California expecting another banner season

Aug 23, 2026 By Bill Hughes 4 min read

The California Trojans were the Class A Tri-County South Conference champions in 2025, and head coach Ed Woods wants to see his team there again.

“Our expectations and goals don’t change,” he said without him ever mentioning the Trojans being the defending conference champions. “Every year, we want to win the Tri-County South. That’s definitely an expectation. We also want to win some games in the playoffs. Those are the expectations.”

For Woods and his staff, much like every football team, the season doesn’t start in August, and he feels his team is focused on another TCS crown.

“To make that happen, it starts in December for us,” he said. “The problem is, and a lot of the schools have issues because of the numbers – kids are playing multiple sports.

“You really aren’t getting the core kids in the weight room from December through the school year, but this past year, we had a lot of younger kids, and it was helpful to them.”

The time and attention the younger kids were able to receive was huge while other players were in different sports seasons.

“The core starters are playing basketball, they are wrestling or playing baseball,” Woods said. “That’s kind of a struggle, but it is for most Class A schools.

“The weight room is big. But after the spring sports are over, we had pretty much 100 percent participation all summer long in the weight room. The problem is, it is only two, two-and-a-half months of lifting and conditioning. It isn’t enough, but we will take it.”

California has a solid group of players back and when asked who the top returners were, Woods spoke about nine players.

Among the group are five seniors, three juniors, and a sophomore.

The quintet of seniors includes wide receiver-safety-linebacker Chase Shemansky, wide receiver-defensive back Weston Monticelli, guard and defensive lineman Kyle Marshall, tackle-linebacker Colton Lowden, and wide receiver-linebacker Elijah Carpenter.

“We need senior leadership from them,” Wood said. “They are a big part of what we want to do.”

The trio of juniors are two-way lineman John Reeves and tailback-cornerback Alan Dennis, and fullback-defensive end Brayden Crockett while sophomore Brandon Meier moves in at quarterback after playing last year as a freshman. Dennis is the leading returning rusher with 136 yards a year ago.

“We need (Reeves) to play well at center and I have high expectations for John,” Woods said. “Brandon did a good job for us last year and we hope to see growth from him.”

Crockett is moving to defensive end from linebacker.

There has been plenty of offseason talk about Beth-Center being the top team in the conference, and when asked about his former team, Woods is aware of the hype.

“From what I hear, Beth-Center is supposed to be the team to beat this year as they have a lot of returners,” he said. “I think the majority of their kids are returning. Before any of us play games, they are definitely the team to beat.”

A new team to the conference this year, Frazier, is the team that ended California’s season a year ago in the playoffs.

“Frazier will be a tough team and a tough game for us,” he said. “They are a contender.

“I am not sure about the rest of the conference, though. Carmichaels has a new coach. I am not sure what Jefferson-Morgan has back, but George (Messich) has been there forever and always does a great job with what he has coming back. I don’t know much about West Greene, but that staff always coaches them up, and I am sure Avella will be ready.”

Woods is happy to seCalifornia has one of the toughest non-conference schedules in Class A. The Trojans play Mohawk, Washington and Fort Cherry, and Woods believes it will test his team, especially on the lines.

“The play up front is always key,” he said. “I am not sure how we compare to (the non-conference opponents), but we are going to find out soon enough and we are excited to play those three games.

“I wanted playoff-caliber teams right off the bat, and it will tell us what kind of team, and what kind of players, we have.”

The Trojans open the season Friday when they host Mohawk.