There is a revival of sorts going on in football this spring. For the first time in at least a half-century, and probably more, Mt. Diablo High School can complete a perfect season by beating Concord on Friday night.
Go ahead, pooh-pooh the accomplishment. The season was only five games long. One of Mt. Diablo’s wins was a forfeit. The entire prep football season in California this spring is an aberration thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tell that to the 30 or so players on Mt. Diablo’s team. Under third-year coach Donald James, the football program at the 120-year-old school is becoming relevant again.
In James’ first season in 2018, only 13 players turned out. The Red Devils lost their opener to Armijo 49-6. The next week they lost to Mountain House 75-0. They finished the season 0-10.
But improvements being made to the program were becoming apparent in 2019. Yeah, the Red Devils were only 2-8. But there were 56 students playing football, enough for a varsity and JV team. A 38-6 win over John Swett broke a 23-game losing streak.
James decided not to have a junior varsity this year because of the delayed season, but there are still plenty of positives. That 4-0 record for one. And linebacker David Clark is headed to Division III George Fox in Oregon to play football. He has a 3.5-grade point average to boot.
“He’s only been playing football for three years,” James said. “This shows we can develop players.”
James came to MD from Oakland Tech three years before he got the coaching job. He was hired as a campus supervisor. After school, he was an assistant coach at Tech.
When the previous Mt. Diablo coach left after the 2017 season, James asked the school principal what he intended to do about the downtrodden program. Who was going to be the new coach?
“He said, ‘I’m looking at our future coach,’” James said.
James fully expects to have over 50 players out for the team this fall. He is planning for varsity and junior varsity teams. Non-league games are scheduled against Harbor-Santa Cruz, Irvington and American. The Red Devils likely will come into the season as strong contenders to win the Diablo Athletic League Valley Division.
That doesn’t mean James’ mission to rebuild Mt. Diablo’s program will be over.
“A lot of kids want to go to Pittsburg or De La Salle,” James said. “We have to get people to believe, to trust the process. We’re still battling.”
One problem is that much of the Mt. Diablo attendance area is in Bay Point, which is as close to Pittsburg High and its elite football program as it is to Mt. Diablo.
At one time, Mt. Diablo’s football team could compete with the Pittsburgs and De La Salles of the world.
“We were De La Salle before De La Salle,” said Ralph Vallis, a 1965 alum and former coach at MD. “We had a lot of players. We had a lot of kids.”
Former 49er Dan Colchico played at Mt. Diablo. So did offensive lineman Joe DeRosa and Pat Micco. In 1975, they were two key members of the offensive line protecting Cal quarterback Joe Roth and opening holes for Chuck Muncie en route to a Pac-8 co-title.
John Ralson, who coached at Stanford and with the Denver Broncos, also coached at Mt. Diablo.
The team’s best years in football were in the late 1950s and early-to-mid ‘60s, when it won several championships, recalled Lou Adamo, who heads the school’s Hall of Fame committee.
Whether Mt. Diablo can return to those glory days remains to be seen. But the improvement under James has created excitement.
“We’re like the talk of the town in Concord,” James said. “We’re getting a lot of support from alums. But our job is not finished.”
A victory over Concord on Friday would be just one more step. But it will be a huge leap for a school that once had a proud sports tradition.
