Aaron Cantu will be behind center for ELAC in the Fall
(East Los Angeles) – The Aaron Cantu – Carlos Arredondo connection, that flourished at Schurr in 2009, will be on display once again at East Los Angeles College in 2011.
Cantu just finished his senior season as the quarterback for the Spartans and Arredondo played one year at Cerritos College after graduating from Schurr in June 2010.
“It all just worked out. I wanted to stay local and it’s only about two miles from my house,” Cantu said. “A lot of my friends are going there and it’s really convenient. But the biggest reason I’m going to ELAC is because Carlos is going there. He’s my best friend and it’s going to be great playing football with him again.”
Carlos Arredondo will be catching Cantu's passes again in East LA
Cantu led Schurr to two straight second round playoff appearances in the last two years. In 2009 he threw for 2500 yards and 28 touchdowns. 12 of those TD strikes were to Arredondo, who hauled in 79 catches for 1191 yards.
“Due to family, location and other things it worked for me to go to ELAC,” Arredondo said. “I’ve already been working out with Aaron the last couple of weeks but I told him I would let him off this week because he just finished basketball,” he laughed.
Arredondo probably didn’t get as many balls thrown his way last year at Cerritos as he would have preferred but said that didn’t play in his decision to go to ELAC.
“It’s exciting that ELAC throws the ball as much as they do but I just want to win. I’ll do whatever it takes to win,” he said.
Cantu talked to Arredondo over the last year or so and he decided that if any offers didn’t come in he would go to ELAC but he wanted Arredondo to join him.
“The offers didn’t really come in. If I can play a year or so at East LA it will be good to get some more experience and maybe the offers will follow,” Cantu said. “They run a spread offense and they pass first. We’ll be in the shotgun a lot. The coach was telling me they run about 70 percent pass and 30 percent run,” Cantu said.
Another thing that came into play for Cantu is his ties to ELAC Head Coach Lynn Cain, who played at USC and in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons.
“My grandfather coached him at Roosevelt High School. My dad knows him as well. So the ties were there. I’m always going to compete for the job of course but Coach Cain told me I’m the number one guy,” Cantu said.
Albert “Rhino” Perez, who played center for the Spartans and just completed his senior season, is headed to ELAC as well.
Cantu and Arredondo have been paying catch the last few Wednesdays at ELAC to get reacquainted with each other on the field. Schurr fans and East Los Angeles College fans can be sure it’s the start of bigger and better things to come. Arredondo might have summed it up best.
“It feels like I’m going home again,” Arredondo added.
Tim can be reached at tim@midvalleysports.com.
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