Last season: Rio Vista, which plays in the Sacramento Valley League, went 9-2, losing to Hamilton (Hamilton City) in the CIF Northern Section Div. III playoffs.

Last week: Rio Vista defeated East Nicolaus 36-34. RB Tyler Wilcox carried 14 times for 178 yards with three touchdowns. Wilcox, who also plays LB, added 12 tackles and two sacks defensively.

Tough early season tests: Besides Tomales, Calistoga faces by far what figures to be its toughest tests of the season in the first two weeks. Rio Vista and St. Helena (next week’s foe) are both in divisions higher than the Wildcats.

Continuity in Calistoga: Calistoga hopes that continuity enhances success in 2008 as Mike Ervin has opted to return to the sidelines. The Wildcats have gone 13-9 under his watch after the program was in dire straits before his hiring in 2006. Calistoga went 13-31 the previous five years before Ervin’s arrival. Ervin, who graduated from Calistoga in 1962, had coached at many different venues before winding up at his old stomping grounds.

Calistoga head coach Mike Ervin says: “The seniors will have been with us for three years and have actually played three years of varsity football. The younger kids are still learning because last year the JV situation wasn’t what we wanted it to be. We wanted to have three coaches for them and unfortunately the varsity coaches had to do the JV as well.”  — Vince D’Adamo