Prep football: Playing with fire

Barry Faulkner

On the elevated emerald stage upon which the Orange County All-Star

Football Game is played, the stakes are higher, the 40 times lower and

the margin for error in the secondary as fleeting as the blur of a

speeding spiral.

All of this South cornerback Charlie Alshuler knows.

But the recent Corona del Mar High graduate, who shared the Orange

County lead with nine interceptions last fall, also knows a thing or two,

or two dozen, about playing the position. And, perhaps most important of

all, he knows his own limitations.

“I’m not the best athlete out there, so I have to do all the little

things well,” said Alshuler, who hopes to his foundation of fundamentals

helps prevent a costly misstep that may be exploited by a North receiver

Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Orange Coast College.

“You have to use your mind, as well as your skill. There has to be

give and take, because you can’t win all the battles.”

Those battles in the flat, Alshuler believes, begin well before the

snap, even before kickoff.

“A lot of it is preparation, working with the coaches, knowing the

pass patterns and knowing the receivers. And you have to do a lot of the

little things right; the things that go unnoticed,” he said. “Just by

practicing against the South receivers, I can tell they’re a step above

most everyone I’ve played against. It’s a good challenge an I enjoy the

competition.”Alshuler said some of those little things he can do include

good back-peddling form, talking with teammates, and always seeking a

balance between confidence and humility.

“You have to trust your instincts, but you can’t be ruled by them,”

Alshuler explained. “Instincts can be good, but if you let yourself get

set on (opposing players) doing one thing, and they do another, you can

get totally beat. But you can’t play it safe all the time, either.”

Sound confusing? Try making these decisions in the heat of battle, far

enough away from the huddled herd of bodies in the trenches to leave

every mistake open to spectator scrutiny.

“If a DB gets beat, everyone in the stands knows it,” Alshuler said.

Alshuler, who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.8 seconds, knows he won’t win

many footraces with the elite band of pass catchers he’ll face Friday.

“When they’re faster, you have to be smarter,” he said. “When I got

picked to play in this game, I told myself I was going to rely on the

fundamentals (CdM secondary) Coach (Ed) Blanton taught me. That’s what

got me in this game in the first place.”

Well, there was a little more to it than that.

The 6-foot-3 three-sport standout began his breakthrough senior

campaign slowly. He went the first three games without an interception.

But, in Week 4, he picked off three Saddleback passes to tie a school

single-game record, then nabbed single picks against Westminster,

Northwood, Estancia and University. He capped his season with two

interceptions in a first-round playoff loss to eventual CIF Southern

Section Division IX champion South Hills.

His nine interceptions were two shy of the CdM single-season record

held by Warren Johnson (1988) and Alshuler’s 11 career picks were three

shy of Johnson’s school career standard.

But Alshuler matched Johnson’s All-CIF recognition and was also named

All-Pacific Coast League.

He went on to start for the basketball team that advanced to the CIF

Division III-AA quarterfinals, then helped lead the volleyball team to

the CIF Division IV title match.

He was second-team All-CIF and an All-Newport-Mesa Dream Team honoree

in volleyball and he will play club volleyball at Michigan.

Alshuler is proud of his three-sport prep career and believes it will

help him Friday.

“There’s going to be a big crowd, probably the biggest I’ve ever

played in front of and there’s going to be pressure,” he said. “But I’ve

played in some big contests (including back-to-back CIF Division I

volleyball title matches against Back Bay rival Newport Harbor). This

should be fun.”