{"id":80201,"date":"2023-07-31T18:14:19","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T01:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=80201"},"modified":"2023-07-31T19:39:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T02:39:06","slug":"q-a-with-st-paul-head-coach-mike-moschetti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=80201","title":{"rendered":"Q & A with St. Paul Head Coach Mike Moschetti"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mike Moschetti left La Mirada to take over as the head coach at St. Paul. He took some time with us for a Q & A. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Afte two head coaching stints at La Mirada totaling 13 years Mike Moschetti left his alma mater to take over as the head coach at St. Paul. Coach Moschetti sat down with Mid Valley Sports recently to tell us what went into his decision and the season ahead. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

MVS: While playing quarterback for La Mirada High School what was your greatest memory and or your greatest accomplishment? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MM: My greatest memory in High School was being part of a team that won La Mirada\u2019s first CIF Championship. Getting drafted by the Oakland A\u2019s in the 2nd<\/sup> round was a great memory too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MVS: Some of us already know but for our readers that may not know where did you play after High School? And did you consider pursuing another sport? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MM: I did not play football immediately after graduation. After getting drafted by the A\u2019s I spent 3 years in the A\u2019s organization before retiring to pursue my passion to play football. I went to Mt. SAC, where we won a national championship. I then spent 2 years at the University of Colorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MVS: When did you decide you wanted to be a football coach? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MM: When I was done playing at Colorado, the competitor in me wanted to stay involved and I thought coaching would be a great way to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MVS: What was your first coaching job? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MM: My first coaching job was as an offensive assistant coach at the University of Colorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MVS: Was it a specific goal of yours to coach at your Alma Mater La Mirada? How special was that to get the opportunity to coach there? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MM: It wasn\u2019t really a goal to coach at La Mirada. As an Assistant Coach at Colorado State\u2013Pueblo, I was on a recruiting trip in California. While visiting La Mirada, I happened to speak to some people who asked if I was interested in coaching High School football. After some discussions, I thought it was a great opportunity and it brought me back home. It was also a great honor to be able to coach at La Mirada with my connection to the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MVS: Winning the CIF and State Championships in 2015 had to be your greatest coaching accomplishment at La Mirada, correct? Or was it something else?  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MM: Well, while winning a state championship was a great accomplishment for us, getting 50+ student-athletes in 12 years out to play college football was our biggest accomplishment. Three of those guys are now coaching with us at St. Paul. Bryan Peters, who played at Kansas and coaches the O Line, and JT Torres, who played at Colorado and Benedictine College, coaches Running Backs. RJ Lan, who played baseball at TCU and Washington State, is coaching the Secondary. RJ is also the Head Baseball Coach at St. Paul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing we were proud of, was our relationship with the special education department. We bonded with the staff and the students. We involved them in the program and worked with the kids when we got the opportunity. You might remember Dante Angulo. Dante came to all our practices and games and was a big inspiration to us during our championship runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MVS: What coach had the biggest influence on you and why? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MM: Of course, my dad, Joe Moschetti was a big influence on me growing up. He instilled the competitiveness and drive that defines me as a person and as a coach. Another coach that had a lot of influence on me was Tom Cable. Tom was most recently with the Las Vegas Raiders. He also coached with the Atlanta Falcons, and the Seattle Seahawks. He was the Offensive Line Coach at Colorado when I played there. He stressed the importance of education and how to battle through adversity. Coach Cable and I still talk all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MVS: What were the most important factors that led you to take the head coaching job at St. Paul? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MM: One of the reasons I decided to come to St. Paul was to take on the best and be the best we can. As a Catholic, being able to work in a faith-filled environment was a big plus for me. It is a great opportunity for us to help build faith-filled leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MVS: Will you use a different approach at St. Paul than you did at La Mirada? Or will your coaching philosophy remain the same? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MM: Our coaching philosophy will remain essentially the same for the team. We will work hard, be disciplined, and play physical. Our #1 goal is to get out as many players as we can to play college football, and of course, to win a state championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MVS: How does the St. Paul squad look this year? Who are some of your key players going into the 2023 campaign?  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MM: We\u2019ve got good team speed and are deep at key positions. The kids are smart, and they work hard. They have had to learn a new offense and a new defense and have picked up everything pretty fast. However, there is still an unknown on how the team will react come game time. We are confident they will play the brand of football is known for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of our key players so far include our quarterback, Andrew Maushardt, running back and DB Ty Bowers, and WR Orlando Zepeda. We expect several other players to emerge with great seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Afte two head coaching stints at La Mirada totaling 13 years Mike Moschetti left his alma mater to take over as the head coach at St. Paul. Coach Moschetti sat down with Mid Valley Sports recently to tell us what went into his decision and the season ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12816,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hsfootball","category-high-school-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80206,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80201\/revisions\/80206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}