Records are common in every sport, and the San Diego Section probably set one Sunday when the Football Advisory Committee took less than an hour to seed the entire 2024 post-season playoffs.
“It was all laid out by the rules and the only thing we had to do was flip a couple of teams (that were in the same league and scheduled to meet in the first round) and that was it,” said Ramona High coach Damon Baldwin, the North County representative on the committee.
“MaxPreps/Cal Preps’ system gives everyone a number and it’s listed like 28.6, but since several teams may have that same number, they keep going out to 28.67 or 28.678 or 28.6789 (until they have one that is superior to the other).
“The only section team to decide not to participate at all was Rancho Buena Vista.”
The Open Division took less than 30 seconds as Lincoln, La Costa Canyon, Cathedral Catholic and Mission Hills had separated themselves after all winning their season finales.
Divisions 1-5 were filled with the next 60 teams with the top four seeds in each division getting a bye game. Division 5AA was for teams that opted out of state playoff participation and Division 6 was for 8-man football.
Ramona, despite a 2-8 overall record, was the No. 1 seed in Division 4 after beating Fallbrook 35-14. The Bulldogs normally would have been slotted into Division 2 or maybe Division 3 before the season, but youth and a series of injuries led to a seven-game losing streak.
“Before the season we were No. 1 in Division 2, but that based a lot of how we’d done last year and most of those players graduated,” explained Baldwin, who is very much in favor of the current system.
“Being in Division 3 or 4 made sense considering all the problems we had this year. What I like about this is the young kids get a sense of what it’s like to be in the playoffs. Being a No. 1 seed, we get a week off to get healthier and we’re calling up some freshmen and junior varsity players.
“They’ll all get to experience the playoffs — hopefully several games. Being a No. 1 seed, we have a home game for two rounds, provided we win, which is a big thing this time of year. We know the Ramona fans will show up and whoever we play will have a road trip.”
Not to mention the weather could be a factor in the coming weeks and the cool evenings are sometimes acute in November.
Ramona is scheduled to play the winner of Friday night’s game between Calexico (6-4) of the Imperial Valley League and Montgomery (7-3) of the Metro South Bay League.
“I don’t know anything about either team but we’re going into the playoffs with the mentality that we want to win our last game, whenever it is,” Baldwin said. “We do that, and we can win a championship.
“We have grades coming out this week and we can return to the weight room and study a lot of film. We knew coming in this was going to be a rebuilding year and with this system, because of the strength of our league, we pretty much knew we’d make the playoffs. We just didn’t know where.
“It’s much more equitable for a team like ours. It’s based on this season and although we’ve never played in Division 4 before, it’s just a new challenge and a chance to see more teams.”
Ramona got the No. 1 seed in Division 4, El Capitan from just down the hill in Lakeside is No.2, Grossmont is No. 3 and Mission Bay is No. 4.
“During the season we played six or seven Division 1 teams and we played them very close until the injuries hit us,” Baldwin said. “We know teams like El Capitan, Grossmont and Mission Bay are strong.
“I think we’re right where we’re supposed to be.”
