Skip to content
  • Yorba Linda's Luke Adams is brought down by Burbank's Miguel...

    Yorba Linda's Luke Adams is brought down by Burbank's Miguel Vasquez during the CIF-SS Division 8 championship game on Dec. 2, 2016. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

  • Yorba Linda's Ricky Lane runs with the ball druing a...

    Yorba Linda's Ricky Lane runs with the ball druing a playoff game against Garden Grove. (STEVEN GEORGES, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER)

  • Yorba Linda's Luke Wilson throws a pass during the semifinals...

    Yorba Linda's Luke Wilson throws a pass during the semifinals of the CIF-SS Division 8 playoffs. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

  • Yorba Linda's Jaydyn Webb escapes a tackle against Burbank during...

    Yorba Linda's Jaydyn Webb escapes a tackle against Burbank during the second quarter of the CIF-SS Division 8 championship game. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

  • Yorba Linda coach Jeff Bailey is shown giving instructions to...

    Yorba Linda coach Jeff Bailey is shown giving instructions to the team's players during a practice in August 2010, which was the first season of varsity football for the school.

  • Yorba Linda coach Jeff Bailey is shown giving instructions to...

    Yorba Linda coach Jeff Bailey is shown giving instructions to the team's players during a practice in August 2010, which was the first season of varsity football for the school.

  • Yorba Linda won the CIF-SS Division 8 championship last week...

    Yorba Linda won the CIF-SS Division 8 championship last week in its home stadium, the first title for the school.

of

Expand

YORBA LINDA – From humble beginnings come great things.

And from using trees as goal posts during practices to winning a CIF-SS championship, Yorba Linda’s football program has progressed quickly from humble beginnings to great things.

Yorba Linda High opened in fall 2010. Athletic facilities still were being developed, so the Mustangs football team practiced at a nearby elementary school. Like most elementary schools, Mabel Paine Elementary School did not have a 100-yard football field.

Two tall trees, about the right distance apart, were used as the team’s goal posts.

On Saturday, Yorba Linda (12-2) plays St. Anthony of Long Beach (12-2) in a CIF State Regional playoff game at 7:30 p.m. at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach. The winner advances to next week’s CIF State Championships.

Yorba Linda earned the right to play in the regional by winning the CIF-Southern Section’s Division 8 championship, the school’s first CIF-SS football title. The Mustangs defeated Burbank, 31-21, in the divisional championship game.

Junior running back Jaydyn Webb and the Mustangs offensive line had another productive game against Burbank. Webb ran for 205 yards and four touchdowns.

Yorba Linda can throw the ball just fine, too. Quarterback Luke Wilson has completed 64 percent of his passes for 2,275 yards and 21 touchdowns. Ricky Lane, with 57 catches, is one of the top sophomore receivers in Orange County, and senior receiver Luke Adams has 55 receptions.

Adams, Lane, Webb and Wilson and their teammates produced some great things. There were, indeed, some humble beginnings for Yorba Linda football.

Jeff Bailey has been the school’s only varsity football coach, having been hired in February of 2009. Bailey had just completed his sixth season at El Dorado, where he won CIF-SS titles in 2006 and ’07. He previously had been an assistant coach for 11 years at Esperanza.

Yorba Linda’s incoming class for fall of 2009 included students from El Dorado and Esperanza high schools. Some of those students were football players who, while attending classes at El Dorado and Esperanza, practiced during spring of ’09 with Yorba Linda’s first football team.

Busses would pick up the players to take them to Yorba Linda’s practices. One bus would stop at El Dorado to collect the players, and another bus would do the same at Esperanza.

“Those other schools didn’t like us very much for doing that,” Bailey said. “They still don’t.”

Bailey would be the waiting for the players at Mabel Paine with football gear that he had loaded into the bed of his truck.

In fall of ’09, with only freshmen and sophomore players, Yorba Linda played a non-varsity schedule. Bailey remains grateful to Bob Johnson of Mission Viejo, former San Clemente coach Eric Patton and other coaches who put together teams of reserve players to give Yorba Linda’s infant program a full slate of games.

The Mustangs’ first varsity team in 2010 had no seniors. The Mustangs finished that season 4-6 overall and 2-4 in the Empire League.

“We were in every game,” Bailey said, “except for Tustin (a 42-7 loss).”

Improvement came quickly. In 2011, their first team with seniors, the Mustangs went 9-1 during the regular season and 5-1 in the Empire League, earning a share of the league championship with Cypress and Tustin. The Mustangs got their first playoff win that season, too, a Southwest Division first-round victory over Troy.

Yorba Linda’s 2012 team finished second in the Empire League, went 8-3 overall and made the playoffs. The Mustangs lost in the Southwest Division’s first round. But 2012 was another milestone season for Yorba Linda football.

That year, the Mustangs played their first games at their on-campus stadium, Nathan Shapell Memorial Stadium.

Yorba Linda previously played home games at Valencia High’s Bradford Stadium. Shapell Stadium is named for a now-deceased Auschwitz survivor who owned the land now occupied by Yorba Linda High.

“It was very important to me,” Bailey said, “that the stadium needed to be finished on time for our first group of players to have at least one season playing there.”

Yorba Linda went 10-0 in the regular season and collected another Empire League title in 2013. The Mustangs lost in the first round of the playoffs to Huntington Beach, which went on to win the division title.

In 2014, Yorba Linda became part of the Century Conference, which divides its eight schools into two leagues, Crestview and North Hills. Yorba Linda’s first go in the Crestview League was not good, with the Mustangs going 0-3 in league and missing the playoffs with a 3-7 overall record.

The 2015 season was better. The Mustangs finished second in league with a 2-1 record and returned to the playoffs. They were knocked off by Buena Park in the first round.

The 2016 season has been their best yet.

Even an optimist like Bailey didn’t seem to expect this much success. He had made plans to spend Saturday at a reunion for El Dorado’s 2006 and ’07 championship teams.

“The reunion had to be moved to Sunday,” Bailey said. “We’ve got a game to play on Saturday.”

Contact the writer: sfryer@scng.com