A clear-cut favorite to win the TRAC? One coach says ‘it’s going to be a gauntlet’

Expect the Tri-River Athletic Conference to be a wild one this season.

How so?

Every TRAC high school football team has had a successful nonleague portion of the schedule

Such as The Bee’s 10th-ranked Buchanan (5-0) going to Liberty-Bakersfield and winning 14-10. The Bears’ defense has been strong throughout.

How about No. 3 Central (5-0) throttling No. 13 Liberty the following week, 41-14, which is unheard of considering how successful the Patriots always are.

No. 9 Clovis West is 3-2 and picked up a win over Edison-Huntington Beach in the season opener. That was an impressive win for the Golden Eagles behind freshman quarterback JJ Howard.

No. 4 Clovis North had a tough schedule facing two teams from out out of the Fresno area and lost both games, but the Broncos still posed a threat especially with star running back McKay Madsen taking the handoffs with Jackson Cinfel.

No. 2 Clovis is 5-0 and has an impressive win over Frontier. In that game, the Cougars didn’t let up and won 57-27 behind the arm of Deagan Rose.

Speaking of an undefeated team.

Take a look at explosive Clovis East. The Bee’s top-ranked Timberwolves are racking up points and scored 50+ points in three games. Impressive wins came against West-Salt Lake City (24-21) and Grant-Sacramento (59-45).

It’s anybody’s guess who will win the TRAC. It could come down to a two-way tie or maybe a three-way tie.

Clovis North is the defending TRAC and Central Section champions.

The Broncos open TRAC play at Central in The Fresno Bee Game of the Week.

Every team has playmakers on both sides of the ball and it will make for an interesting race to be the TRAC champion.

Some refer to the TRAC as the SEC in high school football.

No matter how things go, one thing can be expected: a wild ride in the TRAC.

Coaches for each team gave what they think about this year’s TRAC:

Kyle Biggs, Central: “This is the best TRAC been top to bottom in a long time. Every game, you have to revamp yourself and can’t live off what you do the week before. You can’t look ahead and can’t look back. We don’t talk about the TRAC. We talk about our opponent and just take it one game at a time. We’re only focused on this team, this game and this week. Just giving them our best shot.”

Eric Brown, Clovis West: “I would say it’s probably as strong as it’s been from top to bottom. Everyone played a pretty hard preseason schedule. It’s probably similar to about two years ago where we won the TRAC and then there were three teams that tied for second. It’s going to be really close and come down to the last game and see who wins it.”

Michael Jacot, Clovis North: “The big thing for us this year is I’ve been so focused just on us and who we are. It’s been week-to-week for me. I haven’t had an opportunity to really see the other teams other than seeing their records. It should be exciting. We’ve been week-to-week and we got our full attention on this Friday night.

Brandon Nagle, Clovis East: “I just think everybody’s well coached. It’s hard to explain. That’s why it’s like the SEC. I think it’s one of the best conferences in California. Any given Friday something could happen and that’s pretty fun. It’s a five week grind and everybody is just kind of on a mission to try to win it.”

Aaron Wilkins, Clovis: “With our young quarterback, we had an addition of two to three kids that came from other schools and I’ll just tell you what: it’s just so balanced since I’ve been here. I’ve never seen it like this and I’ve asked every single coach and some of these coaches have been coaching the TRAC for 15 to 20 years and they have never seen it like this either. So shoot, it’s awesome, but golly, it’s stressful.”

Ross Wood, Buchanan: “I think this is probably the most competitive the TRAC’s been in a while. Every school’s got talent and ability to win any game. It’s going to be a dogfight these next five weeks. From the standpoint of us, we have a lot of stuff that we sought to improve on as a football team. We’re staying focused on ourselves obviously as we work through it. It’s going to be a gauntlet.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2024, 2:11 PM.