By Ed Piper, Jr.
With La Jolla's football opener looming Fri., Aug. 26, at Montgomery against a mostly unknown Aztec squad, Viking head coach Matt Morrison sees his defense as one of his team's strengths.
"I think the biggest thing we have going for us is the way we pursue the ball, leverage the ball, and tackle on defense," he said.
Morrison, the first-year coach weaned on his legendary father's long-time coaching at Parker, where the younger Morrison also played as an All-CIF quarterback, also identifies his seniors' leadership as a key.
"We have a very dedicated, intelligent, and high-character group of seniors who have done a great job of setting the example of how we want to practice and prepare every week," said the former offensive coordinator at La Costa Canyon.
Seniors include Daniel McColl, Alex Dockery, Nick Hammel, Dane Hansen, Andrew Mitchell, Tanner Watson, and Ross Martin.
For those strengths and the diligence La Jolla has shown in implementing a brand new type of football over the late spring and summer, the Vikes have been rewarded with a number-one ranking in the new City League in a preseason poll, atop rivals including University City and Serra.
Morrison has pointed out this summer that he began coaching on the defensive side, so he prides himself in strength on that side of the ball.
Senior Cole Dimich, who served mostly as a backup quarterback last year, now steps into the starting role, with junior Kenny Hayden backing him up. Trevor Scully transferred out of school before the fall.
"Offensively, we are still a work in progress," Morrison says frankly. "We are improving in both the run and pass game as our kids continue to learn our system, and through continued repetitions in practices and games, I am confident that our consistency will improve.
"I expect us to be a team that demonstrates noticeable improvement every week of the season."
Not much is known about La Jolla's host opponent in Friday's season opener, except for the fact that new Montgomery coach Sanjevi Subbiah was hired in the middle of last school year to get him in place on campus. He taught calculus at Westview High for many years. A veteran coach who coached in Ohio for 15 years, Subbiah led a new program at Foothills High near Tucson to records of 4-6, 0-10, and finally 5-5 in his three years coaching there prior to teaching at Westview.
An area of concern for Morrison is numbers--the depth chart. He says his biggest concern is "our lack of depth, particularly on both the offensive and defensive line. We are working hard to improve our depth should we encounter a bad run of injuries, but with a small roster, those are always going to be tougher to overcome."
La Jolla is not the only school facing this challenge: Bishop's, whom the Vikings scrimmaged in a four-way workout Fri., Aug. 19, only had 22 students go out for its football team at the private school this summer.
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