LAGUNA HILLS – The players on the football field at Laguna Hills High on Monday night were getting ready to play in the upcoming Brea Lions Orange County All-Star Football Game, but in some ways it was also a look into the future for the Saddleback College football team.
A large group of players on the South roster are planning to be Gauchos in the fall. That should delight Saddleback coach Mark McElroy, who, according to South team coach Mike Maceranka, will be getting a lot of talented players who somehow got overlooked by other college programs.
“The thing is, these JC kids are good enough to be playing D-1,” Maceranka said. “I’m telling you, some of these kids should be D-1, and I don’t know why they’re not.”
• Updated roster for the South team
Maceranka praised several of those players who will start their college careers at Saddleback.
“That free safety from Irvine (Curtis Jackson) is unbelievable,” Marceranka said. “Tim (Newman), the middle linebacker from San Juan Hills, is better than anyone I’ve seen. He had some offers, but he wanted to go bigger. That kid is going to go big.
“Saddleback is going to be unbelievable. They have a lot of talent off this team going there.”
ALL IN THE FAMILY
This All-Star game on July 8 at Orange Coast College has given Maceranka a chance to finally coach his nephew, Austin Fine of Trabuco Hills.
Fine was first-team All-CIF and All-Sea View League as a defensive lineman in the fall.
“I never got to coach him,” Maceranka said. “I’ve got two daughters, four nephews, and he’s the only guy that plays football, and this was my only opportunity.”
Maceranka, the longtime coach at Segerstrom who is in his first season at Laguna Hills, helped Fine solve an equipment problem for Monday’spractice, giving him one of Laguna Hills’ gold helmets and a jersey to wear.
“I wasn’t able to get my gear, because my coach (at Trabuco Hills) was on his honeymoon,” Fine said. “I do (feel dirty), a little bit. It was either the Laguna gear or El Toro, and El Toro, I couldn’t do that.”
TEAM BONDING
The smattering of different colored helmets and jerseys, each representing a player’s high school, gave a look at how difficult it is to bring a group like this together.
Defensive coordinator Marty Albert of Laguna Hills is doing this in two ways.
On the field, the defensive players end each round of an interception drill by having all of the defensive players run to the ball and say “all in.”
Off the field, Albert is using food – in this case, free pizza – to keep the players motivated and interested. Albert bought the team pizza after a practice last week, and Fine said there would be more free pizza during a meeting for the defensive line after Monday night’s practice.
