Prep football rankings: Sunnyside and new coach make debut; Clovis holds at No. 1

He won a mythical state football championship with superstars now playing in the NFL, jumped into the administrative pool, returned to coaching, packed up yet again and aimed for Fresno.

So here is Gordon Wood, deploying “playground” football with a 35-player roster – “Whatever we need to get the ball in the end zone” – and stoking the briquettes at Sunnyside High.

The 2-1 Wildcats – appearing in The Bee’s Top 20 for the first time at No. 17 – are averaging 508 yards a game and have scored 110 points against ranked opponents in their past two while marching into a nonleague showdown at home with Memorial (3-0) Friday night.

“We like being low-key and the underdog,” says Wood, who won’t satisfy those preferences at this pace.

Sunnyside rocked then-No. 18 Mt. Whitney 49-19 in Visalia before winning a 61-42 shootout with No. 19 Clovis East of the Tri-River Athletic Conference last Friday.

With a 6-foot-4 junior quarterback, Nate Hughes, and a deep supporting cast of exceptional athletes on both sides of the ball such as Tajee Scott, Travis Wilson, Deshawn Ruffin, Joshua Woods, Ovell Patterson, Johnny De La Cruz, Aaron Mouton, Trae Magee, Marcus Hawkins and Chris White, the Wildcats will press for a fourth straight North Yosemite League title after coach Jason Murray went 3 for 3 before joining Matt Johnson’s staff at Edison.

“Jason’s a great guy who put me on good understanding where things were here,” Wood says. “He was phenomenal in my transition.”

What a transition it’s been for Wood, a former standout tight end on powerful Wyoming teams of coach Paul Roach in the late 1980s and early ’90s before rubbing shoulders briefly with Dan Marino on the Miami Dolphins.

Eventually, Wood coached current NFL players Reggie Bush (49ers) and Alex Smith (Chiefs) on Helix-La Mesa teams that went 13-0, 12-1, 11-2 and 10-3 with two Southern Section championships and one mythical state title from 1999-2002.

That’s when Wood’s wife, Dawn, made it clear: “There won’t be family Thanksgivings.”

Her husband then became a principal at two elementary schools in Lake Elsinore for 10 years before the coaching itch returned.

“I missed the game too much,” he says, “and my wife said, ‘We’ll live in an apartment if we need to.’ ”

Wood’s debut at Sunnyside was a flop – a 7-0 loss to El Diamante at Visalia.

“It was the worst coaching job of my career,” Wood says. “We ran up and down the field between the 20s and had close to 400 yards, but couldn’t score. I totally blew that and it still bothers me.”

But the Wildcats have reversed that decision with offensive clinics against Mt. Whitney and Clovis East under Wood, who’s teaching restorative practices (restoring relationships between students and teachers) at Sunnyside.

Wood can’t predict whether the Wildcats ultimately will be able to run with the likes of Ridgeview, Lemoore and Sanger in the section’s Division II neighborhood.

“We’re doing some complicated things, and that can be overwhelming,” he says. “Our jobs as coaches is to teach, push and challenge, and see how they respond. The kids are learning at a face pace. I don’t know where this will take us, but I’m certainly excited to see where it goes.”

This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Prep football rankings: Sunnyside and new coach make debut; Clovis holds at No. 1."