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Editor’s note: Michael Huntley writes a weekly column for OCVarsity on the “under the radar” players, teams, rivalries, uniforms, school bands — basically anything to do with the Orange County high school football scene. OCVarsity’s Under the Radar Report will be published online each Wednesday during the football season.
Under the Radar offensive player to watch: Rancho Alamitos’ Nathan Kanyavong
Rancho Alamitos won its first Garden Grove League title since 2011 this season, partly due to star running back Nathan Kanyavong. He will likely be the Garden Grove League’s most valuable player after rushing for 1,226 yards and 16 touchdowns.
“Nathan is an asset because he can carry the offense on his back if needed,” Rancho Alamitos coach Mike Enright said. “He is a three-year starter and has great character and leadership skills. We think he deserves to be the player of the year, but that is up to the league coaches.”
Kanyavong rushed for 129 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the Vaqueros’ Week 10 win against Loara to clinch the league title.
Rancho Alamitos plays Northwood in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 12 playoffs on Friday. The Vaqueros and Wolfpack are two of the most evenly matched teams playing each other in round one. Northwood beat Irvine in Week 10 to earn a second-place finish in the Pacific Coast League.
“I expect Northwood to play like they have all year, at a high level,” Enright said.
Northwood has a solid defense, but the Pacific Coast League isn’t exactly known for featuring teams with dominant running games. Kanyavong will be the best running back Northwood has faced this season and could pose problems for the Wolfpack.
An intriguing matchup will be the Rancho Alamitos offensive line against Northwood defensive tackle Xavier Cousar. Cousar has 87 tackles, which is remarkable for a defensive lineman, including 10 tackles for a loss. He will be instrumental in stopping Kanyavong.
Under the Radar defensive player to watch: Capistrano Valley’s James Giles
The South Coast League features several impressive defensive players, and one of the most dominant players wears a black and yellow uniform. Capo Valley linebacker James Giles has been an Orange County defensive player of the week and was featured in Dan Albano’s top 12 linebackers of 2018 list. (Because 10 just wasn’t quite enough.)
Giles has lived up to the preseason hype, tallying 116 tackles including 15 for a loss and nine hurries. The senior linebacker is the clear leader of the Cougars’ defense.
“James has an extremely high football IQ and is fast and physical,” Capo Valley coach Ernie Bucher said. “He is our leader and a team captain, and his ability to play at such a high level all the time helps rally the guys around him. He is given a lot of freedom to make calls and set the strength of the defense as well.”
Giles had double-digit tackles in seven games this season, and likely would have had more tackles if Capo Valley didn’t force running clocks against five opponents this year. Giles had a season-high 22 tackles in the Cougars’ Week 7 loss to Mission Viejo.
The Cougars’ rushing defense will have its hands full with Lompoc in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs on Friday. Lompoc is the Channel League champions and features star runners Leondre Coleman and Cameron Iribarren, who rushed for 980 and 974 yards, respectively. As a team, the Braves have rushed for 2,733 yards and 31 touchdowns. Iribarren is the team’s quarterback.
“Lompoc is physical, but they also use a variety of formations to run the football,” Bucher said. “It makes it difficult to find tendencies and align to so many different looks, formations, motions etc. Plus, 7 (Iribarren) is a dual-threat guy, so we have to prepare to stop both the RB and the QB.”
Giles and outside linebacker Jayce Hunter should be up to the task. The Cougars took their lumps in the South Coast League, but got some confidence back after a 50-point win against El Toro in Week 10.
Under the Radar game to watch: No. 22 Huntington Beach vs. No. 17 St. Margaret’s
Last week, we finally got to see St. Margaret’s play an Orange County team. The Tartans handled Saddleback Valley Christian and the rest of its San Joaquin League counterparts with relative ease, but now they have to play in the Division 6 playoffs.
St. Margaret’s upper school has an enrollment of 470, making it by far the smallest school in Division 6. The Tartans’ first-round opponent, Huntington Beach, has an enrollment of nearly 3,000, so this should be a mismatch, right?
Wrong. St. Margaret’s is the best small school in the county by a mile and is one of the best small schools in the state. The Tartans have two impressive games on their resume, a win against Aquinas of San Bernardino and a two-point loss against Grace Brethren of Simi Valley, which is ranked third in Division 4.
“It jumps up real quick,” St. Margaret’s coach Kory Minor said of the competition level. “The great thing about us is we have senior leadership. When we play at our top level we can’t be beat. It’s when we come down, make penalties, miss assignments, then we look average. But when we are on our game, we are pretty darn good.”
Minor is a former linebacker for the Carolina Panthers. He and defensive coordinator Ron Schreiber have done a tremendous job with the Tartans’ defense. St. Margaret’s loads up the box, gets in the backfield with its defensive line and has speedy linebackers. Defensive end Jack Young leads the team with 12 tackles for a loss and seven sacks and linebacker Koa Todd has a team-high 82 tackles.
“St. Margaret’s is a well-coached team who plays hard,” Huntington Beach coach Brett Brown said. “They play tough defense by putting six in the box and playing man-to-man coverage.”
Huntington Beach is the best team St. Margaret’s has played in two months. The Oilers have a physical defense of their own led by linebacker John Gosney. They run the ball well with running back Arick McLawyer and receiver Jeremiah Flanagan has 12 touchdowns.
The Oilers finished fourth in the Sunset League and had to play the league’s best two teams, Los Alamitos and Corona del Mar, to finish the season.
“Although we struggled against CDM and Los Al, we feel those games and our entire league has prepared us for the playoffs,” Brown said. “Our kids have played physical in each game. If we take care of the football, we feel our defense is good enough to keep us in any game.”
This is the most intriguing first-round matchup in the county. If Huntington Beach can contain the St. Margaret’s front seven and put together some long drives, the Oilers will win this game. If St. Margaret’s jumps on Huntington Beach early and fires up “The Kitchen” the Tartans have a good shot.
We are going to learn a lot about St. Margaret’s from this game.
Under the Radar story line: Top 5 cliche quotes from coaches.
The playoffs have arrived and with the stakes being higher, the coaches may finally give reporters a compelling quote. For the past 11 weeks, I have interviewed several coaches and have heard the same quotes time and time again.
I am sympathetic though. Coaches are in constant fear of providing an opponent with “bulletin board material” even though high school students today don’t really know what a bulletin board is anymore. But if I were a coach, I wouldn’t give some insightful football information to a chubby, bald reporter just so he can write a semi-interesting column every week.
Football has its own language and the coaches frequently spew out the same phrases to the media each week, some of which are featured in this column above.
Here are the top five most cliche phrases that coaches tell the media each week:
1. They (insert opponent’s name here) are a really well-coached team.
I am all in favor of being respectful to an opponent, but there is no way that every single team in Orange County is well-coached. It’s just impossible. It is entertaining to talk to a coach after they beat a team by 50-plus points and watch them reach for a compliment about the opponent. Saying they are well-coached is an easy, but respectful way to compliment an opponent and maybe flatter the opposing coach enough to convince them to sign up for another beating the next year.
2. The kids have really bought in.
This is just a coach trying to compliment the senior leadership of the team, which I have no problem with. But what is the alternative? The players just having a full-blown coup against the coaching staff and doing whatever they want? That never happens but coaches still feel the need to tell me that the kids actually run the plays that are called and aren’t anarchists.
3. We just take things one week at a time.
Let’s not pretend that coaches don’t look at their schedule during the summer and start counting wins. This is just coaches trying to make sure the kids don’t overlook that Week 5 game against a winless team, which is logical. But it’s obvious that coaches think about the playoffs well before the pairings come out.
4. The work didn’t start in the summer, it goes back to these kids working hard in the weight room during the offseason.
It’s refreshing to know that the high school football players in Orange County are working hard, but it’s obvious that teams lift weights and do offseason training. It’s not newsworthy that some players lift weights and play 7-on-7 year-round. Nobody thinks teams just sit around and show up to summer camp having not touched a football or exercised in eight months.
5. These guys are all friends who just love playing football together.
I’m really glad that the players don’t all hate each other and a WWE-style battle royal doesn’t break out on Friday nights. Of course young people working year-round for a common goal results in friendships being formed. Anybody who has taken five minutes of a sociology class will tell you that if a group is working toward the same thing, they will bond. I have been on numerous sidelines as a player, coach and media member, and have never seen a team full of players who hate each other.
Honorable mention: “These are all local kids who decided to stay here instead of transfer.” . . . “I couldn’t do it without my incredible coaching staff.” . . . “You’re much more handsome in person Mr. Huntley.”
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