- Rich Mellott
- Posted On
Fall Football Preview: Upper Lake’s in a different space this season
This week’s Fall Football Preview is following the county’s high school teams as they get ready for the upcoming season.
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Upper Lake High Cougars, Lake County’s bounce-back team of 2011, are in a difference space this summer.
If you’re familiar with the double-wing power running game that Upper Lake coach Alex Stabiner likes to run, you’d be tempted to say that the space his players currently occupy is the approximate size of one of those old phone booths that faddish college kids use to pack in the 1950s.
In Stabiner’s “phone booth” offense, the Cougars cram as many players as possible between the tackles and then start up the bulldozer, which knocks down anything in the way and creates vast amounts of open space (yes, the “space” motif again) through which the running backs rumble.
Last year, the year the Cougars turned everything around, league offensive MVP Bradley Brackett – and isn’t that the perfect name for a kid who runs through and around phone booths? – gained 1,396 yards to lead the county in rushing.
But that different “space” the Cougars are occupying these days would also refer to their final position in the 2011 North Central League II standings – second behind the Tomales Braves – or their No. 7 spot in the preseason NCS Div. V ratings, one notch ahead of the Braves and one below California School for the Deaf, which knocked them out of the NCS playoffs last season with a first-round 27-24 victory.
Yes, the Cougars’ made the playoffs in their bounce-back season of 2011, but to appreciate what that means (as well as what a return trip to the playoffs could mean this year), you need to know from where they bounced.
A year ago, Upper Lake’s football program was shaking on its foundation and the old trophies were rattling on the shelves in the gymnasium lobby.
Coming off a 1-10 campaign and an off-season without a training program. the young varsity team showed up for the first day of summer practice – only to discover that not only did they have a new head coach, but he had just been hired about 20 minutes earlier.
But Stabiner knew the players, had coached most of them on the JV team.
There were some good senior athletes and a talented group of underclassmen that had won on the JV level and, perhaps just as important to Stabiner, had shown signs that, by and large; it was a rabid pack of competitors.
“This group really loves competition,” Stabiner said. “They just don’t like to lose.”
That competitive drive was obvious last year as Upper Lake started winning some games, but so were several of the team’s shortcomings, which probably cost the Cougars a chance to win two, maybe even three more.
Before their second game against league rival Tomales (the teams tied 8-8 in the first meeting), a half-dozen Upper Lake seniors blew off practice one day – and Stabiner benched them.
Tomales won the game, 24-20, which ultimately cost Upper Lake a chance for the league championship.
The Cougars still qualified for a Div. V playoff game, albeit against a tougher early opponent (California School for the Deaf) than they would have otherwise faced had they just taken care of business a little better.
The next case of poor judgment was when Stabiner’s team – including himself and his assistants, he’s quick to admit – didn’t take California School for the Deaf seriously enough.
The coaching staff studied the CSD films and came away feeling confident they would win. Too confident.
“They were a lot better in person than they were in the film,” he said, irony apparent in his tone.
So flash forward now to three weeks ago, when that formerly young and promising group of players start another round of summer drills.
This time they’re coming off a 7-3-1 season and had a shot at the league title and even got some playoff experience – but it’s obvious to their coach that all that wasn’t enough.
“On the first day of practice, it was on all of their faces, that they were on a mission,” Stabiner said.
Beyond their competitive nature, “it looked like they know what they need to do in order be compete.”
Actually, Stabiner said, the majority of the players had been on that mission since the playoff loss to CSD, at which time they began taking up new “off-season” activities like wrestling, pumping iron in the weight room, going to football camps, and otherwise working their tails off.
The might sense, like their coach, that opportunities like the upcoming season don’t come around every day.
The Cougars have the returning players to be an outstanding Div. V team, especially on offense.
Brackett graduated last spring, but the rest of the Cougars’ yardage-devourers are back, including Ward Beecher (1,073 yards, 17 TDs) and 6-1, 240-pound fullback Joe Valdez (746, 11 TDs).
Also back is quarterback Travis Coleman along with most of the offensive line, led by all-leaguer John Karlsson.
Coleman might even do more than hand the ball off this season, running it himself or throw a few more passes. But don’t expect a Stabiner team to ever start airing it out.
The Cougars threw a total of 31 passes all of last season – an average of less than three a game.
The defense is in good shape in the line, where Karlsson doubles up as an all-leaguer and Valdez, also an all-league pick, uses his strength and size. The secondary, where Coleman doubles as an all-league player, is also solid. The one area where graduation hurt the most was at linebacker.
They Cougars will get a chance to get even with CSD as well as Tomales this season in the new NCL II-Bay Football League, which also includes St. Vincent of Petaluma, Calistoga, Stellar Prep, Emery, and St. Elizabeth.
Rich Mellott can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Upper Lake Cougars
Coach/Record: Alex Stabiner (2nd season), 7-3-1.
Assistants: Frank Gudmunson, Thomas Burnett, Ron Campos, Tim Green.
Last year: 7-3-3.
League: 4-1-1 (2nd in NCL II).
Returning starters: 7 on offense, 6 on defense.
Top players: All-leaguers Jon Karlsson (OL/DL), Joe Valdez (RB/DL), Travis Coleman (DB/QB), Ward Beecher (RB).
Key games: Sept. 8 vs. Middletown will be a good non-league test, and Sept. 21 at Calif. School for the Deaf is a key NCL II-Bay Football contest (along with being a rematch of last year’s NCS Div. V playoff opener won by CSD). Season finale Nov. 2 against Tomales also looms; the NCL II champion Braves beat the Cougars for the title last year.