From delivering newspapers to delivering wins
Coaching in the Daily Pilot Cup brings back many fond memories for Jon Richardson. Not because the 53-year-old has coached in the youth soccer tournament before, this is his first time.
The reason for those memories goes back to the days Richardson used to have a paper route with the Daily Pilot as a kid.
“When I heard the Daily Pilot Cup was coming again this year, I really wanted to help the kids in it because there was quite a bit of, you know, nostalgia there,” Richardson said. “I remember those days it rained, folding the papers, delivering them to my customers, collecting each month, getting presents around Christmas from my customers, and just representing the Daily Pilot.
“[My paper route] taught me to prepare for the next day and to be on time. Because if I wasn’t on time, my manager was calling me because my customers were calling him, saying, ‘Where’s my newspaper at?’”
These days, Daily Pilot readers are learning a little bit about the Kaiser Elementary B team Richardson is guiding this year at the 17th annual Daily Pilot Cup.
Richardson’s third- and fourth-graders continue to dominate the Silver Division, beating Davis Magnet B, 5-0, in the quarterfinals at Costa Mesa High on Saturday afternoon.
“Our team is pretty good,” Kaiser B fourth-grader Ben Glassen told Richardson in the waning minutes of the contest. “We’ve scored 15 goals and have allowed zero goals in three games.”
Richardson smiled at Glassen, knowing Kaiser B has won each of its three matches by the same score of 5-0. Kaiser B advanced to Sunday’s semifinals to play Eastbluff A at the Jack Hammett Sports Complex at noon. Eastbluff A qualified by edging Kaiser C, 1-0, on Saturday.
Kaiser B moved on by getting two goals from August Eckweiler and one goal from Max Alvarez-Holmberg, Tyler Showalter and Saul Rico. The five goals were four more than what Davis Magnet B allowed in its two pool-play wins against Newport Heights and Harbor Day.
Kaiser B goalkeepers Joseph Hufford and Alvarez-Holmberg combined for the shutout. While Davis Magnet B was unable to score, it did slow down Kaiser B in the second half.
By halftime, Kaiser B led, 4-0. Davis Magnet B Coach Jose Duarte said he liked the way his team came out for the second half and only allowed one goal.
“The second half [was] much better. We hustled,” Duarte told his players. “If we would’ve done that from the beginning, it might have been a different game. [Kaiser B is] a good team. I loved the second half. We went down fighting. We had chances.”
Caden Crawford and Kembe Howerton produced the best scoring opportunities for Davis Magnet B. The deficit was too much to overcome, and now Richardson leads Kaiser B, which includes his son Tyler, one of two third-graders on the team, as well as Keaton Evans, Daniel Silva, Tanner Holley, Damian Aguilar and Cody Surdyk, one step closer to winning a championship.
Richardson’s mother, Carolyn, will be there to watch her son coach and grandson represent Kaiser B in the semifinals, and follow Richardson’s older son, Jon, a fourth-grader, play for the Kaiser A team in the third- and fourth-grade Gold Division semifinals. Carolyn was also the same person who drove Richardson around town before sunrise in her Ford Pinto when he started delivering the paper at age 11 in the mid-1970s.
“[My late husband Melvin] set an example for [our six sons] and he wanted them working,” said Carolyn, adding that at age 78 she still works. “It really means everything [to have my son and his sons be involved in the Daily Pilot Cup]. It just shows that what it does bringing up a boy right and he’s giving back to the community. His sons will do it, too, [when they become adults]. I know that.”
