With the San Diego County Football Officials Association undergoing an injection of new blood, the 2022 high school football schedule has been stretched and tweaked to accommodate a shortage of youth football officials.
According to a report last month on KGTV, membership in the organization had plummeted from 400 pre-pandemic to about 270.
Recruitment during the pandemic has been a top reason for the lower numbers. Association members are responsible for officiating both youth football and high school games.
Thus, traditional Friday night high school games will no longer be that traditional with teams playing on Thursday and Saturday this season to accommodate the downturn of game officials.
It’s not a wholesale changeover, but it’s noticeable.
As in Week 1. The Mount Miguel Matadors will kick off their season with a non-league home game against the Sweetwater Red Devils on Thursday, Aug. 18. Kick-off is 6:30 p.m.
The Matadors will play another Thursday game on Sept. 1 against the visiting Montgomery Aztecs. Montgomery will turn around and play a Thursday night game at El Cajon Valley High School on Sept. 8.
Sweetwater will host Mission Bay in another Thursday game also on Sept. 8. Sweetwater head coach Ervin Hernandez said the move forward a day will affect the team’s daily routine, but not by that much.
“We’ve had to adjust out practice schedule but it’s nothing that we can’t handle,” he said. “But we’ll go from there.”
So will the Matadors.
Mount Miguel finished 4-5 last season with two games not played because of COVID-19 protocols. The Matadors and Red Devils were scheduled to play last year but scheduling could not be arranged, and the game was not played. They will get a chance to renew acquaintances next Thursday in Spring Valley.
Mount Miguel finished with a winning 3-2 record in Grossmont Valley League play in 2021 with wins over neighborhood rival
Monte Vista (41-0), El Cajon Valley (47-16) and Valhalla (27-13) and losses to West Hills (35-6) and El Capitan (35-28).
The Matadors also did not play Santana High School last year.
Despite the loss of two regular season games, Mount Miguel did qualify for the San Diego Section Division IV playoffs, earning the No. 9 seed in a highly competitive 26-20 loss against eighth-seeded La Jolla Country Day.
Underclassmen helped lead the way for the Matadors last season.
Jeremiah Castillo passed for 365 yards with four touchdowns in eight games as a sophomore while also scoring four rushing touchdowns and making one touchdown catch.
Davian McGowan had 420 rushing yards as a sophomore.
Departed senior Ruben Hernandez topped Mount Miguel last season with 870 all-purpose yards in seven games to go with a team-leading 14 touchdowns.
Castillo ranked second on the team with 561 all-purpose yards while McGowan ranked third with 462 all-purpose yards.
Hernandez set the pace with 995 total offensive yards (720 rushing, 125 passing and 150 receiving), followed by Castillo with 864 total yards (391 rushing, 365 passing and 108 receiving). Hernandez earned first team all-league honors as a running back while Castillo earned first team all-league honors as a defensive back. Tyler Lopez received second team defensive honors as a sophomore.
Actually, Thursday games are not that uncommon.
The Matadors also opened last season with a Thursday game at Patrick Henry, a 42-7 setback.
Top-seeded Patrick Henry went on to defeat second-seeded University City, 49-21, in last year’s CIF championship game.
Following the season opener against Sweetwater, Mount Miguel travels to the South Bay the following week to battle the Chula Vista Spartans on Aug. 26.
Both Sweetwater and Chula Vista are Division IV opponents, making the outcome of those back-to-back games key for the Matadors in terms of playoff seeding.
