Junior All-American: Seahawks take off

Joseph Boo

CORONA DEL MAR - If you watched Corona del Mar’s Junior

All-American’s Junior Midget team in its first scrimmage against

Westminster Saturday at Corona del Mar High, you would have saw, well,

nothing.

That’s because a coach from Irvine was scouting the Seahawks. So CdM

coach Brent Ogden decided not to tip his hat too much.

“We didn’t want to show too much,” he said. “Our first unit defense

played great. They held them to negative yards. But the kids who never

played before played most of the game.”

And that is pretty indicative of what CdM will face in its three

remaining scrimmages and the season, which starts on Sept. 9. Some

opposing coaches travel to several practices to scout the opposition.

Ogden himself will go scouting too.

He is one of six coaches preparing his troops for the upcoming season.

Ogden, 44, has been a lifelong resident around the Corona del Mar area

and has been an assistant coach with the Sea Kings for 15 years.

After coaching his son, Brent III, in youth football, Ogden will

follow him to CdM’s frosh/soph team. So this is his last year with the

Junior All-Americans.

“I wish I had more sons,” Ogden said.

Fernando Griffiths, the coach of CdM’s junior pee wee team, doesn’t

have a son on the team. He doesn’t even live in the Newport Beach area,

Griffiths, who played at Edison High and Golden West College, commutes

from Yorba Linda. But he coaches his bunch of 9- to 11-year-olds to give

back to a sport that has meant so much to him.

“I played Junior All-American as a kid (in Inglewood) and it help me

out,” Griffiths said. “It helped me improve and I don’t know where I

would have ended up without it.”

Junior All-Americans also helped out Kevin Hatcher in his football

career, and he is now coaching the clinics (7-8) team.

A Louisville University product, Hatcher is helped by two assistants

with college experiences, Kirk Morton, formerly of Long Beach State, and

Occidental product Jeff Dennis. They will help CdM’s entry-level team,

with most of their players putting on pads for the first time.

“It’s challenging,” Hatcher said. “It’s a blast though. For some, this

is the only time some of them will play football, and the only time they

get to hit people. We just want them to have fun and work hard as a

team.”

Rob Lusk, 37, coaches CdM’s second youngest team, the junior clinics.

Entering his fourth year as a youth football coach, Lusk feel very good

about his team.

“This particular clinic team has as much potential as any team at this

level that I’ve seen,” Lusk said. “The thing is, we have a lot of new

kids this year. Fifteen are returners, and 18 are new faces who never

played.”

Ken Miller coaches the oldest CdM kids, the Midgets. Richard Jardine,

44 and a former football player at the University of Kentucky, moved up

from offensive line coach as the head of CdM’s second-oldest group, the

pee wee squad.

“There is a lot of work to do,” Jardine said about his kids. That was

after the pee wee team scored five touchdowns, four rushing by John

Angelo and one reception by Angelo from Matt Hauser.