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Cosumnes Oaks gearing up for inaugural athletic season
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| Photos by Jon Gudel - Initially, Cosumnes Oaks’ football stadium was scheduled to be ready for the fall. Both bleachers, the press box and scoreboard have been built, but constructing the playing surface has been delayed. |
By John Hull - Citizen Sports Writer
In less than a month, the newest high school in the Elk Grove Unified School District will be opening its doors to students. Cosumnes Oaks High School will be fielding junior varsity teams in all sports this year.
The athletic department will also field freshmen teams in the fall in football and girls’ volleyball. In the winter, there will be freshmen teams that will participate in boys’ and girls’ basketball and, in the spring, baseball.
School officials expect around 600 students for the 2008-2009 academic year, a small number since they’ll only have ninth and 10th graders. Thus, Cosumnes Oaks will compete in the Capital Valley League with other Division IV schools such as Dixon, West Campus, River City, Rio Linda, Foothill, Center and another new high school, Antelope.
The exception to that will be football.
“We’ll be an independent in football for at least two years,” said Cosumnes Oaks athletic director Matt Winn, who transferred from a similar position at Franklin High School. “Our biggest challenge will be getting enough participants to field our teams competitively. Competing at the JV level shouldn’t be that daunting of a task, but playing varsity next year with a small junior class will be difficult.”
Winn comes a couple miles to the east to start building the athletic program at Cosumnes Oaks. The past two years he oversaw the ever-growing Franklin athletic department and prior to that was the Wildcats’ wrestling and cross-country coach when that school opened.
Franklin varsity baseball coach Mike Cody was hired as the school’s new athletic director.
Winn coached wrestling and cross country at his alma mater, Valley High School, where he played football for former Elk Grove coach Dave Hoskins. Winn also ran track and wrestled.
After graduating in 1990, Winn went to the University of Oklahoma where he wrestled and also ran track for the Sooners. He’ll don new colors for the ninth high school in the EGUSD.
Cosumnes Oaks will be clad in navy blue, orange and white uniforms.
Already coaches have been doing some summer drills with their prospective players just to get acquainted.
Cosumnes Oaks will be the first EGUSD school to be equipped with an all-weather track and artificial surface facility for football and soccer.
“Our stadium will not be finished in time for our fall season,” Winn added. “We will play all home football games at Cosumnes River College stadium, while our men’s soccer team will play on our practice fields.”
Winn expects to finalize the Wolf Pack football season schedule by the end of the week. Former Laguna Creek coach Ryan Gomes will be the JV head coach for this season and then move to varsity in 2009. Likely, the Wolf Pack will play its home games Saturday evenings at CRC because that facility is used by Franklin and Valley high schools on alternating Friday nights.
Youth football programs use CRC on Saturday mornings and afternoons.
A school district official said the delay in getting the new facility ready for the fall sports season was because the manufacturer was upgrading the product used in the artificial playing surface and the district wanted the best grade available.
Winn explained the turf is made up primarily of recycled products, such as tires, which gives the surface “a bounce to it” and helps avoid injuries. He added that this type of playing surface pays for itself in about 10 years with money saved on field maintenance costs and labor.
Already, Winn is pleased with the participation already shown by the new students in the athletic program.
“We’ll have somewhere between 30 and 40 percent participation (by the student body),” he said.
And, they have now officially been welcomed to prep athletics in California- maxpreps.com just gave them their own page on their massive Web site.
The athletic department will also field freshmen teams in the fall in football and girls’ volleyball. In the winter, there will be freshmen teams that will participate in boys’ and girls’ basketball and, in the spring, baseball.
School officials expect around 600 students for the 2008-2009 academic year, a small number since they’ll only have ninth and 10th graders. Thus, Cosumnes Oaks will compete in the Capital Valley League with other Division IV schools such as Dixon, West Campus, River City, Rio Linda, Foothill, Center and another new high school, Antelope.
The exception to that will be football.
“We’ll be an independent in football for at least two years,” said Cosumnes Oaks athletic director Matt Winn, who transferred from a similar position at Franklin High School. “Our biggest challenge will be getting enough participants to field our teams competitively. Competing at the JV level shouldn’t be that daunting of a task, but playing varsity next year with a small junior class will be difficult.”
Winn comes a couple miles to the east to start building the athletic program at Cosumnes Oaks. The past two years he oversaw the ever-growing Franklin athletic department and prior to that was the Wildcats’ wrestling and cross-country coach when that school opened.
Franklin varsity baseball coach Mike Cody was hired as the school’s new athletic director.
Winn coached wrestling and cross country at his alma mater, Valley High School, where he played football for former Elk Grove coach Dave Hoskins. Winn also ran track and wrestled.
After graduating in 1990, Winn went to the University of Oklahoma where he wrestled and also ran track for the Sooners. He’ll don new colors for the ninth high school in the EGUSD.
Cosumnes Oaks will be clad in navy blue, orange and white uniforms.
Already coaches have been doing some summer drills with their prospective players just to get acquainted.
Cosumnes Oaks will be the first EGUSD school to be equipped with an all-weather track and artificial surface facility for football and soccer.
“Our stadium will not be finished in time for our fall season,” Winn added. “We will play all home football games at Cosumnes River College stadium, while our men’s soccer team will play on our practice fields.”
Winn expects to finalize the Wolf Pack football season schedule by the end of the week. Former Laguna Creek coach Ryan Gomes will be the JV head coach for this season and then move to varsity in 2009. Likely, the Wolf Pack will play its home games Saturday evenings at CRC because that facility is used by Franklin and Valley high schools on alternating Friday nights.
Youth football programs use CRC on Saturday mornings and afternoons.
A school district official said the delay in getting the new facility ready for the fall sports season was because the manufacturer was upgrading the product used in the artificial playing surface and the district wanted the best grade available.
Winn explained the turf is made up primarily of recycled products, such as tires, which gives the surface “a bounce to it” and helps avoid injuries. He added that this type of playing surface pays for itself in about 10 years with money saved on field maintenance costs and labor.
Already, Winn is pleased with the participation already shown by the new students in the athletic program.
“We’ll have somewhere between 30 and 40 percent participation (by the student body),” he said.
And, they have now officially been welcomed to prep athletics in California- maxpreps.com just gave them their own page on their massive Web site.
