Thursday Night Lonesome: South Pas at La Cañada
VS.
Tonight's Game with Predictions
South Pasadena (2-6, 0-3) at La Cañada (3-5, 1-2) -- Melendez (South Pasadena); Lair (La Cañada)
FYI, I'm alive and well. Hope you guys got a chance to check out the feature on South Pasadena's Steven Colliau. Great kid.
Among the 10 sophomores on the South Pasadena High School football team, coach Ed Smith is starting four of them.
Kevin Figueroa (offensive guard/defensive tackle), Michael Lind (center/defensive end), Alex Larrimore (defensive tackle) and Conor Bednarski (quarterback) are living life in the fast lane. "Life" being members of the football team and "fast lane" being the varsity level.
The learning curve is high, but Smith knows that the Tigers will grow as a team and become something special in a year or two.
It wasn't long ago when Daniel Zynn, who started at offensive and defensive tackle his sophomore year, made the most of a similar experience.
Zynn earned a scholarship to Boise State before transferring to Michigan State.
There also was David Allen, who as a sophomore started at outside linebacker. He also earned a scholarship, to Tulane.
It's results like those that have Smith excited about the future of some of his young players, especially Bednarski.
"We knew this year was going to be tough because we're projecting a lot of young guys to play," Smith said.
"We start four sophomores, some who go both ways, and a lot of juniors, but very few starting seniors.
"(Bednarski's) one of the guys that's getting better. At the beginning of the season we said we might take our lumps with this guy, and he has, but we can see real big improvement."
Bednarski has thrown for 1,183 yards and five touchdowns but eight interceptions.
Still, it's the potential and glimpses he's shown of good things to come that have Smith excited.
"Right now he's on a curve where it looks like he's going to get better," Smith said.
There's been significant improvement for the whole team, Smith says, since the Tigers opened league play with a 31-7 loss to San Marino.
"We probably played our better game against Monrovia, but they just had too many horses for us," he said.
"They showed a lot of improvement since the San Marino game, even though the score doesn't show it."
South Pasadena is expecting the Spartans, who are coming off a 10-7 loss to Monrovia, to establish the run early.
"They like the double-wing, and I know in the past (La Ca ada coach Rich) Wheeler has liked to run," Smith said. "But they also have some good receivers, so I know it's going to be a little of both."
The Spartans are led by 6-foot-2 junior quarterback Rocky Moore, who has thrown for 930 yards with 12 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Brian Veeh, Andrew Kim and Nate Nitzkowski are his favorite receivers.
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About this blog
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
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Michael Colliau
Your son is an exemplary athlete.
I could not agree more with your comments. The rarity of a kid excelling in 3 sports and maintaining a GPA...It is also rare a kid has the forethought such as Steven to understand his prep field days are actually a time to cherish and soak in....not just some passing game blending into another chapter of life.
Enjoyed your insights very much.
yes, No. 20 on South Pas is a senior.
One reason Thursday night games are a necessity is because so many schools share the same field...
Burbank and Burroughs play at Burroughs High School so that's why Burroughs played last night and Burbank plays tonight.
Hoover, Glendale, CV and Loyola play their home games at Glendale High. Glendale College was there too for years but now has their own stadium.
When I was in high school all of the PUSD schools shared PCC.
I read somewhere that there are some schools on the east coast that are having to go to Wednesday night games because of field use issues.
I do think that shortage of officials is playing a part too.
Miguel,
Though I am not sure this is appropriate in the world of prep sports "blogging", and despite the fact that he most certainly would rather I not, I just wanted to thank you for yesterday's article on my son Steven Colliau. Very rarely does a parent have the opportunity to publicly compliment their child and so I wanted to do so here while I had the chance.
In what has been a tough year playing on a young and inexperienced team in transition, as clearly evidenced by last night's game with La Canada, it was nice to see an all-around athlete like Steven, who participates in various sports for the shear love of playing, receiving that recognition. That he has been able to play these year round, including attendant summer leagues and workouts, while maintaining top notch grades, full loads of Honors and AP classes, outstanding test scores and writing for the school paper is something of which I as a parent am most proud.
In my mind, and as supported by your story, this culminated last night in his refusal to come out of the LC game, despite badly spraining his ankle and injuring his knee on the same play, the latter of which I thought until this morning might knock him out of sports for the rest of the school year. Though in obvious pain and limping noticeably the last 3 quarters, he later told me he wanted to enjoy every moment of these last 2 games of his HS football career, and that these efforts did not include coming out for an injury.. The 4-5 catches, several pass breakups and interception he made thereafter really showed to me his toughness and love of playing the game.
Hopefully, with the help of articles like yours here, more and more kids, especially in schools like South Pas which have a limited supply of athletes, will opt to play multiple sports and be supported by the coaches to do so. I know there are several in the Rio Hondo League, such as Morgan Hatch of TC and Stevie Yortsos of SM, who like Steven have played football, soccer and baseball throughout their careers. I am sure there are more and they should be likewise commended. Continuing to recognize these student athletes and their efforts as exemplifying what HS sports is all about should therefore be encouraged.
Finally Miguel, your story was a great finish, putting aside the La Canada result, to a week where Steven appears to have broken the SoPas single season record for catches, continued in his efforts to be among the Area leaders in receiving, and was allowed to vote for the first time "to make a change". Your time and effort in speaking with him is appreciated, and remember we have all seasons of Entourage if needed.
Random
I think much of it goes to the observations 91030 and others have layed down. So Pas is young and not particularly strong and conditioned up front, either on the D or O line. MOST sophomores would find Varsity a butt-kickin playround they ain't ready for just yet.
By the late 3rd and 4th these kids have been leaned on and repeatedly whacked and they just aren't there yet.
No doubt next year they will know what the deal is and be back with new cards to play. To Tiger Fans - know that I don't mean that as a low blow. It was clear in the films and clear at game time during the TC game.
Is south pas # 20 a senior? That kid could scoot.
is this Wheeler's last year? anyone know?
Goldenarm,
They've got some studs in their secondary its only allowed 60 yards in league so far and last night I think they had 5 or 6 picks against a good QB and WRs. South Pass. played hard until the 4th quarter and then they couldn't finish.
Congratulation La Canada on the win. LC secondary can play only let 60 yards all of league up to this game and had something like 6 picks in this game. that away to stop the pass.
There is no doubt.
La Canada can play D amd they have some studs.
LC 20-0
I watched Valdez last year, and he was good as a sophmore, very good. but he also had some very good talent at his disposal that took some pressure off of him, namely a running game. SP has not breakaway speed, hence running game is limited, and only one receiver that can be depended on to catch the ball reliably.
Isaac Valdez is better. He did better than most senior quarterbacks last year as a sophomore!...I'm not sure if I should post this comment because he might see this and feel all cocky in the Schurr game...his only downfall.
Question: what's the rationale for having Thursday games anyway? I heard one theory that there is a shortage of CIF refs, and they move some games to Thursday, so that there can be enough refs for all the games.