Practice for the 2008 high school football season is just beginning, but various websites and scouting services have already made predictions for what will happen.
The consensus is that Culver City will win the Ocean League for the third consecutive season, followed by Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.
Calpreps rates Culver City No. 7 in the entire Western Division with Santa Monica 15th. The top three-rated teams in the division are St. Paul, Palmdale and Gahr.
Culver City has an 11-2-2 record in the Ocean League the last three years. Both losses were to Santa Monica and both ties were against Beverly Hills.
The quarterbacks who highlighted the Culver City-Santa Monica duels the last three years have moved on. Culver City’s Darius Banks is at Eastern Washington and Santa Monica’s Ryan Katz at Oregon State.
Forecasters are impressed with Banks’ replacement, Marquel Carter, who excelled in summer competition, and nearly as complimentary to Garret Safron, Santa Monica’s replacement for Katz.
Banks’ primary receiver, Antwon Moutra, also graduated and is now at UCLA.
Culver City will open its season Sept. 12 at St. Bernard. Santa Monica’s opener the same night will be at Leuzinger.
Because the playing surface at Corsair Field is being changed from natural grass to FieldTurf the opening month’s games of both Santa Monica College and Samohi were scheduled on the road.
On Sept. 19 Samohi will play at Palisades. The Vikings will be at Venice Sept. 26 and at Long Beach Jordan Oct. 3 before making their home debut Oct. 10 against Capistrano Valley.
When league games begin Samohi will at Morningside Oct. 17, followed by home games against Beverly Hills on the 24th and Culver City on the 31st. The regular season for the Vikings will conclude Nov. 7 at Inglewood and 14th at home against Hawthorne.
