Mater Dei football set for 9-game schedule despite offering 'financial assistance'

Mater Dei, California's No. 1 high school football team, will play just nine regular season games this upcoming 2024 season, coach Raul Lara confirms.

Tarek Fattal | Jul 30, 2024

Running back Ajon Bryant of Mater Dei (Calif.) makes a leaping attempt for a one-handed catch near the end zone against host Corona Centennial in the 2023 season opener. / Photo: Heston Quan

Nobody wants to play Mater Dei?

In mid-June, new Mater Dei football coach Raul Lara was fearful that the defending CIF Southern Section Division 1 and CIF State Open Division champions were only going to play nine games this upcoming season, but he was hopeful the Monarchs would find a tenth game to fill the 2024 fall slate.

"I don't think it will come to that," he said on June 19. "I'm confident we'll get a game. But in all my years of coaching, I've never played a nine-game schedule because we couldn't find a 10th."

As of July 30 - it's official - Lara will embark on something new after 30-plus years of coaching. The Monarchs will play just nine of their allotted 10 regular-season games despite offering 'financial assistance' to any team far and wide willing to travel to Santa Ana.

"I've never been in this situation," Lara said. "I got hired late, and that impacted things. Many teams locally didn't want to play us, but the bigger problem was availability. We reached out to out-of-area and out-of-state programs and couldn't get a game."

Lara was named the new head coach to take over Frank McManus on April 25, which is much later than most new high school football hires. In most cases, schools will announce a new coach in December. McManus was dismissed after one season on April 12.

"Nine games it is," Lara added. "I never had this issue at Long Beach Poly, we'd always want to play big programs. I guess that's changed."

Lara, won five CIF titles at Long Beach Poly, spanning from 2004 to 2012. All were in the highest division. He also made stops at Warren High and St. Anthony before landing in Santa Ana.

Mater Dei will now have two byes. August 30 after playing Corona Centennial on Aug. 22. Then another bye before Trinity League play on Sept. 27 after games against Las Vegas Bishop Gorman (Sept. 6), at Hawaii Kahuku (Sept. 14) and Baltimore St. Frances Academy (Sept. 20).

Mater Dei isn't the only powerhouse program in Southern California that had issues filling a full schedule this fall. Four-time defending LA City Section Open Division champion Birmingham has just eight games on its schedule.

"Nobody wants to play us," Birmingham coach Jim Rose said. "If this scenario played out last year, I'd play Mater Dei, but I have the youngest team in America this season."

Birmingham had its star running back Ronnell Hewitt transfer to Westlake High and quarterback Kingston Tisdell has left to Inglewood High. Rose plans to start14-year-old freshman Daniel KaKooza at quarterback this season.

MONARCHS' 2024 SCHEDULE

(*denotes Trinity League | home games)

Aug. 23: vs. Corona Centennial

Aug. 30: BYE

Sept. 6: vs. Las Vegas Bishop Gorman

Sept. 14: at Hawaii Kahuku

Sept. 20: vs. Baltimore St. Frances Academy

Sept. 27: BYE

Oct. 4: vs. Santa Margarita*

Oct. 11: at Servite*

Oct. 18: at JSerra*

Oct. 25: vs. St. John Bosco*

Nov. 1: vs. Orange Lutheran*

Published Jul 30, 2024|Modified Jul 30, 2024

TAREK FATTAL

Tarek Fattal has been covering high school sports since 2015 in Southern California and primarily in Los Angeles, covering notable athletes such as Bronny James, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Alyssa Thompson. He was with the LA Daily News for eight years, which included being the beat reporter for the UCLA men's basketball team. Tarek can be seen on TV regularly on CBS/KCAL as a sports analyst with Jim Hill.