Prep football: The eyes have it (or: Field of vision)

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.