Starting the high school football week in Orange County with notes, comments and observations …
1. Meet the new boss: For the first time since 1988, Mater Dei plays a game without Bruce Rollinson as its head coach.
After several years as a Mater Dei assistant coach Frank McManus makes his debut as the head coach Friday when the Monarchs play at Centennial of Corona. Mater Dei is No. 1 in MaxPrep.com’s national rankings. The Monarchs are No. 2 in the CalHiSports.com state rankings that have St. John Bosco at No. 1 and Centennial at No. 3.
2. Meet the new rules: One change is that offensive penalties behind the line of scrimmage will be marked from the line of scrimmage and not the point of the foul. For example, offensive holding on a pass play on which the hold occurs 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage, the 10-yard markoff is counted from the line of scrimmage and not the point of the foul.
Also, rules regarding a “defenseless receiver” now pertain to the defender on the pass play who is attempting to make a play on the ball.
3. Voices of experience. Rollinson was Orange County football’s longest tenured head coach last season, with 34 seasons. Now that distinction belongs to Foothill coach Doug Case and Crean Lutheran coach Rick Curtis.
Case is in his 24th season at Foothill. Add his seven previous seasons at Rancho Alamitos and Case is at 31 seasons as a county football head coach.
Curtis is in his 31st season as a head coach. This is Curtis’ fourth season at Crean Lutheran. Previously he was the head coach at Northwood for 14 years, Santa Margarita for two years, Capistrano Valley Christian for four years, University for five years and was Irvine co-coach, with Terry Henigan, for two years.
As for longest current tenure at one school, that’s La Habra’s Frank Mazzotta, who is in his 26th season running Highlanders football. Mike Enright is in his 24th season as head coach at Rancho Alamitos, where Enright replaced Case.
4. First win of the season: Villa Park last week was the first Orange County team to start the season. The Spartans traveled to the Hawaiian island of Oahu and beat Damien of Honolulu 37-13.
Senior running back Carter Christie, a Crestview League offensive player of the year last season, rushed for 181 yards and two touchdowns.
5. Get your tickets here: GoFan.co again is the seller of tickets for CIF Southern Section events. Purchase and download tickets on your smart phone at that website.
6. A young veteran: Santa Margarita’s Anthony Rouzier is the second-longest tenured coach in the Trinity League. This is his third season coaching the Eagles. The combined number of years of Trinity League head coaching experience in the league is 17 years, and 12 of those are owned by St. John Bosco’s Jason Negro. Rod Sherman is going into his second season as Orange Lutheran coach. McManus at Mater Dei, Chris Reinert at Servite and Victor Santa Cruz at JSerra are Trinity League rookies.
7. Los Alamitos vs. Western. Los Alamitos is going to be the predicted winner when we get to the preview on that contest later this week. We get to see Los Alamitos’ Davon Mitchell, an Oklahoma-committed tight end who moved to Orange County from Texas and has reclassified from being a junior to being a senior this school year.
Western senior quarterback Anthony Luna threw for a county-leading 3,128 yards last season.
8. More Trinity tests: JSerra and Orange Lutheran open the season with tough games. JSerra, No. 13 in the CalHiSports.com preseason rankings, travels to play state No. 7 Sierra Canyon on Friday. State No. 10 Orange Lutheran is home at Orange Coast College on Friday to play state No. 15 Serra of Gardena.
9. Other O.C. teams in the state rankings: CalHiSports.com has Mission Viejo at No. 6, Los Alamitos at No. 8, Santa Margarita at No. 19, San Clemente at No. 23, Edison at No. 32, Yorba Linda at No. 39, Corona del Mar at No. 43 and Cypress at No. 50.
10. Tustin at El Toro. This game, Friday at El Toro High, will inform us if El Toro is as good as hinted at during good passing tournament performances, and if Tustin did improve as much as the Tillers are said to be from an offseason influx of transfers.
