By Ed Piper, Jr.
I want to focus on a playoff game that La Jolla High's softball team competed in before the CIF championship game, which they won, 2-1, over Mission Bay on a dramatic finish in the bottom of the final inning.
Instead, I want to re-examine the Vikings' powerful 12-3 win over Coronado May 25, only two days before the finals. Why? In collecting 19 hits, the players throughout Coach Andrea Denham's lineup showed what they can do. It was a heck of a display.
(The win actually seemed to break Coronado's spirit, because the Islanders, the number-one seed in the bracket, lost by a big margin to Mission Bay in the next game of the semifinal doubleheader, thus being eliminated from the tournament. La Jolla was seeded sixth.)
From the have's, of Linda Brown, the power-hitter, jolting two two-run homers over the centerfield fence, to the have-not's--I'm using the terms figuratively--of, say, Ava Verbrugghen, who only plays for the high school team, getting a hit and a sacrifice, everybody took part in the hitting festival.
Now, you guys, don't take things personally. I'm merely drawing out the distinction in today's high school softball between the players who practice the craft almost year-round on club teams, and those who only play for their high school teams.
Usually, but not always, the girls who compete for club teams are the better players. One, there is a selection process. If you're not very good, you probably wouldn't be playing on a club team. Two, the coaching and game experience you get on a club team are going to hone your skills. Otherwise, what are you doing out there in practice everyday?
The girls, when you talk to them, love this mixing of talents with their friends in school. They don't express frustration at all at some of their teammates' errors or mental mistakes that come from not knowing the sport the way they do.
Take Bishop's. I did a story on the Lady Knights team earlier in the season, and conducted a lengthy interview with their star pitcher, Shelby Maier, who had just committed to a full-ride at a four-year school. She said she really enjoyed playing for her school team, whereas playing for her club team was "stressful".
In the same way, without revealing names, similar was heard among the Viking contingent during warmups before the Coronado game. There is a different atmosphere on the school team. No one is competing for a position. In fact, they go around to other girls at school before and during the season trying to get them to join the team, because there aren't enough players.
That's how Verbrugghen came out. She had never played before her sophomore year. Some on the team recruited her to join the team camaraderie. That's how Sara Tyrus came out and ended up being the starting second baseman pretty much throughout her high school years. Ditto Sina Anae, an athlete but not a softball player, who ended up scoring the winning run for the championship.
I don't think Hailey Ramos plays for a club team, either. Am I wrong?
Ramos, as noted elsewhere, had four hits in the semifinal win over Coronado, including two RBI's. Vanessa Shaffer, another talented athlete but not experienced in softball before coming out two years ago as a freshman, had a single in the second and coaxed a walk in the fifth, after relief pitcher Emma Casamassima, newly inserted for the Islanders, twice was called for illegal pitches. The pitcher was landing to the side on her pitching delivery, instead of the required straight-ahead step.
I had never seen the call before.
Tyrus, a graduating senior who originally planned to sit out this season and who now has a CIF title, hit a single in the sixth and came around to score the Vikings' ninth run when Coronado catcher Danielle Herrera made an error.
Anae failed to get a hit, and was scolding herself for it. But Sina, with her big sister watching from the stands at the Poway Sportsplex, did line out to the second baseman twice.
The unsung cog in the machine has been Emily Alvarez. She is the original good humor team member, taking videos of teammates and generally keeping a smile on her face. She's easy-going, like her sister Stephanie, who starred for La Jolla and who attended the playoff games.
Alvarez singled in the third, singled again in the fourth, and played a dependable first base.
Josie Sinkeldam had three hits, including a two-run triple in the second, and scored twice. Kyra Ferenczy, likewise, had three hits, three RBI's, and scored three times in the romp.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
LJ softball: LJHS's fifth CIF title this year
By Ed Piper, Jr.
If I'm not mistaken, the La Jolla High softball team's CIF title May 27 is the fifth CIF title for LJHS this school year.
Paula Conway, the Viking Athletic Director, said the school already had four titles up till last week. I believe my memory is correct, although I can't enumerate the four: We have girls soccer, boys volleyball, and boys lacrosse. I know that a pair in girls beach volleyball won, but I don't know if Paula was counting them.
What was pretty remarkable about the boys lacrosse and boys volleyball titles was that they occurred the same evening, the same day. I was busy attending to softball playoff duties that day, having been out of the area for a while and having stayed home from events to let my nasty back recuperate a little.
Back in my days, in the CIF Southern Section, there were only four divisions, 4A through 1A, 4A being the highest. And in the major sports at least, football, basketball, and baseball, only the league champions advanced to the playoffs.
So, after having gone to all-star baseball tournaments for years in youth league, Pony League, and so forth, my brother and I were shut out in our high school competition from playing in the CIF playoffs. My brother, a backup first baseman at the time, went one year, but he didn't play.
I know the arguments about the dilution of the meaning of a CIF title when San Diego Section has a billion divisions. But I never see any parent or player complaining when their team just won the championship game. All I see is a major dogpile celebration on the field among the players, and family members and students whooping and hollering in the stands.
It's just plain fun and exciting.
Another aspect to having many opportunities to advance to the playoffs is the invaluable experience it yields to players. They've been tested in the heat of competition, when games are often do-or-die, and it's just fantastic.
I never went to the basketball playoffs, but hitting key free throws in the third overtime of an upset win over Santa Barbara High, the giant in our league at that time featuring future Laker Don Ford, gave me the confidence to play much better players in pickup ball on Saturdays at Loyola Marymount College and in competition in Mexico City, where I played in a men's league.
I remember stepping to the line in a game in Xochimilco, where there are floating gardens in southern Mexico City, and calmly thinking I had done all this before and succeeded. I made the free throws, which I expected, and our team won.
Hopefully, that confidence blends over into other parts of student athletes' lives as they get older and mature. A healthy confidence. Not a cocky, irritating self-assurance. I would call it a right view of ourselves, in perspective, with us having value and worth, beneath a God who loves and cares for us.
If I'm not mistaken, the La Jolla High softball team's CIF title May 27 is the fifth CIF title for LJHS this school year.
Paula Conway, the Viking Athletic Director, said the school already had four titles up till last week. I believe my memory is correct, although I can't enumerate the four: We have girls soccer, boys volleyball, and boys lacrosse. I know that a pair in girls beach volleyball won, but I don't know if Paula was counting them.
What was pretty remarkable about the boys lacrosse and boys volleyball titles was that they occurred the same evening, the same day. I was busy attending to softball playoff duties that day, having been out of the area for a while and having stayed home from events to let my nasty back recuperate a little.
Back in my days, in the CIF Southern Section, there were only four divisions, 4A through 1A, 4A being the highest. And in the major sports at least, football, basketball, and baseball, only the league champions advanced to the playoffs.
So, after having gone to all-star baseball tournaments for years in youth league, Pony League, and so forth, my brother and I were shut out in our high school competition from playing in the CIF playoffs. My brother, a backup first baseman at the time, went one year, but he didn't play.
I know the arguments about the dilution of the meaning of a CIF title when San Diego Section has a billion divisions. But I never see any parent or player complaining when their team just won the championship game. All I see is a major dogpile celebration on the field among the players, and family members and students whooping and hollering in the stands.
It's just plain fun and exciting.
Another aspect to having many opportunities to advance to the playoffs is the invaluable experience it yields to players. They've been tested in the heat of competition, when games are often do-or-die, and it's just fantastic.
I never went to the basketball playoffs, but hitting key free throws in the third overtime of an upset win over Santa Barbara High, the giant in our league at that time featuring future Laker Don Ford, gave me the confidence to play much better players in pickup ball on Saturdays at Loyola Marymount College and in competition in Mexico City, where I played in a men's league.
I remember stepping to the line in a game in Xochimilco, where there are floating gardens in southern Mexico City, and calmly thinking I had done all this before and succeeded. I made the free throws, which I expected, and our team won.
Hopefully, that confidence blends over into other parts of student athletes' lives as they get older and mature. A healthy confidence. Not a cocky, irritating self-assurance. I would call it a right view of ourselves, in perspective, with us having value and worth, beneath a God who loves and cares for us.
LJ softball: CIF title
By Ed Piper, Jr.
In the aftermath of a CIF title, things have to look different.
La Jolla High's softball team put in all that work, had a break-through season a year ago to fall in the championship game to a superior Christian High team.
That scenario looks totally different, seen backwards through the lens of the Vikings' title-grabbing ways only four days ago.
The final against Mission Bay was a pitcher's duel, with the Buccaneers' talented freshman, Cassidy West, dominating center stage.
Besides striking out 13 Vikings, including seven in a row early in the game, she wasn't allowing many baserunners either.
Hailey Ramos, La Jolla's catcher, continued to be a revelation, getting two hits and knocking in the team's first run.
Nothing came easy, and after Mission Bay tied the game in the top of the fifth, there wasn't much else going on on the basepaths either way.
Kyra Ferenczy, the Vikings' pitcher, makes it look easy sometimes. She loves playing, it's apparent, and sometimes her pitching gets overshadowed by her adept hitting.
When you hit the way she did her freshman year, and no one else is a proficient pitcher on your team, people can start to assume you're going to be in the pitching circle each game and not think that much more about it.
But in the championship game, it came down to her and the defense keeping the Bucs from scoring further in the fifth, when they could have.
The tight play of the Vikings set up Josie Sinkeldam's game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh, driving in Sina Anae with one out.
What happened just prior to Anae scoring was a totally nerve-wracking--from the La Jolla dugout, at least--play. Anae, a good athlete but new to softball, strayed way toward third base on Vanessa Shaffer's bunt attempt, which she popped up into the air.
Not realizing she had to get back to the bag initially, Sina, a good runner, hesitated for a moment. She was close to two-thirds of the way down the basepath.
When the popup was caught, it looked like Anae was a dead duck.
That would have been the second out, but more importantly, it would have snuffed out the potential run that she represented after a smash double to right.
Everybody in her dugout yelled at her to get back.
Somehow, like in a slow-motion movie reel, she got back to second, beating the throw. She kind of jump-slid, jamming her limb stiff-legged into the bag.
Two pitches later, Sinkeldam lined a pitch from West--all the club players either know or are aware of one another--into right center, breaking a 1-1 tie, and the celebration was on.
In the aftermath of a CIF title, things have to look different.
La Jolla High's softball team put in all that work, had a break-through season a year ago to fall in the championship game to a superior Christian High team.
That scenario looks totally different, seen backwards through the lens of the Vikings' title-grabbing ways only four days ago.
The final against Mission Bay was a pitcher's duel, with the Buccaneers' talented freshman, Cassidy West, dominating center stage.
Besides striking out 13 Vikings, including seven in a row early in the game, she wasn't allowing many baserunners either.
Hailey Ramos, La Jolla's catcher, continued to be a revelation, getting two hits and knocking in the team's first run.
Nothing came easy, and after Mission Bay tied the game in the top of the fifth, there wasn't much else going on on the basepaths either way.
Kyra Ferenczy, the Vikings' pitcher, makes it look easy sometimes. She loves playing, it's apparent, and sometimes her pitching gets overshadowed by her adept hitting.
When you hit the way she did her freshman year, and no one else is a proficient pitcher on your team, people can start to assume you're going to be in the pitching circle each game and not think that much more about it.
But in the championship game, it came down to her and the defense keeping the Bucs from scoring further in the fifth, when they could have.
The tight play of the Vikings set up Josie Sinkeldam's game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh, driving in Sina Anae with one out.
What happened just prior to Anae scoring was a totally nerve-wracking--from the La Jolla dugout, at least--play. Anae, a good athlete but new to softball, strayed way toward third base on Vanessa Shaffer's bunt attempt, which she popped up into the air.
Not realizing she had to get back to the bag initially, Sina, a good runner, hesitated for a moment. She was close to two-thirds of the way down the basepath.
When the popup was caught, it looked like Anae was a dead duck.
That would have been the second out, but more importantly, it would have snuffed out the potential run that she represented after a smash double to right.
Everybody in her dugout yelled at her to get back.
Somehow, like in a slow-motion movie reel, she got back to second, beating the throw. She kind of jump-slid, jamming her limb stiff-legged into the bag.
Two pitches later, Sinkeldam lined a pitch from West--all the club players either know or are aware of one another--into right center, breaking a 1-1 tie, and the celebration was on.
LJ softball: Clutch hitting
By Ed Piper, Jr.
Gary Sinkeldam had some remarkable statistics. Sinkeldam, the official scorekeeper and statistician for La Jolla's CIF-winning softball team, compiled the following numbers in the Division 4 playoffs prior to the Vikings' title win at UCSD Sat., May 27.
His daughter, Josie Sinkeldam, the junior shortstop, was hitting a whopping .625 from the leadoff spot. Hailey Ramos, the team's catcher, a sophomore, was popping the ball at a .533 clip.
Meanwhile, Linda Brown, the Vikings' graduating power-hitting third baseman, clubbed the ball at .529 through the playoffs. Finally, Kyra Ferenczy, pitcher/third-slot hitter, was hitting an even .500.
No wonder Coach Andrea Denham's team came alive during the playoffs. Their hitting was phenomenal. The bats woke up, as coaches like to say.
That takes care of one of the major facets of softball. The other, a pitcher, has been very solid with Ferenczy, a sophomore in her second year of pitching practically all of La Jolla's innings.
That's one area in which softball is so different from baseball: In baseball, a coach has to find multiple arms and juggle them in starter and reliever roles. The human arm was not designed to take the beating of an overhand throw multiple days in a row.
With the underhanded softball motion, a star pitcher can pitch nearly every inning, and both games of a doubleheader, if necessary, without rest.
Imagine that "Iron Joe" McGinnity, in the old days of major league baseball, did just that. Unthinkable now.
Gary Sinkeldam had some remarkable statistics. Sinkeldam, the official scorekeeper and statistician for La Jolla's CIF-winning softball team, compiled the following numbers in the Division 4 playoffs prior to the Vikings' title win at UCSD Sat., May 27.
His daughter, Josie Sinkeldam, the junior shortstop, was hitting a whopping .625 from the leadoff spot. Hailey Ramos, the team's catcher, a sophomore, was popping the ball at a .533 clip.
Meanwhile, Linda Brown, the Vikings' graduating power-hitting third baseman, clubbed the ball at .529 through the playoffs. Finally, Kyra Ferenczy, pitcher/third-slot hitter, was hitting an even .500.
No wonder Coach Andrea Denham's team came alive during the playoffs. Their hitting was phenomenal. The bats woke up, as coaches like to say.
That takes care of one of the major facets of softball. The other, a pitcher, has been very solid with Ferenczy, a sophomore in her second year of pitching practically all of La Jolla's innings.
That's one area in which softball is so different from baseball: In baseball, a coach has to find multiple arms and juggle them in starter and reliever roles. The human arm was not designed to take the beating of an overhand throw multiple days in a row.
With the underhanded softball motion, a star pitcher can pitch nearly every inning, and both games of a doubleheader, if necessary, without rest.
Imagine that "Iron Joe" McGinnity, in the old days of major league baseball, did just that. Unthinkable now.
LJ FB: Roach and Hayden
By Ed Piper, Jr.
Spring football at La Jolla High moves forward apace.
There is a sense that "We've been together before" and "Let's build it from here".
Tyler Roach is the third head football coach the program has had in the past 16 months. But Roach was the offensive coordinator prior to Matt Morrison's short one-year interlude as head coach, so more than one player has said, with no disrespect to the effective Morrison: "He (Coach Roach) is the coach I thought should have been hired a year ago."
Said Roach of his initial spring workouts as head coach of a program, "We're trying to get the team together. We have a lot of young guys. We want to teach them how we practice.
"We've already seen a progression this week in three days," Roach said back on Wed., May 24, the third day of workouts.
Quarterback Kenny Hayden, rehabbing his right knee and standing on crutches, in response to being asked what the point of spring workouts was, said, "To learn the game of football and to create a bond with your family. It's not just the football ethic, but learning to play with your family.
"It also has to do with a work ethic," Hayden continued. "I know when I've worked hard and achieved something, it has taught me the rewards of a work ethic."
La Jolla practiced Monday through Thursday afternoons May 22-25 during the first week of workouts. Then this week, after the Memorial Day holiday Mon., May 29, the Vikings continued practice Tuesday, to be continued Wednesday and Thursday.
Roach didn't schedule practice for Fri., May 26. It was part of the four-day Memorial Day Weekend.
He was apologetic and explanatory about not holding practice this coming Fri., June 2: "It's a half day of school, and you know how that goes as far as getting things together."
What the program will do Sat., June 3, beginning at 9 a.m., is hold a Family Day, with spring games, meet-the-coaches, a tour of facilities, and a barbecue after the games at 11:30 a.m.
A new thing is the attractiveness of the facilities. Last year the program was still in storage containers at Muirlands Middle School in August. Now, La Jolla can show off its new turf, concessions stands, press box, but more importantly for the athletes the new trainer's room and strength/weight training room.
Said new receivers coach Armon Harvey, "I've never had this before. Our coaches' office is right on the field (the northern-most building, in the corner of the stadium next to the shot put pit). I just came over from the pro league in Europe, and we didn't have this."
Regarding bodies, he said, "We have 20 to 25 players" who showed interest in playing on the freshman team next year in a meeting for eighth-graders from Muirlands Middle School.
Harvey coached for the Cineplexx Devils, a pro football team in the state of Voralberg in Austria. He was head coach of the organization's second team, and offensive coordinator of the first team. It was part of the European Football League (EFL).
Interestingly, the league has a large number of players from Germany and Austria, where Harvey said there is interest in and knowledge of American football. "It would be kind of like a DI school here," he said as far as the competitive level.
Each team can have three Americans on its active roster. Two Americans can play on each platoon, offense and defense.
Spring football at La Jolla High moves forward apace.
There is a sense that "We've been together before" and "Let's build it from here".
Tyler Roach is the third head football coach the program has had in the past 16 months. But Roach was the offensive coordinator prior to Matt Morrison's short one-year interlude as head coach, so more than one player has said, with no disrespect to the effective Morrison: "He (Coach Roach) is the coach I thought should have been hired a year ago."
Said Roach of his initial spring workouts as head coach of a program, "We're trying to get the team together. We have a lot of young guys. We want to teach them how we practice.
"We've already seen a progression this week in three days," Roach said back on Wed., May 24, the third day of workouts.
Quarterback Kenny Hayden, rehabbing his right knee and standing on crutches, in response to being asked what the point of spring workouts was, said, "To learn the game of football and to create a bond with your family. It's not just the football ethic, but learning to play with your family.
"It also has to do with a work ethic," Hayden continued. "I know when I've worked hard and achieved something, it has taught me the rewards of a work ethic."
La Jolla practiced Monday through Thursday afternoons May 22-25 during the first week of workouts. Then this week, after the Memorial Day holiday Mon., May 29, the Vikings continued practice Tuesday, to be continued Wednesday and Thursday.
Roach didn't schedule practice for Fri., May 26. It was part of the four-day Memorial Day Weekend.
He was apologetic and explanatory about not holding practice this coming Fri., June 2: "It's a half day of school, and you know how that goes as far as getting things together."
What the program will do Sat., June 3, beginning at 9 a.m., is hold a Family Day, with spring games, meet-the-coaches, a tour of facilities, and a barbecue after the games at 11:30 a.m.
A new thing is the attractiveness of the facilities. Last year the program was still in storage containers at Muirlands Middle School in August. Now, La Jolla can show off its new turf, concessions stands, press box, but more importantly for the athletes the new trainer's room and strength/weight training room.
Said new receivers coach Armon Harvey, "I've never had this before. Our coaches' office is right on the field (the northern-most building, in the corner of the stadium next to the shot put pit). I just came over from the pro league in Europe, and we didn't have this."
Regarding bodies, he said, "We have 20 to 25 players" who showed interest in playing on the freshman team next year in a meeting for eighth-graders from Muirlands Middle School.
Harvey coached for the Cineplexx Devils, a pro football team in the state of Voralberg in Austria. He was head coach of the organization's second team, and offensive coordinator of the first team. It was part of the European Football League (EFL).
Interestingly, the league has a large number of players from Germany and Austria, where Harvey said there is interest in and knowledge of American football. "It would be kind of like a DI school here," he said as far as the competitive level.
Each team can have three Americans on its active roster. Two Americans can play on each platoon, offense and defense.
LJ FB: Forcier a quarterback force
QB confab: Vike coach Chris
Forcier confers with
Trevor Scully.
(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)
By Ed Piper, Jr.
Chris Forcier presents a fierce exterior. Think Norse warrior, profile view.
The former St. Augustine star, in La Jolla's spring workouts, never smiles and has an intimidating visage as he marshals his new quarterback corps, baseball cap backwards over shoulder-length hair.
If he can bring further respectability to the Viking football tradition, more power to him.
The average San Diego County resident, when "La Jolla football" is mentioned, doesn't generally associate "intimidating" with the phrase.
More likely that the person will say, "You mean Country Day?", since that is a well-known sports school. La Jolla High, not so much.
Forcier, for the uninitiated, is the middle brother of a renowned local football family. Besides leading the Saints at quarterback in his prep days, the tall right-hander went to UCLA, then transferred to Furman University. He spent time on rosters in the NFL and then-NFL Europe (now the EFL).
From a pair of days watching him up-close in spring practice at Edwards Field, it is apparent he didn't just start coaching as an ex-jock, though. Previously, he was quarterbacks coach at Hoover High, under Jerry Ralph, a respected long-time head coach who is now at El Camino High in Oceanside. Ralph was Forcier's coach in high school.
"Chris brings some knowledge, some great experience," says Tyler Roach, the Vikings' new head coach and former offensive coordinator, who brought Forcier onto his staff this spring. "He's a great guy. He comes from a great football family. We're lucky to have him. He's collaborating with me on offense."
On Tues., May 30, Forcier guided his quarterbacks through intensive drills. There didn't appear to be wasted time, and the tone of the work reflected the look on the quarterback coach's face: all business, no slapping people on the back and saying good job. Very serious.
His quarterbacks, Trevor Scully and Carsten Fehlan, seemed to relish the level of work. They moved repeatedly around a circuit that included stepping high-kneed at separate stations marked by cones several yards apart, carrying the football ready to throw while maintaining a look down an imaginary field, then running rapidly with tiny but pronounced steps in a rope ladder laid on the ground to further agility.
Scully, in the view of a relatively inexperienced football observer who knows athletics overall, seemed to move precisely and quickly, without missing a step. Scully will be a senior next year. Fehlan, one year in school younger, looked almost as impressive. It's early, and a lot of water is going to pass under the proverbial bridge during the rest of spring practice, summer passing leagues, the annual team-building trip in Big Bear, and official practice in August.
LJ FB: Quarterback competition
By Ed Piper, Jr.
Not easing rising senior Kenny Hayden's anxiety any, the quarterback spot at La Jolla High is wide-open, among Hayden, last year's JV quarterback Carsten Fehlan, and Trevor Scully, a former Viking who transferred back from Mission Bay Wed., May 24.
Hayden, a southpaw passer, is the only one of the three who was on La Jolla's varsity squad full-time and exclusively last year. Fehlan led an outstanding junior varsity that sailed through an undefeated 9-0 season. Scully spent a year starting for the Buccaneers after Cole Dimich prevailed as Viking starting quarterback last season.
"It's totally open," said new La Jolla receivers coach Armon Harvey Tues., May 30, of the quarterback competition. "That's the way (new head coach) Tyler (Roach) does it, coming over from La Jolla Country Day."
"Kenny does not have seniority," said Harvey, who at present is part of a triumvirate that is piloting the red-and-black offense, with Roach doubling in his role as head coach also as offensive coordinator. Chris Forcier, the third prong of the trio, is quarterbacks coach. While Harvey spoke with a reporter, Forcier was running Scully and Fehlan through cone and ladder drills for agility and mobility while practicing their downfield-read posture. They looked pretty sweaty when they were done. They were working hard.
Harvey, a former fullback who played and coached in Europe, as well as coaching at Mater Dei, Montgomery, Monte Vista, and, last year, Del Norte high schools, vowed the Vikings' offense will be "electrifying" next fall.
"I see us competing for the (Eastern League) flag," he said. Spring football is like Spring Training baseball: Hope springs eternal. No one has any losses yet.
Roach's program, with the active quarterbacks, Scully and Fehlan, rotating, has a slate of 7-on-7 passing drill competitions scheduled this summer. One will be the annual camp at San Diego State. Another is the big camp held on the Southwestern College campus in the South Bay. Hayden is presently rehabbing a knee, and is not taking part in workouts.
This time the powers-that-be enter the summer fray with the expectation--assurance?--that this head coach will be around for a few seasons. That's what Head of Football Operations John McColl, who was at Wednesday's practice, clearly stated at the team event announcing Roach's hire back in March.
Not easing rising senior Kenny Hayden's anxiety any, the quarterback spot at La Jolla High is wide-open, among Hayden, last year's JV quarterback Carsten Fehlan, and Trevor Scully, a former Viking who transferred back from Mission Bay Wed., May 24.
Hayden, a southpaw passer, is the only one of the three who was on La Jolla's varsity squad full-time and exclusively last year. Fehlan led an outstanding junior varsity that sailed through an undefeated 9-0 season. Scully spent a year starting for the Buccaneers after Cole Dimich prevailed as Viking starting quarterback last season.
"It's totally open," said new La Jolla receivers coach Armon Harvey Tues., May 30, of the quarterback competition. "That's the way (new head coach) Tyler (Roach) does it, coming over from La Jolla Country Day."
"Kenny does not have seniority," said Harvey, who at present is part of a triumvirate that is piloting the red-and-black offense, with Roach doubling in his role as head coach also as offensive coordinator. Chris Forcier, the third prong of the trio, is quarterbacks coach. While Harvey spoke with a reporter, Forcier was running Scully and Fehlan through cone and ladder drills for agility and mobility while practicing their downfield-read posture. They looked pretty sweaty when they were done. They were working hard.
Harvey, a former fullback who played and coached in Europe, as well as coaching at Mater Dei, Montgomery, Monte Vista, and, last year, Del Norte high schools, vowed the Vikings' offense will be "electrifying" next fall.
"I see us competing for the (Eastern League) flag," he said. Spring football is like Spring Training baseball: Hope springs eternal. No one has any losses yet.
Roach's program, with the active quarterbacks, Scully and Fehlan, rotating, has a slate of 7-on-7 passing drill competitions scheduled this summer. One will be the annual camp at San Diego State. Another is the big camp held on the Southwestern College campus in the South Bay. Hayden is presently rehabbing a knee, and is not taking part in workouts.
This time the powers-that-be enter the summer fray with the expectation--assurance?--that this head coach will be around for a few seasons. That's what Head of Football Operations John McColl, who was at Wednesday's practice, clearly stated at the team event announcing Roach's hire back in March.
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