By Ed Piper
Not to overdo it or jump on a bandwagon, but the effect quarterback Jackson Diehl had on his Viking teammates Fri., Sept. 15 against Mission Bay was like magic.
I don't believe in magic, particularly. But I often pay attention when I'm observing a team, coach, and/or players in high school sports (and through media at other levels, as well) to the impact one individual can have on a team and program--especially someone in a high-impact position like coach, or quarterback in football. (Look at how Deion Sanders is transforming the University of Colorado football program in the last two weeks.)
Diehl is not "Prime Time" Sanders, but he is a leader of the 2023 Viking football team. It went from, Oh, Jackson is breaking a few runs--that was last year--to, We're going to build in keepers at key times to keep the defense off-balance and rack up some yardage--that's this season, under Coach Tyler Roach's offensive scheme. ("Juice", the name Associate Head Coach Scott Hughley goes by on the field, is also influential in the many conversations that he and Roach have over the offense.)
You could see the transformation in the Viking players at Mission Bay Friday from a group that had been on their heels the previous week against Rancho Bernardo--not a powerful team--with the look and feel that someone had had the wind knocked out of them by the loss of Jackson Diehl from the field. (The senior QB was hurt during the first half of week three's game against El Capitan, an aggressive, swarming defense that pounded Diehl when they could. It resulted in a left ankle problem, which has since healed up.)
The "new" look against Coach Greg Tate's then-4-0 Buccaneers was thoroughly positive: no jabber, no talk about it, just a launch with an obviously productive week of practice into the meeting with an undefeated foe.
More than one person commented on the low-scoring nature of the LJ-Mission Bay game, 14-7. That was because both teams, while capable of being prolific in previous games, were locked in a defensive battle that limited, but did not stifle, the offenses on both sides. Charlie Hutchison is the capable quarterback for Tate, Diehl for La Jolla.
I remember going to battle in my prep days in basketball and baseball against good opponents. In basketball, we had to face Jamal Wilkes of Ventura (he went by Keith at that time), who later starred for the Lakers. Don Ford was a junior on that team the year Wilkes was All-CIF as a senior. We got clocked when Wilkes was a senior, his final home game (by then, in Santa Barbara) before college scouts who were slobbering over the thought of him--unselfish player, good shooter, even better passer, team-cohesive player the way Jackson Diehl is unselfish.
When Ford, also a future Laker, played us at our place (Camarillo) his senior year, our fortitude was built up for us by our coach, a gifted motivator named John McMullen, who later coached at Santa Monica City College. He gave us a game plan (jumping out and shouting in Ford's face as we switched on him on defense). We held him to 14 points in three overtimes (he averaged 28 points a game), and our grit came from our leader, our coach.
With La Jolla in football, Diehl is Tyler Roach's on-field leader. He calls out warm-up exercises, he dunks the ball over the goal post in a weekly ritual at the end of the team huddle before the game, and carries that deflecting, non-"me-me-me" presence that he shows at every practice, every game.
He is a key to the Vikings' season.
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