After four seasons of San Benito Seahawk youth football and cheer, the Seahawks are no more. The football program, which is based out of Anzar High, merged with the Hollister Vikings on Wednesday – a month before 2012 sign-ups were scheduled to begin.
The merge of the two youth sport organizations will expand the Vikings’ roster by at least three teams – from five to eight – and will draw nearly 100 more children in both the football and cheer programs, Viking president Jeff Valenzuela said.
The Viking organization, which is a member of Pop Warner, has been around for nearly 45 years – most of the time being the only youth football organization in the region. For the past four years, the Seahawks and Vikings shared the county and played in two different leagues – Pop Warner and the American Youth Football League.
Last year, a third football organization sprouted – the Tri-County Rebels – and began influencing the cost of both the Seahawks and Vikings.
“Yeah, it hurt us a little,” Valenzuela said.
The rising costs, and extreme travel of the Seahawks, who played teams as far away as Sacramento, forced the two organizations to look at ways of keeping the programs alive. The solution: Combine together.
“We feel like this is almost a super team,” former Seahawks president Frank Casillas said. “Our goal is to allow every kid to play and this helps us do just that.”
The merger was discussed with each organizations’ board of directors over the past month and a half, Casillas said. For the now defunct Seahawks, something needed to be done.
“What started it was the travel we were doing as the Seahawks,” Casillas said. “The league we were in was growing but it was growing north. It was tough for our families to do the traveling to stay in that league. We were going as far as Sacramento and Vacaville. On top of that with the amount of teams in the area now it seemed like it was getting diluted as far as the availability of kids.”
After discussing a possible merger internally, Casillas and the Seahawks board approached the Vikings in early January. A month and a half later, they agreed to combine forces.
“We will merge into one organization but want to keep that Seahawk pride,” Valenzuela said. “They have a lot of pride in what they’ve accomplished.”
The Seahawk organization, which was originally named the Cardinals, was created in the summer of 2008, when the Vikings had long waiting lists to join a team. With so many players in the area, the Cardinals started with nearly 100 kids.
Four years later, the Seahawk participation still hovers around 100 kids, but that was no longer enough to stay solvent with the high cost of travel.
With the two organizations merging into one, the Vikings will be split into two factions – a west and east squad.
The newly-formed west Vikings will consist of players from the former Seahawk teams, and they will continue to play at Anzar High. The east Vikings will continue to play at San Benito High, Valenzuela said.
Once the players are grandfathered onto their new teams, additional sign-ups will be split evenly between the east and west, Valenzuela said.
“We want to do it fair as possible,” he said.
With the change, registration will climb $50 for the Seahawk players, who paid $200 in the old league. Viking registration fees will remain at $250.
The Vikings, again, will rely heavily on fundraising efforts that will increase with at least three more teams.
“Our community has supported us,” Valenzuela said. “Without that it would be hard for either one of us to survive.”
It is unknown how much the additional teams will effect the budget, Valenzuela said.
“We are still figuring that out,” he said.
Regardless, they both expect tremendous success from the newly reconfigured Vikings.
“It’s great timing for everything,” Casillas said. “It needed to happen. It gives the football people in Hollister a chance to get out there.”
And most importantly it gives the Hollister youth another chance to build character, Valenzuela said.
“Our long range goal on this is to not only make it a football power but to send the high school some respectable young gentleman,” he said.
