LJ FB: Roach and Hayden

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Spring football at La Jolla High moves forward apace.

There is a sense that "We've been together before" and "Let's build it from here".

Tyler Roach is the third head football coach the program has had in the past 16 months. But Roach was the offensive coordinator prior to Matt Morrison's short one-year interlude as head coach, so more than one player has said, with no disrespect to the effective Morrison: "He (Coach Roach) is the coach I thought should have been hired a year ago."

Said Roach of his initial spring workouts as head coach of a program, "We're trying to get the team together. We have a lot of young guys. We want to teach them how we practice.

"We've already seen a progression this week in three days," Roach said back on Wed., May 24, the third day of workouts.

Quarterback Kenny Hayden, rehabbing his right knee and standing on crutches, in response to being asked what the point of spring workouts was, said, "To learn the game of football and to create a bond with your family. It's not just the football ethic, but learning to play with your family.

"It also has to do with a work ethic," Hayden continued. "I know when I've worked hard and achieved something, it has taught me the rewards of a work ethic."

La Jolla practiced Monday through Thursday afternoons May 22-25 during the first week of workouts. Then this week, after the Memorial Day holiday Mon., May 29, the Vikings continued practice Tuesday, to be continued Wednesday and Thursday.

Roach didn't schedule practice for Fri., May 26. It was part of the four-day Memorial Day Weekend.

He was apologetic and explanatory about not holding practice this coming Fri., June 2: "It's a half day of school, and you know how that goes as far as getting things together."

What the program will do Sat., June 3, beginning at 9 a.m., is hold a Family Day, with spring games, meet-the-coaches, a tour of facilities, and a barbecue after the games at 11:30 a.m.

A new thing is the attractiveness of the facilities. Last year the program was still in storage containers at Muirlands Middle School in August. Now, La Jolla can show off its new turf, concessions stands, press box, but more importantly for the athletes the new trainer's room and strength/weight training room.

Said new receivers coach Armon Harvey, "I've never had this before. Our coaches' office is right on the field (the northern-most building, in the corner of the stadium next to the shot put pit). I just came over from the pro league in Europe, and we didn't have this."

Regarding bodies, he said, "We have 20 to 25 players" who showed interest in playing on the freshman team next year in a meeting for eighth-graders from Muirlands Middle School.

Harvey coached for the Cineplexx Devils, a pro football team in the state of Voralberg in Austria. He was head coach of the organization's second team, and offensive coordinator of the first team. It was part of the European Football League (EFL).

Interestingly, the league has a large number of players from Germany and Austria, where Harvey said there is interest in and knowledge of American football. "It would be kind of like a DI school here," he said as far as the competitive level.

Each team can have three Americans on its active roster. Two Americans can play on each platoon, offense and defense.