LJ FB: First workout

Viking quarterbacks Kenny Hayden

(foreground) and Carsten Fehlan

(back right) work out on La Jolla

field. (Photos Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Tyler Roach held the first field workout since his formal introduction as the new head football coach at La Jolla High, running quarterbacks Kenny Hayden and Carsten Fehlan through passing drills to receivers Monday afternoon, March 20, on the football field as the track team worked out around them.

"Nothing formal or mandatory. Just a few of the guys throwing and catching a bit," said Roach, who formerly was Offensive Coordinator at La Jolla from 2013 to 2015.

He had help from Collin Rugg, former Viking star quarterback who is transferring to a college in Southern California yet to be determined, and Trey Enloe, a former Viking football player who suffered a concussion over two years ago.

The receivers included Johnathan O'Neal, a returner from the 2016 team, and Zachary Garcia, a junior running back who was on the varsity this past year.

Roach's schedule lists the start of Spring Football as May 22, continuing over a three-week period to June 9.

Collin Rugg (black shirt, right) helps new

Viking head coach Tyler Roach in

informal field workout.

Luke and the glove

By Ed Piper, Jr.

My grandson Luke got a baseball glove from his father, so yesterday we were hitting the ball off his plastic tee and using the glove to catch the ball.

Which brings redemption to my long-ago sadness over having my brand-new Rawlings Gold Glove, given to me for my 15th birthday, stolen during a high school playoff game.

It was the glove of my dreams. My brother Steve and I played baseball throughout our childhoods, he beginning at age 7, me at age 8, and through high school.

Camarillo High, our alma mater, was playing a home CIF playoff game against visiting Santa Fe Springs. There were what we called then some "hood"-looking kids, rough kids, who came to our fairly small, protected community from the greater L.A. area for the game.

As we weren't unused to doing, after my own junior varsity baseball practice, I went outside school, placed my school binder with glove on top of it on the hood of our family car, which my older brother was allowed to drive to school that day. I went back in the fence to watch the rest of the playoff game.

My brother wasn't playing, because he was the back-up first baseman behind Randy Elliott, the local superstar who batted .300 on home runs alone. Randy was soon was to be the Padres' number-one pick in the amateur draft. He didn't pan out, though he did remain in the majors with the A's for a few years.

Anyway, when the game was over and some of the "hoods" had been cruising around outside the school, my Gold Glove, which I had only had a few weeks, was gone. I was heart-broken.

Of course, looking at it from this vantage point, the prevention looks pretty obvious: why was I leaving my brand new glove, which probably cost $40 or so, a ton of money at that time, outside in an open place like that, considering all the activity that was going on?

I don't remember much discussion in the family about the stolen glove. I knew as soon as it was gone that it wasn't coming back and that my parents weren't going to fork over the large amount of money required to get a new Rawlings glove.

So I moved on. What I got was a Wilson glove, much less spectacular in value and style, through Blue Chip stamps. I am not kidding. My mom was a collector of the stamps, and we found a glove in the Blue Chip catalog, or however you picked items for Blue Chip stamps (given with your purchase at the grocery store).

That's what I used. The next season, I was moved from shortstop to first base, so I was loaned a first baseman's glove by the school, and I now took my brother's place on the bench as he moved into the lineup as the starting first baseman his senior year--my junior year. I didn't need the Wilson fielder's glove.

I remember giving my Wilson glove, obtained with Blue Chip stamps, to Dave Rogers after I quit
American Legion baseball to pursue my dreams in basketball.

My grandson Luke doesn't know any of this.

WBC: Through his eyes

The Puerto Rican team celebrates with fans

after 6-5 win over U.S. March 17.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

If you're sick of reading about the World Baseball Classic and want to read about La Jolla High sports, don't read this entry.

My eyes for the Puerto Rican team in the WBC Friday night, March 17 (St. Patrick's Day, which isn't celebrated in Latin cultures), was a young man, Jonathan, about 30, who drove from his home in Phoenix during the day to attend the weekend games at Petco Park.

Speaking limited but adequate English, Jonathan gave me a sense, feel, enjoyment for someone else's passion for baseball and his favorite players.

One thing he told me, during our game-long conversation initiated by me and in which we saved seats for each other while the other went to the bathroom or concessions stand, was that U.S. starting pitcher Marcus Stroman's mother implored him to play for her native Puerto Rican team.

I thought that was a fantastic story, and insight into the mixed loyalties that baseball players--and humans--experience. Ms. Stroman's wish didn't get granted, because her son told her it was his dream to play for the U.S. team in the Classic, he having been born in New York.

Stroman, being paid back for his disobedience to his mother's request, started the game by giving up six straight singles to the first six Boricua (nickname for Puerto Rican) hitters, allowing four runs. The U.S. never came back from that disastrous start.

I told Jonathan during the course of the nine-inning game that I saw Roberto Clemente, a legendary player from Puerto Rico, play in person at Dodger Stadium when the Pirates played the Dodgers when I was a kid. He seemed pretty impressed by that.

We kept our exchanges in English, though I speak Spanish, because he indicated he wanted to continue that way, which is a basic thing in these cross-cultural encounters. At one point he struggled to indicate a certain Puerto Rican often played designated hitter, so I asked, "What is it in Spanish?" and he answered, bateador designado. That was the only foray we took into espanol, other than some words or phrases that came up randomly.

A point of enjoyment for me was that I celebrated both Puerto Rican and U.S. players' accomplishments, so I think he could see I wasn't merely for one side or anti-Puerto Rican in my rooting. I did yell when a U.S. player did something significant. It made it more fun, instead of being neutral and getting bored.

Jonathan knows baseball, so that heightened our exchanges. When Brandon Crawford drove in runs in the ninth inning that brought the U.S. within a run of Puerto Rico, Jonathan called it right then: third baseman Carlos Correa clearly tagged out Crawford before he made it to third, though the umpire's call was safe. Replays showed Crawford should have been called out.

WBC notes

Mariners superstar Robinson Cano steps in

during Dominican Republic's 6-3 loss to

Team USA Sat., March 18.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

I attended World Baseball Classic games at Petco Park Friday and Saturday evenings, March 17-18. Here are some notes:

--One thing I noticed in the two games is that people who buy tickets in the nosebleed seats (like me) often are not in those seats--instead, they are walking on the main level and standing at the handy stand-up counters eating and drinking.

Most of the other seats were filled: Friday's attendance, when Puerto Rico edged the U.S., 6-5, was announced as 32,000 and change. (The stadium holds 43,000.)

I never did go to my seats either night. They're high and distant, too far to venture to. I walked, chatted with other baseball fans, bought food, wandered some more, sometimes settling at one spot.

--Petco Park won't see this many people again soon, other than for Opening Day, which is a big, festive occasion that baseball fans go to even if the home product is lousy (the Padres are rated to be the worst team in the majors, considering the minor league/prospect lineup they're sending out there). 

Sorry to Padres fans, but your franchise has done so many things to you, I feel for you. I arrived in 
San Diego in 1993, when the "Fire Sale" was going on, the Padres jettisoning all their stars under the Gang of Four new ownership (Tom Werner et al). That was only a sign of things past and future.

--At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if you've read my blog, the WBC games were a slice of heaven for me. There was a combination of exciting baseball, loud Latin energy with the Puerto Rican (Friday night) and Dominican (Saturday night) fans pounding drums, blowing whistles, raising the roof. From my background of living and teaching in Mexico City, I really enjoy this aspect of Latin culture.

Also, local fans chanting "U-S-A" didn't sit back quietly. They were vociferous at multiple points during the games, in which, though the Gringos lost Friday to the hot Puerto Ricans, the norteamericanos qualified for the semifinals tomorrow night (Tues., March 21) by defeating the Dominican Republic Saturday night, 6-3.

The Life of Writing

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Here, writing at 8:12 a.m. on a Monday morning, I missed writing over the busy weekend.

I have settled into kind of a sweet pattern of being able to write while substitute-teaching on many weekdays, which I'm doing now at that surfside haven called San Dieguito Academy.

Over the weekend, I attended World Baseball Classic games Friday and Saturday nights at Petco Park, then church Sunday, then babysitting our grandchildren with my wife Dianna. In short, I never sat down to write, whether by choice, the amount of activity, or whatever.

Now, sitting again in a classroom first thing on a Monday morning, my time is structured: I have to be with the class, though the students are all working independently on a--guess what?--writing assignment (Catcher in the Rye, which, as an English teacher, I never assigned). I'm inside. I have access to a computer. Voila.

Plus with most schools going to a block schedule, an hour and a half up to almost two hours per period, a lot of time yawns before me.

If my duties allow--in other words, if I'm not teaching an active lesson, which in high school as a sub I usually don't do--and if the class is under control, often I can pen a few "palabras" on my blog.

I have a backlog, too: two WBC games, assorted interviews with La Jolla High athletes, etc.

It's good to be back at the keyboard.

LJ g sand VB: Turn the Paige

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Paige Kaufman, a seasoned junior, and Maya Gessner, a freshman, had never played together. Yet they vanquished their foes on Our Lady of Peace 22-20, 21-15, Thurs., March 16, figuring out all the communication issues, signals, and court coverage.

"It went really well," said Kaufman, reclining next to one of the volleyball courts at Coronado Street in South Mission Beach, her playing mission for the day accomplished. "She (Maya) really stepped up. She really played well."

First lesson the junior knows: Give plaudits to your younger partner.

Asked what her own strengths are, the tall junior who played in the number-three pair, watching teammates play in a different match, said, "Defense. Playing well defensively and trying not to let anything drop."

A graphic turn of phrase, the latter, since if the ball drops, that means it hits the sand--dead ball, point lost.

New head coach Kelly Drobeck, she of the Cathedral Catholic background, was on the other side of the stretched cords serving as court boundaries, busily observing another pair as the Vikings competed against OLP. This was the third week of the SDVBA season. La Jolla won in its first two weeks.

Kaufman has been in Drobeck's program for a while. She played club volleyball under the veteran, future-Hall-of-Fame coach. The teen now only plays sand volleyball, and says she isn't going for a college scholarship in the sport.

"If it comes along, that's fine. But I'm not shooting for it at this point."

She's got the normal responsibilities of a high school upperclassperson, with homework, family responsibilities, and so forth. Dad Pete comes along and asks if she's ready to take a ride home, since he's her ride.

"I parked 10 blocks away," he says, commiserating with a visitor who likewise struggled to find a parking spot in any one of the narrow alleys that dot Mission Beach. The street parking along Mission Beach Blvd. was completely filled outside the myriad of beach residences along the strip.

The looming issue for Kaufman family: what's for dinner. Dad Pete says he has to come up with a plan, and it is already begging 5:00, the trip up the hill to La Jolla through commuter-time traffic yet to happen.

"You'll have to grill up some more salmon for Paige," the visitor says, attempting to inject some humor right after interviewing the high school student and learning her proclivity for the pink fish. Dessert sounds easier: She says doesn't really have a treat that stands out. But she does remember as a child going to Mr. Frosti's.

As far as her coach, Kaufman explained, "She breaks everything (in practice) into every aspect. We start with passing, then transition to hitting... Then she combines everything and we play a game. She lets us play a lot, which really helps.

"In club, she'd have us focus on one skill and get that down. Then go on to another skill.

"She (Drobeck) really knows the technical aspects (of volleyball).

Probed how her coach sets her up mentally, the junior said, "She's never negative. She always helps you through it. It's always constructive criticism, so she always makes you want to play for her."

Kaufman contrasted sand with court volleyball: "(In sand) it's only you and your partner. In high school (court) volleyball, you have your coaches all the time. In beach volleyball, you have to figure it out." She seemed to welcome the freedom this affords.

LJ FB: Oxy in the future?

By Ed Piper, Jr.


At the reception for the new head football coach at La Jolla High Mon., March 13, Tyler Roach said that Collin Rugg, his former Viking quarterback in 2013-2014, had been by school Monday and "helped with the quarterbacks".


Roach was later asked if he knew the La Jolla High graduate's plans for next year. Roach responded: "I think for football it would be Occidental (College). Non football would be UCLA or SDSU from what I'm hearing."


Rugg, who set the CIF San Diego Section record for passing touchdowns in a season with 46 while at La Jolla, left William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, outside of Kansas City, after the Fall 2016 season and returned home in San Diego. He was attending Jewell on a full-ride Division 1 football scholarship through his first and second seasons in college.


The 2015 La Jolla High graduate is presently enrolled in online college courses while he applies to universities in Southern California.


Collin indicated last week that he was considering options for his future that include football as well as ones that don't.


According to the William Jewell College football website, the 6'3" passing virtuoso redshirted his first year in college, as his eligibility status for the 2016 football season was listed as redshirt freshman. This would mean he has three years of playing eligibility remaining.







Rugg was third on the depth chart at quarterback this past season for the Cardinals, who suffered through a 1-9 season. He only played substantially in two games, going 6 for 14 in passing in each of the two games, with three interceptions in the latter game.


He could probably see the writing on the wall, with both quarterbacks ahead of him--both of whom redshirted, as well--likely returning next year: Brad Strauss, the number one, a redshirt junior, with 1,489 yards passing, and Jared Hobby, the number two, a redshirt sophomore, with 745 yards.


If he had stayed at Jewell, it's very possible that he would have waited two more years to play regularly only his senior year, his fifth year in college.