JSerra Football History (3rd place Trinity League team) played SJB 35-28 last season

[BobbySanchez]

By way of quick background, California football is broken down from State, to section, to division to league. League is known as conference play in other parts of the country and I use it interchangably here. JSerra plays in the California Southern Section Pac-5 Division (aka Division I) and in the Trinity League. To help explain the size of this, those groupings have about 1,300, 500, 32 and six teams.

JSerra is a Catholic high school founded in 2003 in San Juan Capistrano, California. It is the Diocese of Orange's third Catholic high school in Orange County. Anaheim Servite is the 4th Catholic HS in the county, but it is administered by The Order of Friar Servants of Mary, aka "The Servites". By way of quick orientation, the town is located halfway between LA and San Diego and if you've ever had the pleasure of visiting the ruins of Mission San Juan Capistrano (most of the original church was destroyed by an earthquake), the museum and the well manicured on the site you can appreciate how absolutely beautiful the location is. The campus is located about two short blocks north of there and named in honor of Junipero Serra - the Franciscan priest and founder of the 21 California Missions. The school was briefly called Serra by sports fans perhaps unfamiliar with the full name or the other two Serra High Schools in California already using that name, and shortly thereafter it officially became known to everyone as “JSerra”.

The school modeled itself after Santa Margarita which was founded in 1987 and implemented the same college prep curriculum as that school and the Diocese's first school - Mater Dei which opened in 1950. Santa Margarita (and later Las Vegas Bishop Gorman) was planned as part of a brand new and affluent master planned community and enjoyed great academic and athletic success almost immediately. JSerra had what they believed to be a superior location one block west of Interstate 5 on it's own freeway exit and counted on attracting athletes from as far south as Carlsbad and Oceanside. The vision made sense, but the hopes for immediate athletic success at JSerra were perhaps unrealistically high. By 2003 Santa Margarita was in its 15th varsity season and playing Division I level (Texas 6A) football with Mater Dei, but JSerra's football ambitions were to play and play well indefinitely at lower divisions due to concerns over enrollment and a very real fear that the school would not be able to compete on the football field with MD or SM for ten or 15 years.

JSerra hired Tim O'Hara as their first football coach. Tim was with Santa Margarita as offensive coordinator during their back-to-back CIF run with future Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer and also had assistant coaching stints at Mater Dei and Saddleback College. At the time, most of the better athletes were driving five miles away to Mission Viejo, 10 miles to Santa Margarita or 25 miles to Mater Dei. O'Hara was seen as a safe choice and felt that over time with enough wins at the Division XIII level he could attract enough players not seeing action at the local large publics like Mission Viejo to field a lower division Catholic power. He was viewed as an offensive guru and knew the Diocese's academic routine and other procedures as a former Santa Margarita English teacher. The plan was to play a lower level frosh-soph schedule in 2003 with and play a freelance varsity schedule in 2004.

The results of 2003 are unknown but numbers were reportedly an issue. Now responsible for fielding a varsity team O'Hara did his best but 2004 and 2005 were a disaster as the Lions went 1-19 including an string of six straight forfeits to close out the 2004 campaign due to a lack of players and infamous 47-9 beatdown loss to The California School for the Deaf in 2005 where O'Hara unwisely made embarrassing post-game claims that the referees were communicating the Lions calls to the opponent via sign language in the middle of the game.

After the 2005 season the CIF-SS made some monumental changes to leagues and playoff classifications and JSerra hoped to find a permanent home in a good fit. Suddenly gone were the logical names to differentiate the pecking order of schools (Division I to Division XIII) in place of non-descript terms like the "Pac-5" (in place of Division I) and "Inland Division" in place of Division II which was an attempt to flatten the world of HS football and try to attract more media attention to regions of Southern California that may have felt slighted. These changes were largely in response to cries from IE teams like Corona Centennial who felt sad that they had to be called Division II and considered second rate. I digress, but the point was that the Lions were hoping through this comprehensive re-look at the Southern Section for a Division XIII league to land in and they were certainly not counting on being assigned to a Pac-5 league.

The biggest change that occurred that spring through this re-look was the four-year re-leaguing process and things didn't work out well for them. In California, many teams actively jockey for better fits, but it's an all or nothing proposition. All Moore League teams play in the Pac-5 even though only one team of the seven (Long Beach Poly) is worthy. Below the elite Pac-5 you tend to see a lot of movement of leagues from, say Division V to Division IX, but the teams in the conference often stay married and land at a competitive level where the best teams belong. 2006 saw a series of major re-leaguing changes and it reminded me of the college football re-alignment frenzie from 2009-11. For the sake of competitive equity, the CIF wanted to re-shuffle the deck and the Catholic schools somehow "needed" to be consolidated into fewer leagues and fewer divisions. Generally league affiliation follows county lines, but St. John Bosco (located in LA County) made a bold statement and forsaked their LA County brethren like Loyola, Bishop Amat and St. Paul and asked to be forever affiliated with the three large OC Catholic schools (MD, SM, and Servite). The new Angelus League as many expected it to be called was to be these four parochial powers. Many preferred that leagues be six teams to allow for five non league and five league contests and talk quickly turned to adding two more Catholic schools to create a dream league.

The CIF southern Section still had a problem with a few loose pieces. Orange Lutheran, which had become a power at the a division IX level and was regularly beating Mater Dei in non-conference action, outgrew their old league and could not find a home to land in. They were in an otherwise Orange County public school league and all five wanted the Lancers out. Badly. The CIF added them to the newly named "Trinity League" but that would only make five teams when six was the desired number. Who do you add? Logic said to add Mission Viejo but the Diablos wanted no part of this. Then there was the case of that tiny school in San Juan Capistrano. Where should they land? No way they will be added to the Trinity League. No freaking way. That would be unfair and cruel. JSerra reached out to lowly local publics and small Christian schools begging for a conference to land in and nobody wanted any part of them. They all feared being perennially beaten up by the "next Santa Margarita". A freelance schedule is a nightmare to coordinate every year. Sadly, and reluctantly, their only home at the end if the day was the Trinity League.

Tim O'Hara and the administration knew they had a major problem on their hands with football. The school did fine in basketball and Olympic sports but in Orange County, as elsewhere, football is the tail that wags the dog. O'Hara's returning team literally couldn't beat handicapped kids the prior year and the Lions were suddenly asked to compete weekly with legitimate national powers like Mater Dei. At some point before the season began, but without telling anyone in advance, the JSerra administration decided to play their first five non-conference games and quit before the five league games took place thus forfeiting each Trinity League matchups. That year Orange Lutheran was the State Division I champion while Santa Margarita was a CIF semi-finalist so at the time it was probably wise to pack it in. Long-time observers like me knew that the scores, long before the 35-point running clock rule, may have been north of 100-0. JSerra was a sorry football program.

By the spring of 2007 JSerra had fired Tim O'Hara and replaced him with Jim Hartigan. Jim was Santa Margarita's first coach and a three-time CIF champion. Jim was hired at the ripe old age of 25 in 1985 to prep Santa Margarita for the football stage beginning in 1987, and now at 47 and with nearly 180 varsity wins under his belt knew how to build a program. He led the Eagles all-freshman team to a 10-0 mark in 1987. After a 6-3-1 record with a JV squad in 1988 the Eagles played their first varsity season in 1989 and posted a respectable 8-4 mark at the Division IX level. He was 12-1 the year afterward and won CIF titles in 1996 and 1997 with Carson Palmer playing at the Division V level. Jim was willing to take on Servite in the early to mid 90's as they were in a down period, but knew better not to take on Mater Dei just yet. Mater Dei, of course, won USA Today National Titles in 1994 and 1996.

Whereas Jim had the luxury of time building a program at SM, he knew he had his hands full picking up the Tim O'Hara pieces at JSerra. Jim's salary was reported at well over $100,000, and he relocated his family from Clovis West were he had gone to four Central Section title games in his four years since leaving Santa Margarita, but the Trinity League was his destiny for at least the next several years and he knew he had to eventually produce. Hartigan told insiders that he expected it to take about five years to compete and to be patient. In the meantime pleas to get the team reassigned to a lower division league failed and they were staring at a schedule that had four nationally ranked teams including the Matt Barkley led Mater Dei Monarchs. The Lions started out 2-3 before the wheels quickly fell off. Politically Jim couldn't throw in the towel. He had to tough it out. It wasn't whether or not the Lions could win or even lose well but whether or not it was less than 50-0 at halftime and how many kids got hurt. The scores were ugly. 62-0, 65-21 and 56-0 were the norm but these were five and six touchdown games at halftime. In the Mater Dei game the fourth string was playing by the 2nd quarter with a 42-0 lead with Barkley's pants and ball never touching the turf. Santa Margarita DT Logan Harrell recorded an astounding ten tackles for loss and parlayed that highlight reel effort into an offer from Fresno State the following week. JSerra had an offensive line with one player over 200 pounds trying to block a player at 6-2, 260. Logan did have a cup of coffee with the Chargers a few years later so in the Lion's defense we're not talking about a total slap coming out of nowhere here, but the Lions didn't put up a fight and make him look like an All-American.

The Lions finished the '07 season 2-8 and in 2008 started out 5-0 against weak opposition before going 0-5 in league play again. The strategy, and Hartigan's livelihood was only going to work in the minds of boosters if they began winning one, then two, then maybe three the next year, then four and then five league games the years after. Baby steps and not steps backward. Was this ever going to happen?

2009 saw a breakthrough. The Lions once again started out 5-0 against dubious competition but an amazing thing happened. They beat a down Santa Margarita squad 14-12 compliments of a blocked punt return TD and two missed extra points to finally notch a league win. It didn't matter that SM finished 3-7. The Lions beat a name Pac-5 school! They lost their other four conference games, but not as bad as in past years, but the season was a success. A 6-4 record and a league win over Santa Margarita! JSerra had finally taking a big step in the right direction.

Back then it was said that a loss to JSerra cost a Trinity League coach his job. Santa Margarita's Mike Jacot was relieved of his duties following the 2009 season as was Orange Lutheran's Jim Kunau after a 2011 loss to the Lions. Both of those teams had bigger issues but the losses to JSerra were unforgivable. JSerra was now winning a conference game here and there, but not a true contender yet. The boosters believed the ceiling was high and gave a vote of confidence for Jim and he assumed the role of Athletic Director a move largely seen as a way to augment his pay.

By 2010 the JSerra staff realized that success on the football field is going to hinge on getting at least some African American athletes to enroll. The Lions were still seen as a relative cupcake and the subject of everyone’s homecoming game but they weren’t a laughingstock especially to the non-Pac-5 teams they were beating up in non-conference action. JSerra upped their marketing and outreach efforts and since relatively few African American families live in South Orange County creative recruiting, tuition, on-line class options and transportation solutions were needed to attract these kids. While it’s relatively easy to become a basketball power overnight with one or two phenoms football at the Pac-5 level needs dozens of quality players and several years. A few stud African American athletes like former Angel Gary Pettis's kid lived locally, but the numbers were limited and the few that lived nearby seemingly all went to Mission Viejo. Santa Margarita put up back-to-back 3-7 seasons in 2008 and 2009 which certainly didn’t hurt JSerra's image as an alternative at all but a solution was needed. People connected to the JSerra program scoured the Pop Warner and JAAF ranks as well as the Lions youth camps to target the parents of prospective student athletes. Yes this is overt recruiting, but it is commonplace and discrete.

The administration always offered financial aid to worthy students, but they began offering some very attractive financial packages to help lure athletic talent to their campus. They couldn't offer a free ride necessarily, but what if they substantially discounted the tuition, had shuttle busses or vans come to your neighborhood miles away and deferred the payments for a while? It sounded good to many poorer families from Riverside County and their freshman teams from 2009 until today reflect a substantial upgrade in talent compared to past years.

JSerra brought in an especially phenomenal freshman class in 2012. The number of black Catholic families in South Orange County could probably be counted on the horn of the unicorn in your closet, but JSerra seemingly hit the jackpot with this bumper crop of student athletes. JJ Taylor was one of them. He lasted just one semester before his initial deferred tuition payment came due and landing at Corona Centennial fifty miles east where he is now one of the top 2016 RB prospects in SoCal. A few others have stuck around but several others have departed. JSerra’s academic program is very rigorous and not for everyone.

By the start of the 2013 season the Lions were red hot. They were landing players with family ties to Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo and getting a lot of local media attention scoring over 50 points per games in their now classic five game non-conference cakewalk. However, this season was different as they managed two wins (over Servite and Santa Margarita) to finish 2-3 in conference play. (Santa Margarita's head coach Harry Welch retired after the season and was not fired although more than a few wanted his head as the 26-7 loss cost the Eagles a prospective playoff berth.). JSerra finished the regular season 7-3 but missed the playoffs on a procedural technicality in the "at large selection" process to a lesser 4-6 Encino Crespi squad

[Kalven]

Good read. I've always thought JSerra is where MD and SJB transfers go when they can't break-in rotation.

Question; Did you really write this?

[BobbySanchez]

3 minutes ago, Kalven said:

Good read. I've always thought  is where MD and SJB transfers go when they can't break-in rotation.

Question; Did you really write this?

No I didn't but I wanted to give some love to JSerra. They are sort of like the Stanford of the Trinity League because they're so strict on academics they are limited to particular players in regards to recruiting. SO they rely heavily on coaching and being physical. 

They were the last team not named Bosco to beat Mater Dei in 2014 and 2015 which is not that long ago and they played that same loaded SJB team ranked 1 in the nation that blew out Mater Dei 41-18, to a game of 35-28 last season! 

They also defeated Pinnacle from Arizona, with that deadly 5 Star QB Spencer Rattle 42-35 which I thought was the number 1 team in Arizona at the time until he got injured. 

[old_e]

How will JSerra fair this season? They dont seem to bring back much from last year's team. 

[BobbySanchez]

1 minute ago, old_e said:

How will JSerra fair this season? They dont seem to bring back much from last year's team. 

From what I've heard, they are making some really bold moves (transfers) and return key players. KEY players. That's an important term for them.

Also, they are scheduling way out of their comfort zone and asked for the best Florida and Georgia teams last off-season this particular year. They must be super confident. Also, this is a team that sees Mater Dei and SJB talent every year in and out. So they are hiding a super team possibly

[Eddyr2]

JSERRA is an 8.5 with 2 friends that are 10’s...

but a SoCal 8.5 is a NJ 11 so JSerra by 17

[old_e]

30 minutes ago, BobbySanchez said:

From what I've heard, they are making some really bold moves (transfers) and return key players. KEY players. That's an important term for them.

Also, they are scheduling way out of their comfort zone and asked for the best Florida and Georgia teams last off-season this particular year. They must be super confident. Also, this is a team that sees Mater Dei and SJB talent every year in and out. So they are hiding a super team possibly

Hmmmm. Interesting,  maybe just an adventurous schedule. 

[imaGoodBoyNow]

2 hours ago, BobbySanchez said:

By way of quick background, California football is broken down from State, to section, to division to league. League is known as conference play in other parts of the country and I use it interchangably here. JSerra plays in the California Southern Section Pac-5 Division (aka Division I) and in the Trinity League. To help explain the size of this, those groupings have about 1,300, 500, 32 and six teams.

JSerra is a Catholic high school founded in 2003 in San Juan Capistrano, California. It is the Diocese of Orange's third Catholic high school in Orange County. Anaheim Servite is the 4th Catholic HS in the county, but it is administered by The Order of Friar Servants of Mary, aka "The Servites". By way of quick orientation, the town is located halfway between LA and San Diego and if you've ever had the pleasure of visiting the ruins of Mission San Juan Capistrano (most of the original church was destroyed by an earthquake), the museum and the well manicured on the site you can appreciate how absolutely beautiful the location is. The campus is located about two short blocks north of there and named in honor of Junipero Serra - the Franciscan priest and founder of the 21 California Missions. The school was briefly called Serra by sports fans perhaps unfamiliar with the full name or the other two Serra High Schools in California already using that name, and shortly thereafter it officially became known to everyone as “JSerra”.

The school modeled itself after Santa Margarita which was founded in 1987 and implemented the same college prep curriculum as that school and the Diocese's first school - Mater Dei which opened in 1950. Santa Margarita (and later Las Vegas Bishop Gorman) was planned as part of a brand new and affluent master planned community and enjoyed great academic and athletic success almost immediately. JSerra had what they believed to be a superior location one block west of Interstate 5 on it's own freeway exit and counted on attracting athletes from as far south as Carlsbad and Oceanside. The vision made sense, but the hopes for immediate athletic success at JSerra were perhaps unrealistically high. By 2003 Santa Margarita was in its 15th varsity season and playing Division I level (Texas 6A) football with Mater Dei, but JSerra's football ambitions were to play and play well indefinitely at lower divisions due to concerns over enrollment and a very real fear that the school would not be able to compete on the football field with MD or SM for ten or 15 years.

JSerra hired Tim O'Hara as their first football coach. Tim was with Santa Margarita as offensive coordinator during their back-to-back CIF run with future Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer and also had assistant coaching stints at Mater Dei and Saddleback College. At the time, most of the better athletes were driving five miles away to Mission Viejo, 10 miles to Santa Margarita or 25 miles to Mater Dei. O'Hara was seen as a safe choice and felt that over time with enough wins at the Division XIII level he could attract enough players not seeing action at the local large publics like Mission Viejo to field a lower division Catholic power. He was viewed as an offensive guru and knew the Diocese's academic routine and other procedures as a former Santa Margarita English teacher. The plan was to play a lower level frosh-soph schedule in 2003 with and play a freelance varsity schedule in 2004.

The results of 2003 are unknown but numbers were reportedly an issue. Now responsible for fielding a varsity team O'Hara did his best but 2004 and 2005 were a disaster as the Lions went 1-19 including an string of six straight forfeits to close out the 2004 campaign due to a lack of players and infamous 47-9 beatdown loss to The California School for the Deaf in 2005 where O'Hara unwisely made embarrassing post-game claims that the referees were communicating the Lions calls to the opponent via sign language in the middle of the game.

After the 2005 season the CIF-SS made some monumental changes to leagues and playoff classifications and JSerra hoped to find a permanent home in a good fit. Suddenly gone were the logical names to differentiate the pecking order of schools (Division I to Division XIII) in place of non-descript terms like the "Pac-5" (in place of Division I) and "Inland Division" in place of Division II which was an attempt to flatten the world of HS football and try to attract more media attention to regions of Southern California that may have felt slighted. These changes were largely in response to cries from IE teams like Corona Centennial who felt sad that they had to be called Division II and considered second rate. I digress, but the point was that the Lions were hoping through this comprehensive re-look at the Southern Section for a Division XIII league to land in and they were certainly not counting on being assigned to a Pac-5 league.

The biggest change that occurred that spring through this re-look was the four-year re-leaguing process and things didn't work out well for them. In California, many teams actively jockey for better fits, but it's an all or nothing proposition. All Moore League teams play in the Pac-5 even though only one team of the seven (Long Beach Poly) is worthy. Below the elite Pac-5 you tend to see a lot of movement of leagues from, say Division V to Division IX, but the teams in the conference often stay married and land at a competitive level where the best teams belong. 2006 saw a series of major re-leaguing changes and it reminded me of the college football re-alignment frenzie from 2009-11. For the sake of competitive equity, the CIF wanted to re-shuffle the deck and the Catholic schools somehow "needed" to be consolidated into fewer leagues and fewer divisions. Generally league affiliation follows county lines, but St. John Bosco (located in LA County) made a bold statement and forsaked their LA County brethren like Loyola, Bishop Amat and St. Paul and asked to be forever affiliated with the three large OC Catholic schools (MD, SM, and Servite). The new Angelus League as many expected it to be called was to be these four parochial powers. Many preferred that leagues be six teams to allow for five non league and five league contests and talk quickly turned to adding two more Catholic schools to create a dream league.

The CIF southern Section still had a problem with a few loose pieces. Orange Lutheran, which had become a power at the a division IX level and was regularly beating Mater Dei in non-conference action, outgrew their old league and could not find a home to land in. They were in an otherwise Orange County public school league and all five wanted the Lancers out. Badly. The CIF added them to the newly named "Trinity League" but that would only make five teams when six was the desired number. Who do you add? Logic said to add Mission Viejo but the Diablos wanted no part of this. Then there was the case of that tiny school in San Juan Capistrano. Where should they land? No way they will be added to the Trinity League. No freaking way. That would be unfair and cruel. JSerra reached out to lowly local publics and small Christian schools begging for a conference to land in and nobody wanted any part of them. They all feared being perennially beaten up by the "next Santa Margarita". A freelance schedule is a nightmare to coordinate every year. Sadly, and reluctantly, their only home at the end if the day was the Trinity League.

Tim O'Hara and the administration knew they had a major problem on their hands with football. The school did fine in basketball and Olympic sports but in Orange County, as elsewhere, football is the tail that wags the dog. O'Hara's returning team literally couldn't beat handicapped kids the prior year and the Lions were suddenly asked to compete weekly with legitimate national powers like Mater Dei. At some point before the season began, but without telling anyone in advance, the JSerra administration decided to play their first five non-conference games and quit before the five league games took place thus forfeiting each Trinity League matchups. That year Orange Lutheran was the State Division I champion while Santa Margarita was a CIF semi-finalist so at the time it was probably wise to pack it in. Long-time observers like me knew that the scores, long before the 35-point running clock rule, may have been north of 100-0. JSerra was a sorry football program.

By the spring of 2007 JSerra had fired Tim O'Hara and replaced him with Jim Hartigan. Jim was Santa Margarita's first coach and a three-time CIF champion. Jim was hired at the ripe old age of 25 in 1985 to prep Santa Margarita for the football stage beginning in 1987, and now at 47 and with nearly 180 varsity wins under his belt knew how to build a program. He led the Eagles all-freshman team to a 10-0 mark in 1987. After a 6-3-1 record with a JV squad in 1988 the Eagles played their first varsity season in 1989 and posted a respectable 8-4 mark at the Division IX level. He was 12-1 the year afterward and won CIF titles in 1996 and 1997 with Carson Palmer playing at the Division V level. Jim was willing to take on Servite in the early to mid 90's as they were in a down period, but knew better not to take on Mater Dei just yet. Mater Dei, of course, won USA Today National Titles in 1994 and 1996.

Whereas Jim had the luxury of time building a program at SM, he knew he had his hands full picking up the Tim O'Hara pieces at JSerra. Jim's salary was reported at well over $100,000, and he relocated his family from Clovis West were he had gone to four Central Section title games in his four years since leaving Santa Margarita, but the Trinity League was his destiny for at least the next several years and he knew he had to eventually produce. Hartigan told insiders that he expected it to take about five years to compete and to be patient. In the meantime pleas to get the team reassigned to a lower division league failed and they were staring at a schedule that had four nationally ranked teams including the Matt Barkley led Mater Dei Monarchs. The Lions started out 2-3 before the wheels quickly fell off. Politically Jim couldn't throw in the towel. He had to tough it out. It wasn't whether or not the Lions could win or even lose well but whether or not it was less than 50-0 at halftime and how many kids got hurt. The scores were ugly. 62-0, 65-21 and 56-0 were the norm but these were five and six touchdown games at halftime. In the Mater Dei game the fourth string was playing by the 2nd quarter with a 42-0 lead with Barkley's pants and ball never touching the turf. Santa Margarita DT Logan Harrell recorded an astounding ten tackles for loss and parlayed that highlight reel effort into an offer from Fresno State the following week. JSerra had an offensive line with one player over 200 pounds trying to block a player at 6-2, 260. Logan did have a cup of coffee with the Chargers a few years later so in the Lion's defense we're not talking about a total slap coming out of nowhere here, but the Lions didn't put up a fight and make him look like an All-American.

The Lions finished the '07 season 2-8 and in 2008 started out 5-0 against weak opposition before going 0-5 in league play again. The strategy, and Hartigan's livelihood was only going to work in the minds of boosters if they began winning one, then two, then maybe three the next year, then four and then five league games the years after. Baby steps and not steps backward. Was this ever going to happen?

2009 saw a breakthrough. The Lions once again started out 5-0 against dubious competition but an amazing thing happened. They beat a down Santa Margarita squad 14-12 compliments of a blocked punt return TD and two missed extra points to finally notch a league win. It didn't matter that SM finished 3-7. The Lions beat a name Pac-5 school! They lost their other four conference games, but not as bad as in past years, but the season was a success. A 6-4 record and a league win over Santa Margarita! JSerra had finally taking a big step in the right direction.

Back then it was said that a loss to JSerra cost a Trinity League coach his job. Santa Margarita's Mike Jacot was relieved of his duties following the 2009 season as was Orange Lutheran's Jim Kunau after a 2011 loss to the Lions. Both of those teams had bigger issues but the losses to JSerra were unforgivable. JSerra was now winning a conference game here and there, but not a true contender yet. The boosters believed the ceiling was high and gave a vote of confidence for Jim and he assumed the role of Athletic Director a move largely seen as a way to augment his pay.

By 2010 the JSerra staff realized that success on the football field is going to hinge on getting at least some African American athletes to enroll. The Lions were still seen as a relative cupcake and the subject of everyone’s homecoming game but they weren’t a laughingstock especially to the non-Pac-5 teams they were beating up in non-conference action. JSerra upped their marketing and outreach efforts and since relatively few African American families live in South Orange County creative recruiting, tuition, on-line class options and transportation solutions were needed to attract these kids. While it’s relatively easy to become a basketball power overnight with one or two phenoms football at the Pac-5 level needs dozens of quality players and several years. A few stud African American athletes like former Angel Gary Pettis's kid lived locally, but the numbers were limited and the few that lived nearby seemingly all went to Mission Viejo. Santa Margarita put up back-to-back 3-7 seasons in 2008 and 2009 which certainly didn’t hurt JSerra's image as an alternative at all but a solution was needed. People connected to the JSerra program scoured the Pop Warner and JAAF ranks as well as the Lions youth camps to target the parents of prospective student athletes. Yes this is overt recruiting, but it is commonplace and discrete.

The administration always offered financial aid to worthy students, but they began offering some very attractive financial packages to help lure athletic talent to their campus. They couldn't offer a free ride necessarily, but what if they substantially discounted the tuition, had shuttle busses or vans come to your neighborhood miles away and deferred the payments for a while? It sounded good to many poorer families from Riverside County and their freshman teams from 2009 until today reflect a substantial upgrade in talent compared to past years.

JSerra brought in an especially phenomenal freshman class in 2012. The number of black Catholic families in South Orange County could probably be counted on the horn of the unicorn in your closet, but JSerra seemingly hit the jackpot with this bumper crop of student athletes. JJ Taylor was one of them. He lasted just one semester before his initial deferred tuition payment came due and landing at Corona Centennial fifty miles east where he is now one of the top 2016 RB prospects in SoCal. A few others have stuck around but several others have departed. JSerra’s academic program is very rigorous and not for everyone.

By the start of the 2013 season the Lions were red hot. They were landing players with family ties to Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo and getting a lot of local media attention scoring over 50 points per games in their now classic five game non-conference cakewalk. However, this season was different as they managed two wins (over Servite and Santa Margarita) to finish 2-3 in conference play. (Santa Margarita's head coach Harry Welch retired after the season and was not fired although more than a few wanted his head as the 26-7 loss cost the Eagles a prospective playoff berth.). JSerra finished the regular season 7-3 but missed the playoffs on a procedural technicality in the "at large selection" process to a lesser 4-6 Encino Crespi squad

Where did you copy and paste this from

[Eddyr2]

3 hours ago, BobbySanchez said:

It is the Diocese of Orange's third Catholic high school in Orange County

the school is not owned by the Diocese, it is a Catholic independent privet school.

[imaGoodBoyNow]

1 hour ago, Eddyr2 said:

JSERRA is an 8.5 with 2 friends that are 10’s...

but a SoCal 8.5 is a NJ 11 so JSerra by 17

How far our all 3 schools from each other

 

MD SJB and JSerra

[covercorner]

1 hour ago, old_e said:

How will JSerra fair this season? They dont seem to bring back much from last year's team. 

Jserra will be an interesting team this year. They pick up about 15 plus Transfers, with  Ross Maseuli a 3 star 6-4 315 DL/OL being the top guy of the that transfer group. There entire starting OL most likely be all transfers, to go along with one-time transfer OT Jeff Persi who started his career at Mater Dei. They will be BIG on the OL. They will have to win with pound and ground with Chris Street. They have no speed at WRs. They wont stretch the field, they're gonna resemble Stanford with their 3 Tights Ends, but none are considered WRs. 

It was thought that Jserra would have a solid summer, with the addition of their transfers QB, but they failed to make the championship  brackets in the two elite passing tournaments and then decided to pull out of the following less herald passing tournament. They struggled and didn't look good, lacked overall team speed on both side of the balls. And defensively, they are playing two converted QBs at LB and FS... I don't don't how long that can last. BUT once the pads come on they'll be physical in the trenches which will allow them to be in games.. and control clock. 

[BobbySanchez]

21 minutes ago, covercorner said:

Jserra will be an interesting team this year. They pick up about 15 plus Transfers, with  Ross Maseuli a 3 star 6-4 315 DL/OL being the top guy of the that transfer group. There entire starting OL most likely be all transfers, to go along with one-time transfer OT Jeff Persi who started his career at Mater Dei. They will be BIG on the OL. They will have to win with pound and ground with Chris Street. They have no speed at WRs. They wont stretch the field, they're gonna resemble Stanford with their 3 Tights Ends, but none are considered WRs. 

 It was thought that Jserra would have a solid summer, with the addition of their transfers QB, but they failed to make the championship  brackets in the two elite passing tournaments and then decided to pull out of the following less herald passing tournament. They struggled and didn't look good, lacked overall team speed on both side of the balls. And defensively, they are playing two converted QBs at LB and FS... I don't don't how long that can last. BUT once the pads come on they'll be physical in the trenches which will allow them to be in games.. and control clock. 

SJB's 5 Star, prodigy QB lost in a passing match to Mater Dei's 10th grade 3rd stringer. I would not put any stock into these things

[On2whls]

1 hour ago, Eddyr2 said:

the school is not owned by the Diocese, it is a Catholic independent privet school.

It’s surrounded by hedges?

[On2whls]

A very nice history lesson for sure. But, the reason that SJB had trouble in the game against JSerra IMO, is that JSerra was a lot faster than the teams they had played to that point and I think they just needed some time to adjust.  No question, J Serra had a good team but the Oaks Christian game ultimately showed what level they were at.  

[bigrobstercraws]

I think initially putting them in the Trinity was a mistake as they took some brutal beat downs for years. Every other private school building a program got a chance to do it outside of a premier private school only league. Like Santa Marijuana who did it as a Olympic and then a Sea View League team. Having a first year varsity program in the Trinity was a bye week for a few seasons for everybody else. 

[bigrobstercraws]

33 minutes ago, BobbySanchez said:

SJB's 5 Star, prodigy QB lost in a passing match to Mater Dei's 10th grade 3rd stringer. I would not put any stock into these things

It's passing league. 

[BUFORDGAWOLVES]

Privet v. Private. 

Hmmnn. 

Just how tough are MD ‘s English curriculum?

Gotta know this stuff,

BGW

[mje44]

1 hour ago, imaGoodBoyNow said:

How far our all 3 schools from each other

 

MD SJB and JSerra

SJB & JSerra are about 40 miles apart with MD being in the middle. 

[THEOC89]

32 minutes ago, BUFORDGAWOLVES said:

Privet v. Private. 

Hmmnn. 

Just how tough are MD ‘s English curriculum?

Gotta know this stuff,

BGW

It seems to be those “pesky” Religion classes that trip up the MD players....

The public school transfers seem to not understand that if you go to a “Religious” School, you are expected to take Classes in Religion.... 🤣🤣🤣

[imaGoodBoyNow]

28 minutes ago, THEOC89 said:

It seems to be those “pesky” Religion classes that trip up the MD players....

The public school transfers seem to not understand that if you go to a “Religious” School, you are expected to take Classes in Religion.... 🤣🤣🤣

Ya make it even worse they come to the BNU and don’t know what an All Boys Private school is ? And is shocked to find out it’s All Boys

[Eddyr2]

1 hour ago, BUFORDGAWOLVES said:

Privet v. Private. 

Hmmnn. 

Just how tough are MD ‘s English curriculum?

Gotta know this stuff,

BGW

Typos...they happen...

[covercorner]

1 hour ago, BobbySanchez said:

SJB's 5 Star, prodigy QB lost in a passing match to Mater Dei's 10th grade 3rd stringer. I would not put any stock into these things

Jserra has enough to be a solid team, but they don't have the skills to feature the same passing game and stretch the field as last season. The pass game will be set up by their run game, and a lot of the time that doesn't translate well in passing league.. Jserra strengths will be the run game with their two backs and their new additions to the line. 

[imaGoodBoyNow]

37 minutes ago, covercorner said:

Jserra has enough to be a solid team, but they don't have the skills to feature the same passing game and stretch the field as last season. The pass game will be set up by their run game, and a lot of the time that doesn't translate well in passing league.. Jserra strengths will be the run game with their two backs and their new additions to the line. 

What’s JSerras OLine weight and height 

 

only possible starters

[Eddyr2]

28 minutes ago, imaGoodBoyNow said:

What’s JSerras OLine weight and height 

 

only possible starters

Bigger then any team from NJ but smaller then Bosco and MD...

 

#JSerraby17

[covercorner]

44 minutes ago, imaGoodBoyNow said:

What’s JSerras OLine weight and height 

 

only possible starters

Nah,  actually bigger than MD..  Persi the lone returner non-transfer this year goes 6-7 275, the rest are 6-5 280, 6-4 315, 6-3 275, 6-3 285, 6-2 310,