LJ FB: All systems go?

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Folks, we have ourselves a football season.

Despite La Jolla's loss, 24-21, to visiting Hilltop at Blastoff Fri., Sept. 2, new coach Matt Morrison's Vikings were competitive and, in fact, led by as much as 21-7 in the second half.

It was hard to tell how good the squad really was after meeting a weak Montgomery Aztec team in the season opener and thrashing them, 43-0.

But now we know the Vikings can play football and are going to make a go of it after playing a proficient Lancer team, which had capable third-year starter Alex Tejeda at quarterback.

Whereas in the opener La Jolla's penalties and other errors could be attributed to first-game jitters, fumbles by Vikings QB Cole Dimich and running back/receiver Daniel McColl in the second game looked like a lack of self-assurance (in the former case) and a lack of taking care of the ball (in the latter).

Dimich, the 6-foot, 180-pound senior, showed some of his athleticism on several quarterback keepers, carrying 10 times for 32 yards, including his six-yard TD run.

Still, back at the end of January the LJHS football program had no head coach, and Daniel's father, assistant coach John McColl, was making sure in the interim that returning players would be lifting weights and carrying on some kind of offseason workouts--in view of the late notice that the previous tenure would not continue after three years.

Morrison wasn't brought on board until interviews concluded a month or more later. With his full-time commitment as an elementary school teacher at Blessed Sacrament, he wasn't able to hold spring workouts until an abnormally late end of May and beginning of June.

Hopefully, we have a keeper this time around.

"I think Matt plans to be around for a long time," said his father John, his former coach and mentor at Francis Parker. You get the idea this could really work out for the long run.

The younger Morrison was All-CIF his junior and senior years as quarterback for his father's team. "Matt will tell you he wasn't the most mobile quarterback," said his father, taking a breath at halftime, resting on the trainer's table. His son's present team was leading Hilltop 14-7 at that point. "He had four surgeries his freshman year, two on each knee. So he was more like the person who hands off to the running backs to run the offense."

His father seems as modest about his son's accomplishments as the son is.

The tricky part is that Matt, though teaching full-time, has a Master's degree but no teaching credential, a prerequisite if he is ever going to be hired on campus at LJHS so that he can be a resident coach and continue to build the program.

When I talked with an amiable Olympian High assistant coach during a summer passing league tournament at Southwestern College this summer, one of his first questions was, "Is the new coach on campus?" That's a key for sustaining the momentum that has already been built in Morrison's six or so months heading the program.

It's pure Newtonian physics. Matter is conserved. Matter doesn't increase or disappear, but changes form. So with the youthful and committed Morrison juggling his full-time teaching position at one campus and trying to run a new football program at another, you see that going on successfully for a few years.

But then the pure energy needed to make the drive each day--17.9 miles, according to Google Maps-- keep up the relationships with the players and assistant coach, and do the administrative details that have to be taken care of with Athletic Director Paula Conway and Principal Chuck Podhorsky, the object kept in the air starts to fall to earth.

The kids are certainly responding. Hopefully, the adults will do their part to make it all happen.