With a team consisting mostly of beginners, River Islands coach Nick Hardenbrook’s main objective last season was to get them to fall in love with the sport.
Mission accomplished.
“When I was a kid playing football and even when I went to Ripon High, we would go home after football practice and play Madden or NCAA,” the 2012 Ripon graduate said. “Last year, none of my players were playing football video games, but these last two weeks they’re messaging me wanting to play NCAA. We have the kids liking football now. That’s probably my favorite things about all this, so far.”
The next step is building on the foundation set in the program’s inaugural season.
Turnout for summer workouts doubled, and the program has the numbers to field varsity and JV teams with a projected 30-man roster on each.
The Riptide were not discouraged by a 1-7 finish as a frosh-soph squad, which took its lumps against established powerhouse programs in the region.
“I’m grateful for the losses,” sophomore Alex Henry III said. “We needed that to make us better.
“This is our first year playing against grown seniors,” he added. “No matter how much bigger or taller they are, we will hit them.”
Now a varsity team, though still without seniors, River Islands continues to venture into uncharted territory but with elevated enthusiasm.
“Last year was pretty much our preseason for year,” junior Idrees ElFarra said. “Everybody was getting their feet wet, including me — that was my first year of playing football.
“We were all together as one and trying to build each other up every step of the way. Even with one win and a lot of losses and being in a very tough league, we’ve had a lot of improvement from last year. I think we should be ready.”
Here are things to look out for in the Riptide’s inaugural varsity campaign:
Hitting the Mother Lode
River Islands was thrown into the fire in its first season as a temporary member of the Valley Oak League. The Riptide faced seven freshman teams, and the lone win came against Riverbank’s JV.
River Islands and Riverbank will continue to get acquainted as two of the newest members of an altered Mother Lode League. Bret Harte, Calaveras and Summerville are the holdovers.
Linden returns after multiple league changes since leaving the MLL in 2018, and the Lions come in as an early favorite. They went 9-3 last year and won a playoff game in Division III. The Mother Lode is Division VI. Big Valley Christian is another newcomer. Millennium was placed in the MLL, but its football program has dissolved.
River Islands will prepare for league with road games at Franklin, Modesto Christian and Chavez, which were a combined 4-26 last year.
The Riptide picked up another non-league opponent for as a Week 9 vacancy left by Millennium. Filling in is Viewpoint, a small charter school out of Calabasas.
Getting offensive
River Islands was shut out in five of its eight games last season.
With another offseason of physical training and mental work, Hardenbrook believes his offense is ready to begin unlocking its potential.
The Riptide’s triple-option attack is meant to capitalize on the team’s speed and playmaking while masking size deficiencies up front.
On top of being one of the team’s best athletes, sophomore quarterback Michael Figueroa is one of the few with previous playing experience.
“With our triple option, we have to have someone with experience and somebody who is going to be dynamic with the ball in his hands,” Hardenbrook said. “We knew from the first summer practice (last season) Mike would need to have the ball in his hands in some capacity.”
ElFarra was the zero-week starter behind center last season. Despite his unfamiliarity with the sport, the team wanted to exploit ElFarra’s natural instincts and leadership as a standout point guard in basketball. A midseason injury forced a switch to Figueroa, which later allowed ElFarra to play his preferred position at receiver.
“With (ElFarra), he’s similar to Michael,” Hardenbrook said. “We can stick him in any position and build a whole offense around him.”
The offensive line is anchored by stout sophomore center Dillon Uch.
Duck’s defense
First-year defensive coordinator Sam Hughes, who played cornerback at Oregon, has been tasked with fortifying a unit that surrendered 35.8 points per game.
“I think just him knowing all the techniques and being a former college player has been huge for us,” ElFarra said. “He’s giving us college drills he didn’t even learn until college, and we’re able to implement things other teams are not doing. We’re working on a lot of different coverages and different looks.”
While ElFarra is entrenched at cornerback, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Henry is the unquestioned leader at linebacker.
“The kid is a dog,” Hardenbrook said. “There’s always one kid whose name you hear over and over and over again in games, and that’s him for us. I remember last year saying, ‘This is getting kind of annoying,’ because this was the only person making plays on our team. Alex is a special kid. He’s one of our biggest, strongest and fastest players. He has everything going for him.”
Hardenbrook is also high on 6-3 junior defensive end Chigozie Ugoriji, whom he describes as “an athletic freak” with limitless potential.
Home sweet home
The Riptide can’t wait to finally play its first home game, even if it’s not at the permanent home site. With no stadium of its own, River Islands played exclusively on the road last year, and its first three games of 2024 will be away.
Home games will be played under the lights with on campus, where the team has been holding practices on a turf field. Beyond this season, the Riptide will host at a privately-owned, town-center stadium off campus.
River Islands welcomes Big Valley Christian on Sept. 20 for its first home game.
“It’s going to be an honor to be the first ones to be touching that field,” Henry said. “We’re making history.”
There will only be three home games, however. Linden visits on Oct. 4, and the Riptide takes on Viewpoint on Saturday, Oct. 26. No matter where they play, they are going to feel the love.
“If you’ve been to or seen any of our games from last year, you just know that our crowd and support from the community is amazing,” ElFarra said. “In our first game, the stands for our side at Lathrop was completely filled. That was an away game, and that was most of our away games.
“Can’t wait for all that noise in our own community. That’ll probably be my favorite moment of the season.”
Outlook
This fledgling program dares to dream.
“One day, this new school will be undefeated and make it to state,” Henry said.
The Riptide also realize there is much work to be done.
“Our biggest goal this year is to get varsity experience,” Hardenbrook said. “Our kids don’t know anything about varsity football. I don’t even know if I have kids with older brothers who played varsity football. Just getting the experience is such a big deal.
“As far as what we can do next year and in the future, we gotta start it this year. Just keeping that positivity that we have and the love for the sport is important for these kids. This gives the community something to get excited about and somewhere to go on a Friday night. I don’t have a win-loss goal in mind, but in the league we’re in, we should at least be competitive.”
