UPPER LAKE >> Upper Lake and Anderson Valley met twice during the 2015 high school football season and split those two meetings, the Cougars winning 34-22 during North Central League III play and the Panthers returning the favor with a 32-18 victory in the end-of-season Redwood Bowl.
While both teams completed their NCL III schedules at 8-1 and finished as league co-champions, there was absolutely nothing co-equal about the two schools earlier this month when league coaches met to select the All-NCL III team.
Anderson Valley walked out of the meeting with eight All-Leaguers, including both most valuable players — junior Tony Pardini on offense and senior Will Lemons on defense — while Upper Lake, playing in the eight-man NCL III for the first time, came away with only four All-Leaguers.
So much for co-champion equality.
“I think part of it was being the new kid on the block,” Upper Lake head coach Frank Gudmundson said when asked why he thought the Cougars had only half as many All-Leaguers as Anderson Valley. “At one point I had to remind them that we had beaten them (Panthers) and were co-champions.”
Upper Lake’s honored players were junior running back Dre Santos, junior quarterback Derek Pritchard, senior wide receiver Ray Gutierrez, and senior running back/wide receiver Isaac Nevarez.
Calistoga and Rincon Valley each had three players honored on the All-League team followed by Point Arena and Tomales with two apiece and Potter Valley and Laytonville with one each.
It was the first varsity football championship of any sort for Upper Lake since 1992. Gudmundson, in his second season with the team as head coach, went from worst to first after his 2014 club failed to win a single game and finished dead last in the final year of the NCL II.
The turnaround in the football program has been remarkable, according to Gudmundson.
“They’re already looking forward to next year. When’s the last time that happened at Upper Lake?” Gudmundson said of his returning players, which includes most of his 2015 roster.
While the Cougars return all but a handful of starters next season, such is not the case with their chief opponents from this past season — Anderson Valley, Point Arena and Calistoga. Of the 24 players to receive All-League honors this season, 19 are seniors.
