Justin Graham, a man who is no stranger to the spotlight, admitted that he battled some nerves on Thursday when formally introducing himself to some of the student-athletes and parents of River Islands High School for the first time.
The school’s first-year football team held an informational meeting at EPIC Academy, a K-8 campus where the current students of River Islands High continue to have classes until their permanent site opens on the corner of River Islands Parkway and Paradise Road for 2024-25. River Islands High is in its second year, first with a sophomore class.
Football coach Nick Hardenbrook and some members of his staff were also introduced by Principal Carey Simoni, who later acknowledged the presence of River Islands Academies Executive Director Brenda Scholl.
River Islands is expanding its sports programs after having freshman-only teams for cross country, girls volleyball, boys basketball and baseball last year.
The cheer program will host a similar meeting July 25 at the Epic Academy cafeteria with cross country (Aug. 3) and girls volleyball (Aug. 8) to follow. Girls volleyball tryouts are taking place at the EPIC gym July 31-Aug. 2. Other fall sports coaches are Taylor Kruip for cheer, Travis Thum for cross country and Taylor Willis for volleyball.
Next Friday, July 28 is the Riptide Roll-In student orientation, and Graham is looking forward to meeting the rest of the school.
The first-year assistant principal/athletic director comes from Ripon High, his alma mater where he taught and coached basketball. Graham was a three-sport standout at Ripon from 2003-06 before taking his basketball talents to San Jose State and overseas to play professionally.
“As someone who loves sports and is passionate about sports, to me, this is the ultimately opportunity,” he said. “I get to come in and help build culture on our campus and with the fantastic coaches on our sports programs. To me, this is the dream situation for an athletic director. I’m super excited.”
Graham added that the support of RIA administration and longtime mentor, Ripon High athletic director Rod Wright, have helped get him comfortable in his new role.
“I know there are going to be a lot of challenges that come with it and things that I need to learn, but I have great resources at my disposal,” Graham said. “I’ve got the Athletic Director of the Year in my back pocket — he has already been awesome for me. Our principal is out of this world. She’s amazing and super supportive, as is our director, Brenda.”
Wright, who was Graham’s high school coach, was named 2022-23 Sac-Joaquin Section Athletic Director of the Year.
Hardenbrook is also a Ripon alumnus (class of 2012). He previously coached at Sierra (2017-22) under Chris Johnson, his coach at RHS, and helped the Timberwolves claim the SJS Division IV championship in 2019.
Hardenbrook said that the team averaged about 25 players during summer workouts, which included some 7-on-7 scrimmages with other schools. His coaching staff includes Dante Machado, Chris Christian, Issac Ramirez, Cody Kruip and Everette Boleware.
The program is starting off at the frosh-soph level and is playing freshman teams on Thursday nights, all on the road. Starting next year, the first with a junior class for the Riptide, the team will host games at a football stadium adjacent to the Islanders Field baseball complex.
River Islands will be part of the Valley Oak League — which includes Manteca, East Union and Sierra of Manteca Unified — for this season before moving onto the new-look Mother Lode League for football and the Central California Athletic Alliance for all other sports.
The Riptide football team will face neighboring Lathrop and Ripon its non-league games.
Although most of his athletes have had little to no prior football experience, Hardenbrook said that the process of building up the program has been fulfilling, so far. He is going into his seventh year as a math and science teacher for River Islands Academies and has gotten to know all of his players well before they get to put on the pads.
“It’s so fun,” he said. “There are no egos. It’s not that they don’t know anything about it, but they don’t know enough to constantly question why we do certain things or talking back. With our team, it’s, ‘Yes coach,’ or ‘Thank you, coach.’ It’s refreshing.
“With these kids, we’ve known them for years now, and it’s fun to see them grow up and to buy into something like this. It has made our lives easy. We know them at a personal level. We’ve known them as students before knowing them as athletes, so I actually get (called) Mr. Hardenbrook more than Coach Hardenbrook.”
