LJ FB: Stats from win over Scripps Ranch

By Ed Piper

Junior quarterback Jackson Diehl upped his QB rating to 100.9, and senior Justin Scully has made 17 tackles on defense while continuing to pile up yardage on the offensive side--now at 168 yards on 35 carries--following La Jolla's 28-21 whipping of host Scripps Ranch Fri., Aug. 26.

Other defensive standouts after two games for Head Coach Tyler Roach's Vikings include Tommy Castronovo, tied with Scully with 17 tackles, and Nick Hansen, with 15 tackles. Wallace Perry checks in with 13 tackles, Kai McCandless and Wyatt Boczanowski each with 11.

On offense, Ryan Weinberg has 102 yards receiving on 11 catches. Nick Sebro has accumulated 91 yards on his two receptions. Nik Hansen stands at 85 yards on six catches.

Hall of Fame includes McColl, Bush, Meyer

Bill McColl's 1953 Bowman card

By Ed Piper

Bill McColl, Reggie Bush, and Herb Meyer were San Diegans among the names of 100 players and 13 coaches entered into the initial California High School Football Hall of Fame class, news outlets are reporting today (August 15).

McColl, whose son John has been a steadying influence during interim periods in the La Jolla High football program, and whose grandsons, David McColl (Class of 2013) and Daniel McColl (Class of  2017), have been important members of the Viking football program in the past decade, matriculated at Hoover High and went on to play for the Chicago Bears in the NFL for eight years.

We all know Bush, the running back/all-purpose player who starred at Helix High and USC before playing in the NFL.

And lastly, Meyer coached football at El Camino High in Oceanside (long before this reporter's time in San Diego). His name frequently comes up in accounts of greatness and heritage among football programs in San Diego County.

Who are some other names you would recommend for succeeding classes for the Hall of Fame in coming years?

LJ FB: One of only 3 games Thurs., 8/18

A good tackle by an unidentified Viking

against University City Fri., Aug. 12.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Moseying around on the Internet, I found La Jolla High's football opener versus Bishop's this Thurs., Aug. 18, at Edwards Field is one of only three San Diego Section games scheduled that night: LJ-Bishop's (7 p.m.); Sweetwater at Mount Miguel (6:30 p.m.); and Calexico at Palo Verde Valley (7 p.m.).

 That last one should be a scorcher (I mean temperature-wise), having attended a game La Jolla played some years ago in El Centro. I can still feel the heat.

Bishop's is ranked number 24 by MaxPreps. That should be interesting. Who have they got? I just submitted an article for Wed., Aug. 17, for the La Jolla Village News, and all I did was preview La Jolla High coach Tyler Roach's ability to come up with a wrinkle most seasons. I didn't investigate the opponent. I may have something to learn.

Another interesting tidbit is that the Open Division championship Nov. 18 will be played at new Snapdragon Stadium, capacity 35,000. SDSU opens that facility with the Aztecs' 2022 inaugural versus Arizona.

The other divisions will have to play somewhere else, because SDSU has a scheduling conflict, with its last regular-season game Nov. 26 against Air Force. All divisions but Open have an extra layer of playoffs, so their title tilts come the weekend of Nov. 25-26.

LJ FB: Tune-up @ SDFNL

Viking junior QB Jackson Diehl

looks to pass as he's pursued by

a UC defender in the second

quarter Fri., Aug. 12.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

La Jolla's 2022 football team engaged in its first competition against a squad other than themselves Fri., Aug. 12, and came up better prepared for the Vikings' season opener against Bishop's at Edwards Stadium Thurs., Aug. 17.

The Viking offense featured new quarterback Jackson Diehl, a junior, engineering Coach Tyler Roach's attack, featuring running back Justin Scully and receiver Ryan Weinberg, both seniors. The ball was fairly equally shared in touches by the three offensive leaders as La Jolla faced event host University City at the UC campus field in the evening 7:30 p.m. game.

"This is absolutely meaningless," Roach told his assembled troops after the tussle, which started belatedly at 8:05 p.m. as the third of three games for the afternoon/evening. "The real game is our opener Thursday against Bishop's. It's a crosstown rivalry game. The results count. Take care of your body. Hydrate yourselves. We have an 8 a.m. practice tomorrow morning (Sat.), so it will be a quick turnaround."

Added Roach, "Some did well, others not so well. That's more reason to hit practice hard and put in the work this week."

Diehl, at QB, connected with senior receiver Matthieu Princen for a 12-yard TD pass late in the third quarter to bring the Vikings within 13-6 to UC. The play came on a fourth-and-two at the end of a 12-play drive, La Jolla's fifth possession of the night. Evan Martin converted the PAT kick to make the score 13-7.

On the productive march, beginning on their own 25-yard line, La Jolla called on Scully three times, including a nine-yard gainer on second down late in the drive. Weinberg also caught a Diehl aerial for six yards on second-and-10 earlier in the possession. Diehl had a keeper on the second play of the drive, but scrimmage rules dictated that a quarterback could not run the ball and was also protected from being tackled by a "touch" rule for sacks.

LJ Cheer: Workout

 

LJHS varsity cheerleaders form

the mountain under the watchful

eye of long-time cheer coach

Elsie Lopez Wed., Aug. 10.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

LJ FB: Prepare for UC scrimmage

A pair of Viking linemen go against blocking obstacles

in a drill early in practice Wed., Aug. 10.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

At 5:52 p.m. on Wed., Aug. 10, La Jolla head football coach Tyler Roach called his varsity players together and told them, "This is our last heavy workout before Friday's scrimmage."

The mostly juniors and seniors, on one knee, took their marching orders and proceeded into a practice scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. "(Part of it) will be under the lights," Roach added during his pre-practice spiel.

Team members had lifted weights, pounded weighted balls with two arms onto the ground, and done step-up's onto a padded cube for 45 minutes or so prior to being called together. "Keep working," Roach, with an experienced eye, had reminded them. "I don't want you to be in (our office, indicating down the track) because you got injured (from not keeping up their strength)."

The Viking hopefuls for 2022, defending two-time Eastern League champions (one coach wore a shirt with the info), went through long-snapping (one long-snapper hiked under assistant coach Kevin Hurt's guidance), lineman blocking drills (several linemen went in pairs against blocking obstacles), and various other stations across the northern end of the Edwards Stadium field.

Before practice, Roach set up a playlist on his phone connected to a booming speaking that started with Will Smith's "Wild, Wild West"--an entrancing, pounding rhythm. A digital clock propped on top of the speaker in the northwest corner of the field counted out 8:00-minute segments for drills in Roach's highly-structured workout.

Friday's scrimmage starts at 7:30 p.m. at University City. "Early in the year you don't know where you are until you play somebody," said Roach to a reporter. "We'll run out basic offense and basic defense. Pretty vanilla. We don't want to show (coaches with scouts from other schools) too much."

Opening night is a week later, Thurs., Aug. 18, at home against crosstown-rival Bishop's. This is the only non-Friday date on the Vikings' 2022 10-game regular season schedule.

St. Augustine plucked away some of La Jolla's best coaches: Charles Bussey, Steven Dixon, and Jerome Watson, the quarterbacks coach who worked extensively with quarterback Jackson Stratton.

The approach at La Jolla seems to be the same as when a player gets injured: "Next man up." The Vikings fill the open slots with the next most-capable personnel.

A digital clock keeps a insistent time-segmented

beat to LJHS coach Tyler Roach's practice.

Practice was broken into eight-minute slices.

Varsity members finish changing into practice gear

prior to the Vikings' 6-to-8 p.m. workout

Wed., Aug. 10 at Edwards Field.