As I expected, the Servite has a very, very good football team -- one that is capable of not only winning the Trinity League and beating its Mater Dei rival for the first time since I was about 12 but of also bagging the CIF Southern Section's Pac-5 championship.
The Friars are very good on both sides of the line of scrimmage, as they demonstrated while dominating Poly Thursday night at Veterans Stadium.
And, as I suspected, the Jackrabbits were immensely overrated by much of the high school sports-covering media.
And that's no fault of Coach Raul Lara's staff or players. Hey, my media brethren: What part of NO returnees on defense and just three or four "starting-types" on offense didn't you get?
The Jackrabbits will improve but coming out of their monster non-league schedule (St. Bonaventure, Narbonne and Oceanside, in that order), they would do very well to be 2-2 going into Moore League play.
And, of course, the Jackrabbits open league play against Jordan and Lakewood . . . and those, ultimately, are the most significant games they'll play in 2009.
This season will be an eye opener for them to play the best players and not their favorites and the parents with the deep pockets.