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  • Mike Saffell, Edison, offensive line. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/ Orange...

    Mike Saffell, Edison, offensive line. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/ Orange County Register, SCNG)

  • Mike Saffell, Edison, offensive line. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/ Orange...

    Mike Saffell, Edison, offensive line. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/ Orange County Register, SCNG)

  • Edison lineman Michael Saffell directs the defensive line during a...

    Edison lineman Michael Saffell directs the defensive line during a practice. (SAM GANGWER, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

  • Edison players from left, Mike Saffell, Griffin O'Connor, Shaun Colamonico,...

    Edison players from left, Mike Saffell, Griffin O'Connor, Shaun Colamonico, EJ Ginnis, and Bowen Blake at the 41st Annual CIF Southern Section Football Press Conference at The Grand in Long Beach Monday morning. November 23, 2016. (Photo by Sam Gangwer , Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Edison's Mike Saffell on August 10, 2016. (JEFF GRITCHEN, STAFF...

    Edison's Mike Saffell on August 10, 2016. (JEFF GRITCHEN, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

  • Brett Neilon, Santa Margarita, offensive line. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/...

    Brett Neilon, Santa Margarita, offensive line. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/ Orange County Register, SCNG)

  • Brett Neilon, Santa Margarita, offensive line. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/...

    Brett Neilon, Santa Margarita, offensive line. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/ Orange County Register, SCNG)

  • Brett Neilon, Santa Margarita, offensive line. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/...

    Brett Neilon, Santa Margarita, offensive line. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/ Orange County Register, SCNG)

  • Jesse Sapolu is shown talking to some of the players...

    Jesse Sapolu is shown talking to some of the players at one of his Men In The Trenches (MITT) workouts.(COURTESY JESSE SAPOLU)

  • Jesse Sapolu, left, poses for a photo with Brett Neilon,...

    Jesse Sapolu, left, poses for a photo with Brett Neilon, who was selected as an MVP at a Rivals.com camp when he was a junior.(COURTESY NEILON FAMILY)

  • Michael Saffell is shown taking part in a workout when...

    Michael Saffell is shown taking part in a workout when he was in the seventh grade. (COURTESY MICHAEL SAFFELL)

  • Edison's Michael Saffell, left, poses for a photo with Jesse...

    Edison's Michael Saffell, left, poses for a photo with Jesse Sapolu, who has been working with him on his football skills for several years. (COURTESY MICHAEL SAFFELL)

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Dan Albano. Sports HS Reporter.

// MORE INFORMATION: Staff Mug Shot taken August 26, 2010 : by KATE LUCAS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER.

Michael Saffell towers at 6-foot-3 and 290 pounds. The Edison football player wears size 13 shoes, usually eats five times a day and tosses smaller opponents around like rag dolls. But he tells a different story about his youth.

“I was always the super-small guy,” he said. “I didn’t have a ton of (physical) gifts given to me during Pop Warner. … If you look back at the pictures, I’m always in the front row because I’m the shortest guy.”

Brett Neilon hadn’t played football prior to following his friends onto the freshman team at Santa Margarita. He mostly grew up in his mother’s homeland of Japan, where he said youth football wasn’t popular.

“I just played baseball and basketball,” said Neilon, who also dabbled in Aikido, a Japanese martial art.

Saffell and Neilon don’t hail from football royalty but in a few days, the two seniors will take their place among the top college prospects in the nation. The highly recruited centers will sign letters of intent with Cal and USC, respectively, on National Signing Day on Wednesday.

O.C. COMMITTED PLAYERS

O.C. TOP UNCOMMITTED PLAYERS

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Saffell and Neilon share an even deeper bond. The close friends are prized products of Orange County-based Men In The Trenches (MITT), a new-wave offseason academy for offensive and defensive linemen run by former San Francisco 49ers All-Pro center Jesse Sapolu.

Saffell has been attending the academy since he was a seventh grader at Fulton Middle School in Fountain Valley. Neilon joined as a ninth grader. Both credit the academy for helping them conquer their obstacles en route to earning scholarships to Pac-12 schools.

“Jesse has been like a second father to me and a mentor,” Saffell said. “It’s made a huge difference.”

“He’s just a great teacher and definitely someone who knows his stuff,” Neilon said of the four-time Super Bowl champion.

MITT, which starts its ninth season Feb. 11 with a session at Costa Mesa High, offers an 18-week academy that trains three hours a day on Saturdays. Sapolu, 55, and his coaches focus on a wide range of fundamentals, a strategy that helped Neilon overcome his inexperience in football.

Sapolu, a Costa Mesa resident, teaches proper stance, footwork, angles and stretches to linemen who mostly train in shorts and T-shirts. Players don helmets and shoulder pads the last two weeks of the academy.

“All of the stuff I do is from my experience as a player,” said Sapolu, who played 13 seasons for San Francisco. “You’ll understand why you’re doing it (techniques) and if you get beat, how you can auto-correct yourself.”

Neilon found Sapolu through a family connection with one of MITT’s coaches, Lee Afusia.

“I don’t think I would have ever got the fine-tuned technique (without MITT),” Neilon said. “I (remember the saying) butt down, shoulders back for pass (protection).

“Butt down just for an athletic position and being able to move. And shoulders back because if you lean forward, the defensive lineman is just going to use your weight against you and pull you forward. You’ll go falling on your face.”

Sapolu chuckles in his gentle Samoan tenor when Neilon’s light football background comes up. He was quickly intrigued by Neilon’s athleticism as a ninth grader.

“I knew I had a canvas to work with,” Sapolu said.

Neilon built his reputation with college recruiters in only his second season. As a sophomore, he delivered a dominating drive block against highly regarded Orange Lutheran senior defensive end Keisean Lucier-South, now at UCLA.

“That’s unheard of,” Sapolu said.

This past March, Neilon earned MVP honors at a Rivals camp. Shortly after taking the award, USC offered Neilon a scholarship.

The Coto de Casa resident committed to the Trojans in June. He gave his commitment to Coach Clay Helton on the 50-yard-line of the Coliseum, completing a journey that started in Tokyo.

“It’s really surreal,” said the 6-foot-2, 285-pound Neilon, who picked the Trojans over Washington and Michigan.

Saffell traveled a different path to his Pac-12 scholarship.

He began to learn Sapolu’s technique in middle school. By his freshman year, he and Neilon were training at MITT against college players.

Sapolu noticed that Saffell was driven by his lack of size but gained confidence by training with older players, including his son, Roman.

“Ever since I was a young kid, I’ve been looking to get better,” Saffell said. “(Sapolu) would have me and Brett going against college guys who would come out, just (for us) to get confidence. When you’re against some bigger boys (in games), it’s not a scary feeling because you’ve already done it (in practice).”

Saffell experienced a growth spurt after his sophomore season. But despite a strong junior season at Edison, he didn’t receive his first scholarship offer until this past spring, which followed an MVP performance at a Nike camp in February.

Cal extended a scholarship offer in June, which caught Saffell by surprise.

He had already found the recruiting process a bit challenging.Throughout the process, Sapolu remained a trusted ally.

“I was just kind of getting frustrated,” said Saffell, who is visiting Cal this weekend. “(Sapolu) just put confidence in my head that it was going to work out in the end.”

Said Sapolu, “I was an 11th-round draft choice. … I know what it’s like not to have a silver spoon in your mouth. I knew how good Mike was. Sometimes it was a little frustrating for me, too.”

Sapolu’s success as a mentor traces to his role as father.

He and his wife, Lisa, have four grown children – sons Luke, London and Roman, and daughter Lila.

Luke and London played football at Costa Mesa while Roman suited up for Edison. All three were linemen who went onto play in college.

Sapolu said the idea to start MITT was inspired by his early experiences at other recruiting combines.

“They weren’t coaching them up (on) any technique,” he said. “I’m thinking, ‘Do these people know how much technique goes into playing as an offensive lineman and as a defensive lineman?’ … Then I started coaching up a few kids from Edison, who were Roman’s friends.”

Greg Biggins, a national recruiting analyst for Scout.com and Fox, said Sapolu discovered an area of need.

“It’s definitely needed,” Biggins said. “It’s a skill. Playing lineman isn’t just what people think, a bunch of guys pushing on each other. There’s a ton of technique.”

Sapolu doesn’t strictly define his success by scholarship offers for his pupils.

He aims to help players improve or perhaps earn more playing time on their high school teams.

“It’s one of the best things to happen (for) Orange County offensive linemen,” Dave White, Edison’s recently retired coach, said of MITT. “(Jesse) is such a great technician and the kids respect him.”

Sapolu charges $25 per three-hour session, a $5 increase from when MITT started.

He draws local high school and junior college coaches to help him guide the workouts, some of which attract more than 120 players.

“The most exciting thing for me is our sixth, seventh and eighth grade group,” Sapolu said. “It’s the reason I get up every Saturday morning and get out there and do it. … It’s the age-group that Brett Neilon, Mike Saffell and those guys started at.”

Please send football recruiting news to Dan Albano at dalbano@scng.com or @ocvarsityguy on Twitter

Contact the writer: dalbano@scng.com