Birmingham’s varsity football team returned home from their trip to Texas after a tough loss to Steele High School 49-7, one of the top-ranked teams in the state. Overall, Birmingham has had a strong start to the 2023 season, winning three out of their five non-league games.
The team now has a 4-2 record after dominating their main West Valley League rival, Granada Hills High School, 31-0. At the start of the season, they blew out Royal High School 60-0 (week 1), Oak Park High School 56-7 (week 3), and Hueneme High School 56-0 (week 4), but lost big to Notre Dame 41-0 in week two. I asked Birmingham’s senior offensive lineman, Abdoni Ubeda, about the loss to Notre Dame. “We simply didn’t have an answer to the plays they were running. We were playing checkers, but they were playing chess.”
Birmingham, the defending City Open Division Champions, is doing great to start the first half of the season, but they struggle against Southern Section CIF teams and out-of-state teams. From conversations with players on the team, we are facing either a team we for sure know we’re going to beat, or a team with actual size, speed, and talent with a chance to beat Birmingham. Looking back on the squad’s run from last season (2022-23) that went 9-5, Birmingham lost to very talented teams like Notre Dame, Chaminade, Westlake, and Laguna Hills.
Two weeks ago, Steele High School definitely was a tough school to beat, as they’re ranked #1 in San Antonio and #16 in the entire state of Texas. They had insane talent all around the ball. Just two young players on the team really stood out– quarterback Chad Warner, a junior with 3557 passing yards, and 36 touchdowns to only 6 interceptions in his varsity career, and talented junior wide receiver Jalen Cooper, who is having a monstrous season with 552 yards and 10 touchdowns in only four games!
Birmingham travels to Chatsworth High School for an away West Valley League game on Friday, October 6. The Chancellors have a 3-3 record, but BCCHS is looking for another convincing victory against a league opponent. The Patriots then return home for their homecoming game against El Camino Real (2-4).
