High School Football Player of the Week: Newcomer Nick Burton ends Costa Mesa’s losing ways
Jimmy Nolan’s thorniest challenge upon taking charge this year of a reeling Costa Mesa High program coming off a 0-10 campaign in which they were beaten every week by more than 46 points, on average, was instilling any sort of confidence that things could get better.
The Mustangs had zero belief in themselves, and Nolan, known for turning around bad teams, couldn’t entirely blame them.
“Nobody knows how [repeatedly losing by so many points] feels, that devastation,” he said. “That’s like a nonstop running clock. The fact that that happened to these boys, I understand why these guys don’t believe. I keep saying, ‘What you believe, you can achieve,’ but I’m having the hardest time I’ve ever had, in 21 years [of coaching], getting kids to believe.”
Nolan seems to have found a solution “out of nowhere,” and Costa Mesa on Aug. 30 achieved what they hadn’t in 23½ months: win.
Quarterback Nick Burton, a junior transfer who’d not played a down of varsity football — and never played quarterback at any level — enjoyed a stirring debut to lead the Mustangs to a 21-18 victory last week over Santiago at Garden Grove High. He guided the Mustangs offense, throwing one touchdown pass and running for another, and made a couple of big tackles as a defensive end, but his most vital contribution was a set of intangibles that could inform the foundation Nolan is looking to build.
“Nick is awesome,” said Nolan, who compares Burton’s competitive personality to that of incoming Clippers star Kawhi Leonard. “I don’t think he gets rattled. He’s just even-kettle, never gets too high, never gets too low. He’s really a truly selfless guy. The kids love him, he loves the kids. ... All he does is encourage the other guys. He had that empathy, where he walks up to kids that might never play and really tried to encourage them. Stays after practice [to work with them]. I love him.
“Nobody knew if he could play quarterback, and he proved he could, and he’s definitely going to have his growing pains. But as a young man, a junior, his work ethic, his accountability and his integrity are so above his years. I am lucky to have him on the field.”
Burton arrived this year from Marina, where he played defensive end for the Vikings freshman team two years ago and missed last year’s varsity campaign after breaking an ankle in preseason. He’s been thinking for more than a year about trying quarterback, because it “looked fun,” and his first real go went really good.
“He did a wonderful job, considering he’s never played quarterback,” Nolan said of Burton, who completed 11 of 19 passes for 118 yards and a touchdown, and rushed 10 times for 72 yards and a score. “He did a great job leading. He was throwing dimes. He was hitting guys in the chest, hitting guys in the hands, and he doesn’t get any credit when [receivers] drop them.”
Burton led the Mustangs to a 21-0 halftime lead, connecting with Alex Jennis on a 38-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-and-10 play in the first quarter, then sprinting 20 yards to extend the lead to three touchdowns nearing halftime.
“Before the game, I was really nervous, but once I stepped onto the field, all the nervousness left me, and I just felt like I was playing a regular football game,” Burton said. “I didn’t go out there being, like, we have to win this game. I just went out there, like, we know what we have to do and we know that we can play, so let’s go out there and win this game.”
He made those around him believe.
“For me, the confidence in his eyes has been everything,” Nolan said. “I know he has control of the huddle, and I know my kids believe in him. The other 10 guys in the huddle feed off [the quarterback], how he’s feeling, what he looks like, the way he’s calling the plays. Nick’s the same guy whether we’re up by 50 or down by 50.”
Coach Jimmy Nolan will look to turn around another football program as he begins his first season with the Mustangs, who went 0-10 in 2018.
Nolan would like to see him play a little less recklessly — he missed most of the third quarter after getting “rocked” — and Burton says he needs to work on his pocket presence and decision-making.
“I need to be able to put the ball in our playmakers’ hands,” he said, “because there were a few times where if the ball was better-placed, we could have been a lot more explosive.”
Burton said watching his teammates celebrate after the victory was priceless. The Mustangs ended a 16-game losing streak.
“I didn’t go through what they went through, so it was a lot bigger for them, but it was a really big game for me,” he said. “Because I was able to contribute to the team, because I know last year a lot of their spirits were broken down. To be able to contribute to them getting a win and seeing all of their joy, it gave me a lot of joy.”
Nick Burton
Born: July 17, 2003
Hometown: Westminster
Height: 6 feet 2
Weight: 185 pounds
Sport: Football
Year: Junior
Coach: Jimmy Nolan
Favorite food: Japanese curry
Favorite movie: “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
Favorite athletic moment: Getting Costa Mesa’s first win since Sept. 14, 2017.
Week in review: Burton completed 11 of 19 passes for 118 yards and a touchdown, and rushed 10 times for 72 yards and a score, helping Costa Mesa end a 16-game losing streak with a 21-18 win over Santiago at Garden Grove High on Aug. 30.
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