The Long Beach Poly football team is fresh off a CIF-SS Division 4 championship and has its eyes set higher in 2022. The Jackrabbits have recently finalized their schedule, according to head coach Stephen Barbee. The final piece of the puzzle is an opening-week game on the road at Clovis, the longest trip the team will have taken under Barbee (they had a Canton, Ohio trip planned that was canceled by the pandemic).
“It’s always fun to take your guys out of town and be able to play a game, we’re really excited to go play a good team,” said Barbee. “They’ve got a lot of tradition up there and are playing some very good football, it’ll be a good matchup.”
The road trip to Clovis will be for a Thursday game on Aug. 18, the first game of the season for Long Beach teams.
The Jackrabbits will also replay three games from last year as they finish out two-year contracts with Serra, Mission Viejo, and Leuzinger, and will scrimmage at Corona Centennial the week before the season starts.
They’ll host Serra at Veterans Memorial Stadium in their home opener on August 26, in a continuation of what’s been one of the best rivalry games in Southern California over the last decade. Poly lost a pair of narrow thrillers to the Cavaliers last year, including one in the state playoffs.
“It’s always a great game, it’s the type of rivalry that’s great for local football,” said barbee. “Nobody needs to give any speeches before that game.”
Barbee said that the Poly/Serra series will continue as long as he and Scott Altenberg are the coaches at the two programs.
“We’ve said that we won’t walk away from that game,” he said.
Poly will play at Mission Viejo and Leuzinger on the road in the second year of two-year deals with those programs.
After that Poly gets into their Moore League schedule, hosting Lakewood before having their bye, then traveling to Millikan for a game that most expect to decide the Moore League championship. Poly will host Lakewood, Cabrillo and Jordan this year with road games to Millikan, Wilson, and Compton.
“Overall the Moore League is in a great place, we had three teams play in CIF championships,” said Barbee. “The league is in a great place with its coaches, and you’re seeing a lot of growth all around. I’m really excited about the strong season the whole league had.”
The Jackrabbits return 18 starters from last year’s championship team including several major recruits and Division 1 prospects.
Long Beach Poly Football 2022 Schedule
8/12 scrimmage @ Corona Centennial
8/18 @ Clovis
8/26 vs. Serra
9/2 @ Mission Viejo
9/9 @ Leuzinger
9/16 vs. Lakewood
9/23 BYE
9/30 @ Millikan
10/7 @ Wilson
10/14 vs. Cabrillo
10/21 @ Compton
10/28 vs. Jordan
