Santa Margarita shows its progress in summer football

The Santa Margaritas football team has been given a little summer reading. Not their teacher. According to their coaches.

Every so often the team meets in small groups and discusses what they have read from the book Legacy All black New Zealand’s national rugby professional team and their unprecedented success. In the first chapter, Santa Margarita coach Anthony Rouzier says, it is said that all black leaders take it upon themselves to keep equipment clean by sweeping their shortcomings.

This simple act has become the mantra of teams. Players take it separately to heart.

As a player, everyone looks at you, but you can’t be too big for the team, junior player Jaxon Potter said. You have to do all the little things right. That’s what’s being swept [means].

It was no surprise to see the Trinity League team win on Saturdays at the Battle on the Beach tournament at Edison High. What was surprising, however, was that the team was Santa Margarita, who won the Santa Ana Mater Dei in the semi-finals and the Servite championship.

It was a great victory for the team, Rouzier said in the post-victory huddle and an example of where splashing the spikes could take them.

Its all about culture, Rouzier said. Its purpose is to build something where the character always transcends ability. We had a lot of guys who just came and stepped up.

Potter was one of those guys. As a transfer from JSerra, he kept the ship stable back and forth against Mater Dei, extinguishing the property stable in his own right with junior field player Gavin Shaigineik. Eventually, after the draw time had passed, Potter won the game with a short pass by the longest yard from Santa Margaritas ’40-yard line.

It’s a huge program, Potter said, because when you come out and you win [two of] top [three] teams in a nation, people see it, and then people want to come play with you.

Junior tight Nico Lopez, whom Rouzier called Agent Zero because of his number, made big plays for Santa Margarita during the tournament. Other referees to which Rouzier pointed out were junior-wide receiver Nick Gallegos and junior runner Jake Foye.

They all have roles in filling Santa Margaritas ’now-graduate referee Colt Fulton and other shoes. Winning the tournament seems even more unlikely given they have only had a couple of months of training since the end of the season in April to try to balance this extensive list turnover.

But it is a phenomenon that almost every program addresses. The pandemic was delayed through the last few years until spring, but the slate of 2021-22 starts normally. This will result in a shorter offseason, and the lack of unified representatives may have leveled the playing field slightly on Saturday.

It’s just tough, said Edison head coach Jeff Grady. All in the same boat.

Grady and St.John Bosco coach Jason Negro apologized for the reduced strength training and treatment time. Mater Dei coach Bruce Rollinson has never faced this problem in his program for 32 years; he said his coaching staff constantly monitored their players ’diets up to their diets to make sure the lack of lead time didn’t burn them in the middle of the season.

It has been particularly difficult for programs like Culver City, which is going to the tournament.

Coach Jahmal Wright is struggling to lose most of his injured players. Seniors, including Zevi Eckhaus, the All-Star quarterback in The Times in 2020. They will be replaced by five freshman wide receivers and a freshman. To complicate matters, the group only has three practices under their belt, Wright said, out of about 14 or so they normally have at this time in the offseason.

They collided with Mater Dei in the first match on Saturday and lost 39-7.

We bit a big part there, Wright said, playing for one of the best teams in the country when we have a freshman playing field.

Still, the new finalist, Alonzo Esparza, is one worth keeping an eye on. Esparza plays and speaks with wisdom with self-confidence that falsifies youthful lavishness. He throws one of the most beautiful spirals and said he had no nerves in front of some of the country’s top programs.

Culver City defeated Valencia, the final consolation champion, immediately after the defeat of Mater Dei.

We just came here to play and heal, Esparza said. We didn’t necessarily win all the games, and we came here as underworlds.

The Underdogs prevailed largely on Saturday, and Servite also won the St. John Bosco semi-final. As more than 20 programs participating in the Battle on the Beach tournament regroup in the fall, each will have its own challenges in shortening the listing in a short amount of time.

Santa Margarita, for example, continues to clean the floor.