On Saturday March 20th, Calabasas High School will take on Crespi Carmelite High School in both teams’ first game in almost 500 days. 

Calabasas Coyotes

When the Coyotes take the field on Saturday, they will look like a very different team than the year before. Head coach Cary Harris will make his Calabasas coaching debut, having taken over in January of 2020 after Chris Claiborne resigned. Since the Coyotes last game, when they played National Champions St. John Bosco in the Division 1 Playoffs, numerous players have left the program either due to graduation or transfer. Roughly 15 players have transferred out of the program, the majority of those before the arrival of Harris.

Quarterback Tyler Ward will be making his Coyote debut, having transferred from Colorado. Ward, a senior, dealt with injuries his junior season but as a sophomore threw for 2,220 yards and 26 touchdowns in 9 games.

Calabasas played in two scrimmages thus far, one against Agoura and the other against John Burroughs High School. 

“The team built on the scrimmages, corrected some mistakes from the first scrimmage leading up the second one. It was good to see the improvement and we just need to keep getting better,” said Harris.

Crespi Celts

Since taking over the Crespi football program in 2018, head coach Dameon Porter has turned the team around. Before taking over, the Celts went 1-10 in 2017. In just his second season, Porter led Crespi to the Division 6 semi-finals where they lost to Pacifica.

“That was a good run for us. I don’t think a lot of people expected us to make that run, but it was certainly an opportunity for us to rebuild our program and gave us a boost in program trajectory,” said Porter.  

Crespi will try to start the season building off of last season’s success, but will be without three key defensive players from the 2019 team, all due to graduation. Ose Egbase (12.5 sacks), Jackson White (16.5 sacks), and Jeremiah Alemayehu (156 tackles) are all playing college football and will have to be replaced by the Celts.

Returning quarterback Sloan Senofsky will be joined by Notre Dame transfer Zach Siskowic. Porter has not named a starter as of Tuesday but expects to use both quarterbacks as they have different skill sets. 

“We are just excited to have the opportunity to play. None of us knew if this was going to happen so we are excited to be out there. Crespi and Calabasas have not played against each other recently so it’s a good opportunity for two schools relatively close in proximity to compete,” said Porter. 

Calabasas and Crepsi should make for a good game Saturday night at Keith Ritchie Field.