Prep football: Estancia finding an extra gear

Barry Faulkner

COSTA MESA - The Estancia High football team practiced in pads

Thursday after three conditioning days in helmets, T-shirts and shorts.

Unlike most CIF Southern Section teams, however, it was not the first

time since last fall Coach Dave Perkins’ Eagles donned full battle gear.

Just as they did the summer before last season, Estancia players

attended a five-day full-contact camp in June, this time at Occidental

College.

“That puts us so far ahead of most teams,” Perkins said. “We’ve

already answered a lot of the questions most teams have before putting on

the pads, so we can already start getting ready for Magnolia (the Sept. 7

season opener). We’re also a lot farther ahead in our running game and

our passing game.”

Coming off a 6-4 campaign, in which they contended for the Pacific

Coast League championship, excitement has enveloped the Estancia camp,

which shuns two-a-days for one long daily workout from 3-8 p.m.

With several senior standouts leading the way, including all-league

returners David Rodriguez, Robert Aguilera, Andy Romo, Fahad Jahid and

Cesar Romero, the Eagles are bent on putting an end to their current

four-year streak of missing the CIF playoffs.

Helping them prepare for the regular season will be a Sept. 1

scrimmage against highly regarded Edison (6 p.m. at Newport Harbor). It’s

a challenge for which Perkins said his players hold great anticipation.

“Our kids have been counting down the days to Edison,” Perkins said.

“When I agreed to this scrimmage, some of my assistant coaches wondered

what the heck I was doing. I know Edison has some great players, but if

we can hang with them, it will be a big confidence builder. It’s a

controlled scrimmage and we fared pretty well at Occidental against a

pretty good Tustin team. I think it’ll be to our advantage to have such a

tough scrimmage.”