Sal Tovar returns for the Southmen (Photo by Duane Barker)
By Tim Peterson
We know, it’s only June but football is a 12 month sport now anyway. What better time to take a quick look at the Mission Valley League than in the middle of June?
Here’s how we see it stacking up…at least on June 12.
Arroyo: The Knights are coming off of a CIF championship and they have their quarterback Ernesto Camacho back. What’s not to like? Skill players Daniel Mendoza, Steven Ocariz and Rey Cotero return as well. Clearly the league favorites.
South El Monte: The Eagles still have Sal Tovar and he is expected to have another huge year, but South is looking to throw the ball more this year. HC Frank Gallardo feels that senior quarterback Daniel Olmos will be up to the task. The Eagles lost some key linemen to graduation and also opponents will try to stack the box which could lead to the SEM passing game. Olmos has looked good so far on the passing circuit and if he continues to improve South could contend for league.
El Monte: Can the Lions finish third? Why not? Jesse Ceniceros is one of the better coaches in the valley. He was a huge hire. If El Monte can pick op on his double wing offense quick enough the run game could be devastating. El Monte has a solid O-Line coming back which is exactly what it needs with Ceniceros at the helm.
Rosemead: It will be interesting to see what new HC Matt Castaneda can do in his first year as the Panthers HC. It was a struggle last year but a 2-8 season for the Mead is an anomaly. It’s not a complete rebuild for the Panthers as skill players Alex Argueta and Chris Alvarez return. They always compete down on Lower Azusa and Rosemead.
Mt. View: One of these years the Vikings will get over the hump…won’t they? View has Arthur Anguiano (509 yards rushing) returning as well as Armando Flores (162) on the ground. The Vikes will do what they always do…pound the ball and grind the clock. But will it be enough to compete in the MVL?
Marshall: The Eagles surprised some people last year going 6-4 overall and 3-3 in league. Was that an aberration or the new Eagles? Well considering there was talk of Marshall folding the program in the off season it may have been an aberration. The Eagles have some speed and some really good athletes, they always do. But until they get a consistent coaching staff and some support, they might be a few years away.
Gabrielino: Jonathan Omar and Jeremy Sanchez ain’t walking through that door anytime soon. It’s over at Gabrielino. The question is when will the Eagles be back?
Arroyo is overrated
SEM is dangerous
Rosemead is a joke
Mountain View is interesting
El Monte is all talk. Like always!!
Everyone else isn’t even relevant!
@Football Fan you should of seen them lose in the Championship .. they got a crazy cause they got whooped on bad ..
@D1 Fan , your the coward , state your name , be a proud parent, student staff, assistant coach , or just a kiss a $$ , lets do a better one put your face to it, if your so tough and bad, Its true the MVS post anything about any schools and you squeeze in with comments ,
Peterson lets go time for early look at the Rio Hondo League
From T. Peterson: Coming soon.
Wow D12fan you really dug yourself a hole. “Cathedral” if I were you I would regurgitate and spit this guy out FAST. Doing nothing good for the PROGRAM. What a MESS!
@D1 Fan
Are you serious? There is celebrating and then there is what Cathedral did. If you are condoning that then you have issues. As far as La Mirada goes….this is a rebuilding year and the school administration is F’ed up. No secret there. It’ll be a long season. By the way, you seemed to have forgotten about the last time La Mirada and Cathedral crossed paths…..38-7.
http://www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/cifss/5ab53b695b
@D1 This thread is about MVL, Has nothing to do with you or your stupid passing league victories. If there’s a thread that has anything to do with cathedral feel free to brag. Otherwise keep your 7on7 chest pounding pathetic school out of here!
@D1 fan So let me get this straight because it was written by you. We are all banwagoners, morons and cheats , and. Once again you play the poor cathedral card of “we don’t get the kids like other schools “.
Oh and I’m the coward to comes on here. Not revealing myself. Ok D1 fan and you are? I know who you are. I got tired of see and hearing you all last season. And FYI nobody likes you at even cathedral.
Football Fan Most schools celebrate in 7 on 7’s. What’s you’re problem Bandwagon . I would be worried about Your La Mirada squad.
What kind of Moron are You A-Hole Annonymous slandering Your Alma Mater. You must be a Real hater to come on and talk aboutCathedral like you do. As far as recruiting I defend Cathedral because I know We do not get a Ton of Kids like You and other Idiots claim. Other School’s do a lot more than We do. If nobody mentioned Cathedral than why did you jump on here. You are a coward hiding behind These Posts.
Amen….
Anyone see the videos this weekend from the 7 on 7 Cathedral played in at USC? The taunting of the opposing teams, the celebratory antics in the end zone? I can’t believe the coaching staff condones that behavior.
Cathedral 7on7 national champion / 2nd round real football bust.
@D1 fan Lol. I am one of your own cathedral alum moron. What part of that did you not ever get. Me talk about other programs. Let’s get something straight. I don’t point the finger of blame like you. I don’t talk about other shcools recruiting like you. I don’t throw programs under the bus like you. I am proud of being a cathedral alum. I’m am tired of people like you throwing shad on other peoples programs and arrogantly thinking your $h::@t don’t stink. It’s “morons and idiots” like you that make cathedral program an embarrassment.
Nobody asked for Your Opinion Annoymous Moron. You talk about everyone’s programs. If You had any football’s you would Identify your sorry school instead of attacking every school.
Their goes cathedral people always putting themselves in the mix of conversations. Nobody mention cathedral. Nobody but cathedral people want to hear about cathedral. Cathedral fan is like the little kid trying to sit at the grown ups table trying to get attention. We get it your awesome 7on7 team that come up short every year with your world of talent and poor coaching. And let’s not forget the great education that D1 fan always points out. What a joke of a program. Get no respect here.
Nobody is leaving Monrovia and if they do good luck at the new school. Monrovia only wants kids who want to play Monrovia football. If they haven’t learned from others mistakes then oh well!
The Phantoms will surprise a lot of people this season in D2. Not only do they have the best QB in The division but they have a lot more depth on The Defensive and Offensive lines. Next Season Pre-season they Start out with Serra .
Can’t argue the good players they recruited to go there. But Arcadia, Lynwood and Santa Fe is daunting? They as great as people say they are where is Bishop Amat, Corona Centennial or Bosco on their schedule. Not one team that people can argue should challenge them. Now in D2 they will be one and done and even more labeled a pretender.
To Sports dad, I guess La Salle is one of The Cupcakes. Next season The Phantoms have a brutal Pre-season Schedule as I understand from My Friends at Cathedral. Cathedral also has many Kids playing D1 College football Right now. I Grad is playing for The Miami Dolphins.
You hope they have him for 3 more years. I see him going to a bigger school that doesn’t play cupcakes every week so he can get more exposure against quality opposition!
Cathedral has QB Bryce Young for 3 more year’s. He has over 15 offers and was offered by USC Coach Clay Helton today at the USC Tournament. Bryce is only a Sophmore. La Salle will be back down in Division 11 soon.
La Salle just got a freshman QB CJ Montes who already has an offer from University of Nevada. Monrovia was trying hard to get him but LaSalle won out! The Lancers might be competing with Cathedral and St. Fran soon enough if the kid is good as advertised!
To Sports Dad. It doesn’t Matter who La Salle bring in St. Francis and Cathedral will destroy them.
Right Thing: Totally respect your viewpoint. But either way it goes it should not be open season on bad mouthing coach or team. Parents can help their kid make the decision to play or not. You clearly had a bad experience with a similar situation but other times an athletic event with your team can be helpful to get through a tragedy. We had an example yesterday in DC. I’am sure the other teams at ER will be ready to support and mourn with the SE players. God Bless.
Hope the rumors aren’t true that LaSalle might be taking in a couple Monrovia Football transfers.
I hope the faculty and the coaching staff from South El Monte are reading this. Please Pull out of the meaningless passing tournament and allow your kids to mourn and pay their respects to their teammate. Please do not make them play in a passing tournament. Do not make them have to choose. Do the right thing. For most of these kids this is their first experience with death coaches be an example and show them how to deal with this. From a former coach who dealt with a similar situation this is far bigger than footballer I sure that coaching staff which I have a lot of respect for are cognizant of that.
We can throw lopez anywhere on the field, WR, QB, DB, LB and he would do great. He’s an awesome athelete with a cannon, if he would have not taken the year off football last year he would probably get the nod at QB, but as of now Rodriguez has a firm grasp of the position. Frankly we need Lopez height and athleticism in the secondary. Another big addition is Jacob Baltierra at WR, he didn’t miss a beat after not playing football the last 2 years, he will contribute!
@btbear that was the 3rd and even 4th string QB against Gladstone, The starting QB did not take a snap against them, I gotta give it to Gladstone though they were fired up, the starting QB threw 3 TDs against Montclair and Los Altos each which were far more athletic teams..
Not sure if the coaching staff was looking to rest guys for the weekend but this was the worst I saw the team look all off season.
Medrano must have wanted to rest Rodriguez arm for this weekend because he didn’t play that much. 4 different qbs played so it’s hard for a offense to get in sync when you have 4 different guys throwing the ball. I find Lopez at QB to be very very interesting. The defense looked flat and confused with the exception of Huerta.
Condolences to South El Monte family!!!
@ranch, so LA looked pretty good huh? I had my reservations with this staff, but good to hear things are coming along.
My Condolences to The So. Elmonte Family.
@Ranch – I must disagree. I watched my boys play at Smith Park with Montclair, Los Altos, and Gladstone. Montclair has some athletes but will not improve in the W and L column. Los Altos is young. They will be okay depth could hurt. Not near a Charter Oak type team. Gladstone held their own. Against El Rancho they caused the HC to lose it. They did not score once against Gladstone. QB threw 5 picks. Not sure if he was the starting QB, but Gladstone dominated El Rancho defensively. El Rancho needs to get better on the offensive side of the ball.
The Santa Anita mall apaches will struggle this year. You can’t take kids from an area and put them in a completely different environment. The kids from Pasadena struggle socially at that school and it’s start to surface. Add to the coaches not fitting to together well. That’s a recipe for disaster . The city and residents of aracadia don’t like to see transfer coming in. Aracadia isn’t a place to build a program and bring outside talent in. Arcadia is a tight knitt company. Apache stay down!
Condolences to the South El Monte kids family his coaches and to his teammates. As of this morning South El Monte is still in the Rancho tourney. Maybe they need to get their mind off the tragedy by playing. I’m sure Frank will get some backlash for it tho. again my sincere condolences for the family.
Go watch the film. We whooped your apppache booty all over Arcadia and Burbank back to back years. . Your “oc” claims to only get guys open but all he does is get his arse Dug in a hole. How’s that recruiting going for you? Can’t even field a frosh team? Kids leaving back to
Home schools ? No apache down? Can’t coach what you get? Can’t get guys open? Again? And again? All apche down! Football is played in the fall not in the summer running around in shorts and doing triple moves you learned while paying 20 some odd bucks to hear a hype man repeat the same thing and never get you open!!! Save your money and buy yourself some in-n-out
I was there for a bit saw them vs Montclair and Los Altos, Rodriguez the QB looks good, he has shown far greater command of the offense from a year ago. Defense looks pretty good, a bit undersized, but agressive and flies to the ball. Los Altos looked pretty good also, they have some talent and will be good under their new staff.
How did ER look today vs Los Altos, Gladstone, and Montclair? Was anyone there??!
Transfers are IMO players that live outside the attendance zone, move in the zone temporarilly , make room for them though district policy. Arroyo has a slew of these.
A South El Monte football player recently lost his life. His burial is Saturday. I’d be shocked if South El Monte is at the El Rancho passing tournament also on the same day. Condolences to his family and to the Eagle football family as well.