Garden Grove's 'beat' goes on for Telles

GARDEN GROVE - When it was finally over, they walked out to midfield to reflect on what had just happened.

How they had fallen behind in the game's first minutes, how everything seemed so hollow at halftime, how they had fallen behind again in the third quarter.

They thought, too, about the colliding emotions, the heavy feelings that caused a ripple that became a wave that became a relentless tide, the overwhelming swing that later had their coach saying, "To be honest, by the start of the fourth quarter, I don't think Woodbridge had a chance."

The Garden Grove Argonauts gathered around the teammate who had made it all happen, they knelt and they prayed.

Then they did the only thing they could do, the one thing they had to do. They filed onto a waiting bus and rode off into the darkness to bury that teammate.

•••

"We believe in you. We'll always believe in you. Is there anything you guys can't do? I don't think so."

Joe Hay is talking to his Argos this week. Practice has just ended. The playoffs begin Friday night.

He never had been a head coach until that night. An assistant for 14 years, Hay had been passed over for No. 1 jobs, for coordinator jobs and once for the job of athletic director.

But here he was coaching his first game, the season opener 10 weeks ago at Westminster High. Garden Grove was leading, 9-0, and there were 90 seconds left.

This is exactly what he had hoped for, what he had envisioned when he took the job in April, when he walked into the weight room after just a week, still a stranger really, and started telling these kids "I love you."

They were puzzled then, thinking, as senior quarterback Sean Young would admit, "Ah, OK Coach, sure." But the players would learn.

They would learn about Hay's commitment when, during drills, he would insist they hit him even though he wasn't wearing pads.

About Hay's passion when, before every game, including the regular-season finale when he assured them he wouldn't, he'd become so emotional he would cry.

About Hay's strength when, after the death of senior Kevin Telles, he would tell them, "God needed an angel, and He took a good one."

Telles was playing fullback at the time. The Argos were running out the clock, a 1-0 record just 1:30 away.

He was the team's heartbeat, a two-way starter and two-way leader, by action and by words. He was the first to line up for sprints, the last to leave the weight room.

During two-a-days, Telles would walk off the field laughing while his teammates were too gassed to even grin. "Who does that?" Hay recalls thinking. "This kid doesn't quit."

The clock nearly drained, Telles' motor roared. "Are you tired? 'Cause I'm not! Let's win this!" The words were meant for Garden Grove's huddle but could be heard by Garden Grove's parents.

On the next play, Telles fell — without any contact — and never got up. If tests have revealed why a 17-year-old's heart would just stop, the results have not been made public.

"God, I wish we had him now," Hay says. "But I also know he's here. I know he's our 12th guy."

Soon, Hay is recalling the way Telles could make anyone smile, how he loved the hugs and I-love-yous, the way he pushed his teammates as hard as he did himself. Now, the coach is standing, mimicking Telles as a player, crouching like a linebacker, on the balls of his feet, tugging at imaginary gloves.

Hay sits back down and several seconds pass without a word.

"It's good to remember," he says finally. "It's been a little while."

•••

Teenagers aren't meant to be pallbearers, but Jesse Lozano helped carry his childhood friend from the church. He has visited the gravesite every Sunday since.

A junior, Lozano began the season at strong safety, where he would watch Telles fly around as an outside linebacker.

On the second day of practice after Telles' death, Garden Grove's coaches told Lozano that the team needed him to switch positions, that he would be taking his buddy's spot.

In the next game, that game against Woodbridge, Lozano cried through the first two quarters. "Man, this is what Kevin would be doing," he kept thinking, his mind swimming against the current.

At one point, a teammate asked if he was OK. Lozano tried to not look any of the Woodbridge players in the eye. He doesn't think his coaches knew he was crying.

"I wasn't making noise," he says. "The tears were just falling."

After the game, after the Argos had reminded one another Telles was watching, after they chanted his name throughout a second-half rally that produced a 35-24 victory, it was Lozano who led them back out onto the field.

As they prayed, he placed a photograph of Telles on the 50-yard-line. He has no idea whatever happened to the picture.

So Friday night, Garden Grove, still undefeated after 10 games, opens the playoffs. When the players leave the locker room for the field, most will kiss their fingers and slap another photo of Telles hanging nearby.

At the start of the fourth quarter, they will hold up four fingers with one hand — something many teams do — and five fingers with the other — something only they do. Telles was No. 45.

Lozano again will wear his friend's cleats and gloves and write "45" on his wristbands. But before any of that, he'll pull on a T-shirt with Telles' face on the front and these words on the back: "Are you tired? 'Cause I'm not! Let's win this!'"