The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
For the last couple years, the Wilson football team has been saddled with the Moore League bye that nobody wants–the final week of the season. This year the schedule has rotated and the Bruins now have a much more manageable September 20 bye week, while the end-of-year bye becomes Millikan’s problem.
“You’re always planning to go to the playoffs so you’d prefer not to have a bye with high school guys right before the playoffs,” said Wilson coach Scott Meyer. “You want to keep them going–but finding a game in that week 10 is tough too.”
The way Meyer had been dealing with that scheduling issue was by not playing an opening week game and then scheduling a nonleague opponent in the final week of the regular season–a game that was difficult to land and also created a weird finish to the season after more than a month of playing local competition.
This year the Bruins get to play in the opening week, and will host Portola and Marina to open the season, before traveling to Sunny Hills and California High to round out the nonleague schedule. Then they’ll have their bye and open up league play, with Millikan, Poly and Lakewood at home and Compton, Cabrillo, and Jordan on the road.
“We’ve just gotta get over the dang hump,” said Meyer. “We’re close to getting into the playoffs but that hasn’t been good enough.”
The Bruins started their lifting program earlier this offseason and have regularly been in the weight room since November, with a group of nearly 50 returners working out together to get stronger but also build their team identity.
When the schedule hits, the Bruins will open with a scrimmage against Downey on August 16 before opening the season.
“We were looking for games in the area, Portola is going to come to us and Marina is a nice local Long Beach/OC border game,” said Meyer.
The Bruins’ offense was powered by two talented senior backs last year who will graduate, but Meyer’s squad has a ton of returning talent, including returning 6-3 rising junior quarterback Mack Cooper and several linemen.
“I like the guys we have coming back, we’ve got good young guys and the way they’re working right now has been really encouraging,” said Meyer. “Hopefully we can get over that hump.”
Wilson Football Schedule 2024
August 23 vs Portola
August 30 vs Marina
September 6 at Sunny Hills
September 13 at California High
September 20 BYE
September 27 vs Millikan
October 4 at Compton (Compton College)
October 11 at Cabrillo
October 18 vs Long Beach Poly
October 25 at Jordan (Compton College)
November 1 vs Lakewood
