LJ FB: Underneath the streak

By Ed Piper

A thumb's-up. A little humor; some friendliness.

That's what "Carolina"--Aidan McGill--showed in that moment when a reporter/photographer aimed his camera at the running back and a teammate in an early preseason workout on Edwards Field in August.

What was behind it was the easy-going camaraderie that "'lina"--a shortening of the nickname heard many times on the football field this past successful season, signifying where Aidan lived five years ago, South Carolina--and members of the La Jolla High football team shared. If it meant flashing a "thumb's-up" sign, then so be it.

What we're trying to do is get behind and beneath the monster eight-game win streak Head Coach Tyler Roach's squad unleashed on Eastern League opponents and propelling the Vikings into the Division 2 Finals against eventual winner Del Norte.

Of course, senior quarterback Jackson Diehl's growth and maturation following a good junior season, combined with his near-perfection of the spiral on his throws after a half-wobbly, half-effective delivery in 2022, had a lot to do with La Jolla's ascendancy into a high ranking in Division 2 in 2023. As Jackson goes, so go the Vikings, the saying says. That is very true.

His younger brother Carson's blossoming into an interception master (eight to lead the county as a sophomore), as well as an excellent receiver on offense definitely had a lot to do with the success.

Roach, completing his eighth season at the helm, brings an acumen for a speed-up, spread offense and a utilization of his personnel.

Those are the obvious low-hanging fruit, shall we say, to pick, explaining the Vikes' 10-3 season, second in success only to the 2019 Southern California Regional-winning team, which had more luck in their playoff route. (That La Jolla team only recorded a 10-5 win/loss record, many of those wins in the playoff skein.)

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Jane Medrano, the Vikings' Academic Advisor/tutor/compassionate-yet-hard-nosed "team mom" on campus, said it best about week five of this season: "They have no ego." Emanating out from the older Diehl, as quarterback and distributor of the ball also a key team leader, and throughout the squad, everybody played for one another. Trite, but true, for this band of beach-community kids.

Through many of the early games of the season, Jackson (who also plays for the Viking basketball team and stands 6'2") would run up to the goal post at the end of pregame warmups and "dunk" the ball over the metal crossbar--leading the whole team there on the way from their half of the field. Everyone would cheer, and in a non-showy way--Jackson is not a show-off--they could celebrate that old virtue, team unity.

The camaraderie evinced by "'lina" and buddy Logan Bonnett in practice that day, spread through big lineman Sawyer Moseley and smaller Ryan Kestler, a safety, would play out in La Jolla's remarkable eight wins in a row through midseason and beyond, once they got their motor fully running.

Jackson Diehl was hurt in the first half of the week three game at El Capitan. He also sat out week four against Rancho Bernardo (Eric Weddle's team that LJ would thrash in the semifinals).

Kestler and Moseley helped hold Mission Bay out of the end zone at the end of a 14-7 struggle and start of the win streak in week five. And from there, through a 5-0 Eastern League lark (not really) and two rounds of the postseason playoffs, La Jolla flew above all opponents, scoring 45 up to 56 points (against Morse), only dipping to 28 offensive counters against a tough Central Union second-round opponent.

One has to think that Ryan Price's being named Defensive Coordinator balanced Roach's role as Offensive Coordinator/Head Coach, bringing further expertise to that unit. Price said late in the season, "Getting back to (pure) football (after serving as head coach at UCHS for five years) has been very enjoyable." It seemed to get his juices running again.

McGill piled up 100-yard games as a running back; the receiving corps of Nick Sebro, Kai Fukuda, and the younger Diehl was very good at the other end of Jackson Diehl's offerings. Hank Hansen evolved into a jet-sweep runner, along with his pass catches. A lot of weapons, too many for opposing defenses to deal with.