While the MacDonald Football team narrowly missed the CCS playoffs in its first season with seniors competing, the coaching staff was rewarded for ending the season with a 9-1 overall record. Head Coach Burt Codera was selected to skipper the North Team in the annual Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star football game on Jan. 31, and he was joined by the rest of his coaching staff.
“I first double checked with my staff that they were all available to do it, but I knew they would be really excited for the opportunity,” Codera said. “My staff was super excited and just had so much fun with the opportunity, and like being able to create that opportunity for them was really special for me.”
Codera and assistant coaches Fred Stewart, Tony Santos, Kevin Fletcher, Kalani Bounos, Gabe Ghazinfari, Andre Robinson and Mateo Carlini led the North to a 31-20 win over the South in the senior showcase.
Their team was made up of senior all-star players from schools across Santa Clara County. It included MacDonald High School’s Isaiah Tela, John Leonard, Kush Patel, Siaosi Hautau and Moussa Fall; Santa Clara High School’s Santiago Lopez; and Wilcox High School’s Santino Barragan, Anthony Mulay, Gilbert Padilla and Kyree Brown.
For Codera, seeing kids from rival schools come together made the game fun.
“It was really cool to see a bunch of guys that grew up playing against each other in football, and then they all played against each other in other sports, whether it was basketball or Little League, and then to see them and have these rivalries in high school that you’re supposed to like, not like the guys from the other school, but see them bond and come together and then hang out with each other and really make friendships, I mean, to me, like that was probably the coolest part,” said Codera.
He said it wasn’t just Wilcox, Santa Clara and MacDonald coming together, but schools all over Santa Clara County.
“The kids we had were from schools that were ‘rival schools.’ We had Branham and Leigh; they’re not supposed to like each other,” said Codera. “We had Cupertino and Monte Vista. Again, they’re supposed to be rivals. But it was funny that most of the rivalries, those guys ended up being the closest friends. They would hang out in line when it was time to bond and unite and try to become a team in two weeks.”
Codera and his team of coaches had just 10 practices and approximately two weeks on the field to bring the North team together.
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