36 players on the varsity roster — which would have put the Mustangs on par with most Bay Division squads.

The good news is, a large majority of those players are returning. The bad news is, the Mustangs will have to find a way to replace starting quarterback Brandon Mailangi.

Capuchino head coach Jay Oca, however, knows 2019 in a new season.

“I’m not going to listen to the outside noise, good or bad,” Oca said. “High school football, you never know what you’re going to get. I believe at any moment, any team can make a play.”

Jefferson and El Camino will have some continuity despite have new coaches. But both Jefferson’s Portela and El Camino’s Mayorga have ties to their schools. Both are graduates of their respective schools and have been assistant coaches over the last few years.

Thorson may be new to Mills, but he is not new to the coaching world. He ran the 8-man programs at Crystal Springs and Pinewood, and has served as an assistant for several other Peninsula programs. Plus, he’ll have a bunch of talent to work with as the Vikings return a number of key players from 2018.

“We should be OK. We have our quarterback, couple decent receivers, running backs,” Thorson said. “We don’t have a lot of depth, but we should be fine.”

Despite having an entrenched coach, Woodside has struggled closing out seasons, which resulted in their demotion to the Lake Division for the first time prior to the 2018 season. Over the last five seasons, the Wildcats have won a total of four division games and has two winless seasons of division play. They enter the 2019 season on a five-game losing streak to end 2018.

“I think we can compete,” Andrews said. “A big challenge is going to be can we compete in the later of part of the season?”

Meanwhile, South City has nowhere to go but up. After going 3-2, 4-6 in the Ocean Division in 2017 under Oca, the Warriors hit rock bottom last season, going winless in Jerome Lee’s only season.