By Ed Piper
La Jolla High football coach Tyler Roach, beginning his eighth year as head coach, is building himself quite a resume over the near-decade he has mentored at the seaside school.
The peak so far, of course, came with the 2019 Vikings team, which went on from an Eastern League title to win the CIF Southern California Regional and reach the state final in Escalon, central California, finishing with a 10-5 record.
But then the team two Falls later, 2021, with Jackson Stratton still the quarterback, went to the Division 2 Finals, despite a tough league schedule.
With La Jolla's opening 41-19 trouncing of Bishop's in the first week of the 2023 season, things appear even better looking back to Roach's first seven seasons. This year's squad, off to a good start, promises for much better as the new Jackson, Jackson Diehl, continues to mature and enjoy his senior season after a fine junior year.
I've been putting together charts of the past seasons that I use for reference. I am impressed with the results in other seasons, as well. I cover the Vikings up-close-and-personal partly because I want to view the inner workings of a program that comes back year-after-year to put together successful seasons.
The fact a coach has to answer each preceding season with another 12 months later is a fact of life in public school education, due to yearly advancement of students toward graduation. When Stratton graduated in 2022, Roach had to insert someone else in the slot Stratton so ably filled as a classic drop-back passer.
And Roach has never shied away from taking on bigger challenges. The Vikings were placed in the highly competitive Western League during the COVID mess, and in Fall 2021 La Jolla took its lumps against the likes of Lincoln, who features Roach's predecessor, Jason Carter, as Offensive Coordinator running pro setups, and Madison, under Rick Jackson.
(Madison has never been known to stay away from pushing the limits of CIF eligibility rules, winning a CIF championship in the last decade with an out-of-state quarterback who was later ruled ineligible, and the title being taken away. But at last look, the banner marking that championship was still flying at Madison's football facility.)
The Vikings did make a go of it that season against St. Augustine, facing the Saints at Mesa College, big enough to hold St. Augustine's enormous slew of alumni for tailgating before the game. La Jolla narrowly lost, 22-21, to the Catholic institution that makes a practice of churning out top-quality players who go on to college careers.
A rough ride for Roach characterized the year 2021--early and late--when Stratton was QB ever since showing surprising throwing potential as a freshman in 2018.
In the fourth week of the Fall season, as COVID restrictions abated a little, the long-haired, lanky passer extended a run on a keeper at Del Norte against the Nighthawks, and in the ensuing tackle near the right sideline suffered a fracture of his right scapula, instrumental in throwing the football. He sat out several games to heal, then came back in the second round of the Division 2 playoffs against Valley Center, and reinjured the same bone near the end of the game--with La Jolla holding on to win, 27-22.
Kevin Steel, the backup quarterback, stepped in the next week to help lead the Vikings to a 27-14 win over Mira Mesa in the semifinals. But then Stratton came back in the finals, against Scripps Ranch played at Escondido High, and just wasn't right, as La Jolla lost a disastrous 42-0 game in the dark and cold.
