Prep football: The eyes have it (or: Field of vision)
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Barry Faulkner
COSTA MESA - The Costa Mesa High football coaches don’t videotape
practice. But, with 10 sets of eyes representing the biggest coaching
staff of any Newport-Mesa prep team in any sport, Mustang players field
more visual attention each day than a Monday Night Football game.
This blanket of supervision, combined with a deep collection of of
capable players, has, Coach Dave Perkins believes, eliminated the
inevitable lulls that creep into the three-day conditioning period that
precedes Thursday’s initial workouts in full pads.
“One of the things that has made practice really a lot of fun is that
there is a ton of competition,” said Perkins, in his first season at Mesa
after spending the previous three falls at crosstown rival Estancia. “The
guys can’t really take any time off or back off on even one play, because
there are two or three guys fighting for most of the starting spots and
our coaches are eyeballing everyone.
In addition to his entire former Estancia varsity staff of Bob
Brockie, Jesse Nuno, Jeremy Osso and Bill Lux, Perkins has also enlisted
former Estancia lower-level coaches Nick Romo and Izzy Isbell. The staff
also includes longtime former Mesa assistant Al Dies, whom Perkins talked
out of retirement, former Mesa freshman assistant George Greenwalt, a
former All-CIF tight end at Newport Harbor, as well as newcomer Donny
Garcia.
“It’s sure nice to have this many coaches,” Perkins, who coordinates
the offense and will call the plays, said. “The last three years, I had
to coach defense. Now, I can just concentrate on offense.”
Perkins and his stable of assistants have been concentrating on
keeping the players busy since fall practice began Monday.
“We’re constantly challenging the kids,” Perkins said. “We put a
little wrinkle on things each day, which has really helped the players’
concentration and focus.
“We worked really hard during our coaches’ getaway meeting to try to
make sure our practices would have no dead time. We have about 67 kids
out, more than I’m used to, and we’ve had to keep them busy for four or
five hours (Perkins eschews multiple practices for one long afternoon
session). We’ve organized situations so we keep everybody involved and
the kids all need to pay attention all the time.”
Perkins reports his players have shown a great deal of enthusiasm,
thus far, and, he predicts, confidence should not be a problem.
“I think the kids are really excited about the football season and
they seem to have the feeling that we’re going to be pretty doggone good.
The kids are really helping each other and I’ve seen a lot of leadership
stepping forward.”
Part of that confidence comes from several returners off of last
year’s 6-4 team, which missed the CIF playoffs for the first time in five
years despite the winning record.
Among the proven veterans are juniors Keola Asuega and Andrew Carich,
as well as senior Nick Cabico, who changed his mind after indicating last
spring he would not play his senior campaign.
Additional good will has come via the injection of five transfers from
Estancia, all of whom started as juniors for the Eagles last season.
Inside linebacker Bobby Arroyo, a first-team All-Pacific Coast League
performer last year, second-team All-PCL outside linebacker Matt Colby,
second-team All-PCL safety Freddy Rodriguez, as well as starting
defensive lineman Jesse Cardenas and A.J. Perkins, the projected starter
at quarterback, have all been readily accepted by their new teammates and
former rivals, according to Dave Perkins.
“It couldn’t have been a better transition if we had planned it,” the
elder Perkins said.
Perkins said only minor changes will be made to the practice routine
with today’s transition to pads.
“We’ve incorporated three different conditioning stages that occur
between offense, defense and special teams work,” Perkins said. “We’ll
cut back on conditioning, though, once we put on the pads.”
The Mustangs’ preparation for the Sept. 7 opener against Saddleback
will include an Aug. 31 scrimmage against Orange, scheduled for 5 p.m. on
the Mustangs’ field.
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