Last year around this time, B2G co-founders Ron Allen and Henry Bell were preparing for the PrepStar California Classic. It was a weekend that featured some of the top prep football players in the state culminating in three all star games at Home Depot Center: an eighth grade game, LA City Section vs San Diego Section, and CIF Southern Section North vs CIF Southern Section South.
This time around B2G decided to kick it up a notch with the very first South Bay BMW West Coast Bowl. The game will be played on Sunday at 3:30pm at Home Depot Center and features future NCAA FBS talent from around the West Coast.
"Our mission (is) to make it a unique game that's been done like never before and in order to do that we had to still bring in the top guys that we can find and fortunately our roster is full of guys that are going to major Division I schools," Allen said.
Scheduled to compete in the game is one of UCLA's most recent recruits, Tahaan Goodman. He's largely considered one of the top safeties in the country.
Crenshaw cornerback Dominique Hatfield (Utah), Lompoc running back Lavon Coleman (Washington), and Narbonne linebacker Keishawn Bierria will also compete in the game.
San Diego Lincoln head coach David Dunn will coach the Red Team and Narbonne's Manuel Douglas will lead the Green Team.
Dunn spent seven seasons in the NFL as a wide receiver with the Bengals, Steelers, Browns, and Raiders.
Douglas is fresh from leading Narbonne to back-to-back LA City Section titles. In all, he's won four CIF titles in his 11 seasons as the head coach of the Gauchos.
One of the twists to the West Coast Bowl is the coaches were responsible for picking their own teams. Allen and Bell selected all the players that would be participating in the game. Those players were placed in a pool and the coaches conducted a draft.
"That was way fun," said Douglas of the draft. "We had a list provided to us. We researched it. We had to definitely get on there and make sure that the kids that we would want were legit but almost all of those kids are."
The draft provided a unique twist that allowed the game to get away from geographical lines and one that will hopefully provide the best matchups for a better all-around game.
Players checked in Thursday evening and began practicing on Friday morning. Some of the off-the-field activities for the players include visiting the Space Shuttle Endeavour as they lead up to kickoff of Sunday's game.
"We decided not compete with the All-American games but we wanted to do something bigger than just a California state game and the West Coast just happened to be a sweet spot where nobody's done it before, so it just made sense," Allen said. "It's been a real cool experience to see all of this talent come together and represent the West."
