LJ FB: Humorous moments

By Ed Piper

Two humorous incidents stand out from the 2019 victory season of the La Jolla football team:

--"The jump."

Carlos Ramirez, a senior reserve quarterback, "instigated" as he and 12 teammates piled into an elevator at the squad's hotel in Lodi Sat., Dec. 14, and a few of them "jumped"--immediately causing the lift to stop between floors of the three-story hotel.

As one mom who asked not to be named (and not a mother of one of the bad 13) said, "The players with the highest GPA's were not on the elevator."

Among the select few: All-CIF/Eastern League Player of the Year Max Smith, All-Eastern League First Team selectee Diego Solis, All-Eastern League First Team honoree on special teams Devin Bale, and All-Eastern League First Team quarterback Jackson Stratton. All four are juniors.

This occurred about noon. The Vikings were scheduled to face Escalon at Escalon High School, a 45-minute drive away from Lodi, for a 6 p.m. kickoff for the state Division 4A championship.

Kelli Bale, Devin's mother, was freaking out. "I thought they could suffocate in the elevator" (as if it were air-tight, which it wasn't), she said.

The Lodi rescue squad had to be called. From a report, Viking Head Coach Tyler Roach basically remained calm when he got news of the "jump".

It took about an hour to free the Lodi 13 from the escalator.

"There is a video of them with their shirts off, sweating, after they got off," said one person. Devin Bale said it got pretty warm in the confined space over the span of the hour.

Santy Smith, Max Smith's mother, said, "What if they hadn't been able to leave the hotel on time for the game?" She pointed out the relatively tight time frame of the prank, the unknown time it would take for the firefighters to extricate the football players from the elevator shaft, and the time the team was scheduled to depart for the 6 p.m. kickoff against the Escalon Cougars.

Bale's father was laughing weeks later at the boys basketball game. "The others drove up to Escalon on Friday (Dec. 13)," he said. "I flew up Saturday, the day of the game. As I was landing, I had a message on my phone that said, 'Your son is trapped on an elevator with 13 [actually 12] other team members,'" he related with a chuckle.

Despite the ill-advised prank, the cars left the hotel for the game at about 3:45 or so, and arrived in time for warm-ups against Escalon. "The crowd was pretty hostile," said Athletic Director Paula Conway, who accompanied the team on the whole trip. "There were lines of people from Escalon outside waiting to buy tickets and get in. The stadium was crowded (with Escalon rooters). It was pretty rough."

--Prior to the CIF San Diego Division 3 championship game at Southwestern College Nov. 30, Marlon Guardinera, head coach of Scripps Ranch, ordered shirts saying "Scripps Ranch CIF Champions." The only reason we know this is that he ordered them from a shop at which a La Jolla assistant coach is employed.

Needless to say, it is bad form, unless you're an NBA or NFL or NBA marketer (but not a team coach), to order trinkets that proclaim you to be champ--before the big game.

Guardinera did not call back or pick up the shirts after the title game.

Following the Vikings' 17-10 upset of the favored Falcons, the assistant coach wore one of the shirts the Scripps Ranch coach had ordered. However, he altered it by crossing out the words "Scripps Ranch", and writing over them in red letters "La Jolla Vikings". It got a good laugh at practice the following week.