Prep FB: Aftermath

By Ed Piper

It turns out that I wasn't the only person affected by the double collarbone breaks of La Jolla High football players Gabe and Diego Solis during their game against Christian High Oct. 22. (See my previous entry on the incidents.) A professional who was at the game told me he was "emotional" about the injuries, and made phone calls to City Schools the following week.

At the final regular season game at home against Mira Mesa, another professional told me that he talked with a counterpart from the Marauders, who told him Christian High had done such things before.

Meanwhile, in my quick pregame interview of the visiting head coach, Mira Mesa's Chris Thompson, I jokingly said to him, as his team warmed up, "You aren't going to mash them up like last week, are you?" (referring to the Christian game).

Thompson, not joking, said, "No, we don't play that way." I inquired what he meant. He said: "They (Christian) do things."

Even worse, the Mira Mesa professional (I am intentionally obscuring people's identifying information to protect my sources) used the word "thugs" to describe Christian's football players.

Wow. These all said a lot. So, in other words, from three different people, I found out that Christian High has a reputation for causing harm to opposing players. Speaking as a Christian myself, I think that really stinks. What kind of witness is that?

But I did feel consoled by hearing from these other folks. I had gone home from the game unhappy, I told Sandy Solis, Gabe and Diego's mother. She was very reassuring: "Things are going to be fine," she texted me. I hadn't even been the one(s) affected, and she was comforting me!