Bolsa’s big first and here’s Week One

By OC Tribune Staff on August 27, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

BOLSA GRANDE’S 1986 CIF-SS football champions were guests of honor for the debut of the new football stadium on the BGHS campus on Friday. The coach of that team, Greg Shadid, is in the middle of the front row (Orange County Tribune photo).

With this week’s games, the 2019 area high school football season will completely be underway. For most schools the openers already played were continuations of traditions.

At Bolsa Grande High School on Friday, it was a blend of the old and the new. Not only did the school observe the opening game for a brand new on-campus stadium, but also there were two nods to the past. Invited onto the field in the pre-game ceremonies – and clustered on the sidelines as well – were members of the first BGHS football team from 1959.

Also on hand were players and coaches from the 1986 Matador team, which was the first Garden Grove League and first Garden Grove Unified School District team to win a CIF-SS football championship.

The ’86 Mats, coached by Greg Shadid, won the Central Division crown that year by defeating Valencia High by the score of 24-7. Since then, Garden Grove High has won two CIF-SS titles, but Bolsa fans can say they got there first.

Bolsa isn’t the only school with reason to celebrate the gorgeous new facility. The new stadium will serve as the home field also for La Quinta, Pacifica and Rancho Alamitos for football and soccer.

Rematches and rewinds

Only “Week One” and we’re already got some really good matchups.

On Thursday, Garden Grove will open its season by hosting Orange High at Monsoor Stadium. Although this is the initial contest for 2019 for both teams, the Argonauts and Panthers will no doubt remember an epic battle played last year.

In a back-and-forth contest, the Argonauts prevailed 21-18. Both teams went on to successful seasons, with Grove finishing as Big 4 champs and advancing to the CIF-SS Division 9 semifinals. They finished 11-3 overall.

Orange was 8-3 overall, finishing second in the Orange Coast League and losing in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 9 tournament.

Our High 5 ranking has Grove rated second in teams in the area of Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Stanton and Westminster and Orange is fifth (OHS makes the list because although it’s located in the Plaza City, students in Garden Grove who live east of Haster Street go to Orange High).

The other big game that’s attracting our attention is the Western-Huntington Beach clash set for Friday at Sheue Field on the Oiler campus. Both teams suffered opening game losses, but are highly-rated again this year, with both getting votes in this week’s CIF-SS polls.

Our poll and theirs

The initial High Five football poll of The Tribune is now out. It’s a little different this year, with three “voters.” Chris Abdelmalek, who is our principal prep sports writer, gets one vote, Tribune editor Jim Tortolano gets one and Maxpreps.com’s numeric ranking system gets the third “vote.”

As you can see, Edison is ranked on top, followed by Garden Grove in second and Marina and Western tied for third. Orange is fifth. Other teams receiving votes are Huntington Beach, Magnolia, Bolsa Grande and Pacifica.