“I'd like to thank the coaching community,” said Santa Maria Saints football coach Mike Pope at the weekly Northern Santa Barbara County Athletic Roundtable on Monday afternoon in Orcutt. “This is not an easy thing to do and a lot of you coaches that I have talked to have been so supportive of our efforts and what we are doing. I really do appreciate it.”

Pope took over as head coach at Santa Maria after Dan Burns walked away at the end of summer, and has received help and advice from several of the local coaches.

Pope is fired up about the future.

“We're excited about Saints football this year and how the program has started out this summer,” he said. “I was excited to see the community out and supporting us - we had full stands and that is something we haven't had in a while.”

Pope introduced two players from his squad who played outstanding games in last Friday's game which they fell to Gonzales 34-29.

Josh Marzett ran the ball 22 times for 220 yards and Pope said if not for a couple penalties, Marzett would have broken the school record.

“That's a pretty monumental game that he had, we are very proud of him.”

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Senior Ryan Duran is, “one of our leaders on the team and he had a great game.

The Saints play at King City Friday.

Righetti

Football coach Gary Wilson talked about the Warriors come-from-behind win against Cabrillo last Friday.

“We bounced back this week against a very talented Cabrillo team, they have a lot of great athletes,” he said. “We rebounded after a lot of turnovers in the first half - with five turnovers you shouldn't be allowed to win.

“But the kids responded at halftime to what we wanted to do.”

Righetti lost another key player to injury for the second week in a row when middle linebacker Cody Berry went out. Wilson was pleased how some players stepped up.

“One of the guys who stepped up was Brandon Escobedo,” Wilson said about one of the players who was at the luncheon. “He played middle linebacker for us and had numerous tackles.”

Wilson also introduced running back T.J. Jordan, offensive lineman Harrison Reynolds and Matt Miller, “We are excited to have an athlete like this on our team.”

For his play in the game running back Javon Davis was named the male athlete of the week. He ran the ball for 171 yards on 26 carries and two touchdowns, including the game winner in the fourth quarter.

St. Joseph

Girls cross country runner Sara Scott spoke for the team. She talked about coach Greg Sarkisian's goal of everyone taking at least a minute off their times from last year.

“So far everybody is at least one to one-and-a-half minutes off last year,” Scott said.

She introduced Elisabeth Pearson from the girls team and Logan Smith and Robi Bucaya from the boys.

Not present at the luncheon was the female athlete of the week, Quetta Peinado. Last Thursday Peinado won the individual medal at the Central Coast Cross Country meet at Waller Park with a time of 16:17, leading the Knights to a team win.

Football coach Mike Hartman presented three seniors, John Sua (DL/FB), Ryan Anglin (TB) and Vincent Valenzuela (OL).

The Knights opened at Bishop Diego last Friday.

“It was 31-0 in the third quarter and everybody got a chance to play,” Hartman said about the 31-13 win. “We have a tough task this week when we open our new field Friday night against Paso. It will be a good test for us.”

Lompoc

Athletic director Jesse Davis brought two cross country runners Joel Martin and Cole Berber. He said that the coach told him the team ran better this season at the Seaside Invitational in Ventura than last season.

“So they started off better this year than last and hopefully it will continue,” Davis said.

Davis introduced senior Rudy Yruegas and junior Richie Hirzel from the football team which is 2-0.

Cabrillo

First-year football head coach Craig Knowles began by introducing the top runners for the cross country team that competed at the Seaside Invitational, Britni Heter and Eduardo Tovar, before getting to the football game with Righetti.

“We led 28-14 at the half by causing a few turnovers,” Knowles said, “but in the second half we got bit by the cramp gods and had some guys go down. But they still played their hearts out for the whole four quarter.”

He introduced two team captains, Chris Zahuta, who plays on offense, defense and special teams, and Brandon Whittaker, the free safety and wing back.

“This week we play Dos Pueblos which will be another good test for us,” Knowles said. “But we will hydrate and eat before the game and not cramp up.”

Valley Christian

The Lions football team is awaiting it's first game after their week one opponent dropped the sport just days before the game.

Athletic director Pete Fortier said he will be trying to fill their scheduled week four bye week with a game.

One good thing about not playing last Friday was that Fortier was able to scout this week's opponent Laguna Blanca.

“We match-up pretty good physically with them,” he said.

Fortier introduced Jay Barbour who will play center on offense and defensive end on the other side of the ball and quarterback James Kerley.

Pioneer Valley

Cross country coach Teresa Cavaletto talked about the team's first meet last Saturday at the Morro Bay Invitational.

“Today I was kind of looking back and comparing this year's times to how my kids ran last year,” Cavaletto explained, “and they are running anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes faster.”

Cavaletto introduced two seniors Doris Mendoza and Stephanie Anderson.

“This is the first time I've been at one school for four years and these two ladies have been with me for all four of those years,” Cavaletto said. “They really stepped up and have done a good job taking leadership running the warm-ups and running the stretching at the end of practice.”

Football coach Greg Dickinson talked about getting right off the bus and playing well in the first quarter, but Nordoff came back in the second quarter and led 19-7 at the half.

“We went into half-time with our tails between our legs,” Dickinson said. “So we made some adjustments at the half and the kids knew they had an opportunity to come back and by sticking to the game plan were able to comeback and win 34-19.”

Dickinson presented Jonathon Fuentes, “who runs really well to the ball and worked extremely hard in the off-season,” and Nick Leyden who plays tight end, fullback and middle linebacker.

Hancock College

Football coach Kris Dutra complemented local football in his presentation.

“I've been to two high school football games,” explained Dutra. “I went to the Righetti-Pioneer Valley game and what a game that was. There were a lot of people there. Every year I say I like the rivalry and I like where it's going.”

Last Friday Dutra attended the Santa Maria - Gonzales game.

“I'm real excited about some of the talent I see,” he said.

Dutra talked about the two games his Bulldogs have played, a 14-10 win over Santa Barbara and the defeat last Saturday 31-17 to Reedley.

“They are very quick and are a very good team.”

With almost 70 of his 90 players freshmen, Dutra said his team is still growing.

“I'm very fired up about this team,” he explained, “They're very young but they're aggressive. Our defense is playing very well and I think once we get our offense and special teams squared away, we will be tough.”

Quarterback Eric Anderwkavich represented the team at the luncheon.

“He was 9 for 11 with a 135 yards,” Dutra said about the sophomore from Queens, N.Y. “He did a nice job.”

Cross Country coach Louie Quintana brought two women runners, Emily Anderson, “she's from Pioneer Valley,” and Ariana Fabing from Lompoc.

September 16, 2008