Sundays with Jason David …

In the video: Keith Smith is in blue top/black shorts. Darien Johnson (black top/maroon shorts), Herman Atkins (red top/blue shorts), Unknown (white top/black shorts) … he plays at JC and is friend of Devon Blackmon.

Former Charter Oak, Washington St. and NFL Super Bowl champion defensive back Jason David let me know he’s got some workouts taking place at Charter Oak High on Sundays, so I decided to roll over there and check it out. As usual, David’s workouts are pretty interesting stuff. To me, they’re cutting edge, but then again I’m not a coach. Anyway, out there was former Charter Oak linebacker and current freshman All-American Keith Smith of San Jose St., former Tribune Player of the Year at Charter Oak and current San Diego St. RB Adam Muema, top Oregon recruit Devon Blackmon of Summit High, New Mexico St. DB Darien Johnson of Bishop Amat and current Charter Oak players Chris Gilchrist and Herman Atkins. I know I wrote about Atkins in my “Under the radar” segment on CO’s spring practice, but wow, this guy is impressive. Clearly one of the top athletes in the area. Joining David for some instruction was former Los Altos and New Mexico WR Travis Brown, who is now an assistant at Damien under head coach Greg Gano.

Aram’s take: David was wearing a t-shirt that said “No deposit, no return”. I guess that’s kind of the point of what they were doing out there on a Sunday. I mean, you can see why these guys are at the top of their game or trying to get there, because most people aren’t out doing drills IN MAY ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON. That, and these guys are all football junkies. I am too, but in a fan kind of way. I don’t know what it’s like to be a football junkie as a player, but just think about this — David has won a Super Bowl and Smith is a frosh All-American and on a Sunday afternoon they’re out at CO. Impressive!

IMPORTANT: TWO football camps this weekend …

Damien High School is hosting a skills and agility camp for 6th-8th graders on Saturday morning at 8 a.m.

Sign-ups will take place between 7:30-8 a.m. and the cost is $25 with each player getting a t-shirt.

THEN …

On Sunday, Covina High School will host a FREE football camp for players between the ages of 6-14.

There will be speed training, strength and conditioning, dynamic warm up, position-specific drills and fun compeition.

Every camper will receive a gift from the Colts football program. The camp runs between 9 a.m.-1 p.m. with registration on-site at 8:30 a.m.

For more info, visit Covina’s football website at Covinafootball.com

2011 Schedules: St. Paul Swordsmen …

Week 0: La Mirada
Week 1: BYE
Week 2: at Norwalk
Week 3: at Garfield
Week 4: Ayala
Week 5: at Schurr
Week 6: at Chaminade
Week 7: Cathedral
Week 8: Serra
Week 9: St. Francis
Week 10: at Harvard-Westlake

Aram’s take:
Last August, we were talking about the demise of St. Paul. This August, we’ll be talking about how if this, that, those and these go right, this team may last a round or two in the playoffs. No, I’m not enamored with the nonleague schedule. It’s the same one as last year and it’s somewhat weak, but it will probably get the job done in terms of getting the Swordsmen full of confidence before starting Mission League play. Last year, St. Paul went 2-3 in league and wasn’t close in losses to Serra and St. Francis. I expect that gap to narrow this year and the Swordsmen did take two out of three in games against Chaminade, Cathedral and Harvard-Westlake. With eight starters back on each side of the ball, I think it’s reasonable to expect improvement from last year’s 6-4 finish. As of now, I will call for St. Paul to sweep its nonleague and win three games in league for an 8-2 finish. But that could change to 9-1 or 7-3 with bounces of the ball.

Spring practice begins! Aram visits Monrovia …

Monrovia (12-2 in 2010)
Numbers: About 110
Aram’s impression: Well, all I have to say is good luck to the rest of the Rio Hondo League. But do you really care about that? Probably not and the ‘Cats, if we’re being honest, probably don’t either. After winning the Mid-Valley Division championship and being in the title game the past two years, we all know how M-Town is now judging success. Aram has now seen West Covina, Charter Oak and Monrovia. In terms of athletes, I would rank them exactly in that order, with not much separating CO and M-Town. Shocked? Don’t be. I’m gonna have to go see Covina soon because I have a hard time believing there’s another Mid-Valley Division team as talented as Monrovia. There were recruiters out on Monday from Miami and Utah, presumably to fawn over defensive lineman Ellis McCarthy. But he was busy prepping for this weekend’s CIF track finals where he’ll compete in the shot put. Same for running back Michael Harris, who is a sprinter on the school’s track team. The guy who really stood out was junior-to-be George Frazier, who I have video of (sorry about the sound). Frazier is the front runner to replace Nick Bueno at QB (my words, not head coach Ryan Maddox’s) and he also plays linebacker. This kid has a D-1 frame already and he’s still got two years of eligibility. Listen, spring practice, like passing tourneys, is pretty much a athlete-measuring contest. Based on what I saw, Monrovia may be overall more talented than last season. And the couple of coaches I put that notion by did not disagree.
Under the radar: WR/DB Luke Williams. The kid is 6-2, 180 and I didn’t catch just how fast he is because they weren’t running those kinds of drills. But if he is as fast as his frame suggests (and can catch) you’ve got what may be one of the top WRs in the area.