Bishop Gorman-Mater Dei rivalry renewal has prep world abuzz

More than 19,500 high schools belong to the National Federation. So without a bona fide playoff system to determine a true national football champion, the odds (and logistics) would seem remote that two from different states would meet in August with those implications riding on the outcome.

But when it comes to Mater Dei of Santa Ana, California, and Bishop Gorman of 5959 S. Hualapai Way, where there are wills, there are ways.

For the third time in six years, a state line will be crossed Friday for a showdown between the well-heeled private Catholic schools that has the high school football world abuzz and atwitter.

Defending national champion Mater Dei, ranked No. 2 by MaxPreps, will meet the sixth-rated Gaels at 7 p.m. at Gorman. If you happen to reside in the well-manicured neighborhood across the street from the Gaels’ field and don’t want a stranger parking in your driveway, I would suggest putting down the road cone with Gorilla Glue.

Man with the plan

This will be the third installment in the Mater Dei-Gorman series, the seed for which was planted by former Gorman and UNLV coach Tony Sanchez before moving to Las Vegas in 2009.

Sanchez had been the coach at California High in San Ramon, where the football team’s archnemesis was omnipotent De La Salle — a private Catholic school near Oakland that won 151 consecutive games from 1992 to 2004. In Sanchez’s final game as coach, Cal High lost 21-14 to De La Salle.

“I wanted to compete with those guys and play at the national level,” Sanchez said in a 2021 interview about Gorman’s rise to national prominence under his watch. “If we’re going to be the best, we gotta go play the best. So we raised a bunch of money and flew out to Seattle and played Bellevue, the team that ended De La Salle’s streak.”

Cal High lost by a touchdown. But once Sanchez had access to Gorman’s plentiful resources, he began scheduling national powerhouses of a similar ilk that helped the Gaels become one themselves.

In his six seasons, Gorman went 85-5, won six Nevada big school championships and the 2014 national high school title.

“We’d bus our JV to play Mater Dei, Servite, you name it,” Sanchez said about lining up against superior competition when envious local rivals refused to schedule the Gorman apprentices. “Our program went to another level because you got kids who were battle-tested.”

Mater Dei’s resurgence

At the same time Gorman was becoming a national force, Mater Dei was coming off a four-year period during which it lost 20 games and slipped to 4-6 in 2011 — its first losing season since legendary 73-year-old coach Bruce Rollinson assumed charge in 1989.

“When I revamped Mater Dei in 2012, I had a goal of developing a national power,” Rollinson said. “We were always good … but we weren’t at the elite level. There was a whole series of things that had to be done in order to attract some more of the top players in our area.”

One of those was to schedule opponents such as Bishop Gorman, which by that time was being coached by Sanchez’s brother, Kenny. It was Mater Dei that ended Gorman’s 55-game winning streak in 2017 with a 35-21 victory at Santa Ana Stadium in a game so anticipated it was shown on multiple TV networks.

“With that victory, we go ‘OK. We can play on this stage and not just once,’ ” Rollinson said in paying tribute to Gorman.

In the rematch on the Gaels’ field turf in 2018, junior quarterback Bryce Young led Mater Dei to a 42-0 season-opening victory. Three years later, Young won the Heisman Trophy after his sophomore season at Alabama.

Between them, the Sanchez brothers (three) and Rollinson (six) have produced nine national championships, including the one Mater Dei won last season, along with a veritable catalog of blue-chip recruits.

There are many who believe high school sports has spiraled out of control with the advent of intersectional rivalries, nationally televised matchups, widespread recruiting and name, image and likeness payouts that are now legal in 16 states.

These skeptics, no doubt, include homeowners near the Gorman campus who have yet to invest in driveway road cones for when Mater Dei visits and there’s no place to park.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.