Page 6 August 27, 2015 EL SEGUNDO HERALD Eagles Offensive Football Preview By Gregg McMullin Photos by Gregg McMullin The El Segundo football team’s success over the past few seasons has been well documented. Two league titles, the school’s first CIF finals appearance and an undefeated regular season start last season. Those teams were loaded with talent that came up through the program from the freshman team to the JV team and finally to head coach Steve Shevlin’s varsity squad. This year’s Eagles will be an overhaul with so many starters having graduated. The defense will have ten new starting faces for a defensive unit that gave up just an average of 10 points per game which led the South Bay. On offense the Eagles lose nine starters to graduation including All-South Bay quarterback Lars Nootbaar. It was an offense that scored video game like numbers. So with all that bleak news can Coach Shevlin’s team even compete this season? Coach Shevlin, in his 22nd year, is the winningest football coach in El Segundo high school history with a 122-102-5 record. He says there’s good reason to believe the success of the past will continue. “We’ve got some talented players returning with plenty of game experience,” Shevlin said. He added that with the emergence of two talented running backs and the promotion of players from the lower levels that combined to win 17 games this year’s Eagles have the opportunity to continue the playoff streak the team currently has, which is seven consecutive seasons. The team has won at least six games each season in that time and won a total of 47 games. With Nootbaar gone the offense will be lead by third year quarterback Jason Kehl. The senior is look to get his first start but as Nootbaar’s backup for the past two seasons, he has learned enough and was mentored to give Kehl what it takes to lead the Eagles. In the past two seasons Kehl’s playing time was mostly limited to fourth quarter minutes when the game was usually well in hand. This year it’s his team and he’s embracing each moment he’s under center. With a near perfect grade point average throughout high school he speaks with the eloquent nature of a leader. “It’s exciting to step in and be the captain and leader of the team. I’ve been working with Coach (Steve) Shevlin since my freshman year so I feel very well prepared. Lars [Nootbaar] led by example and that’s something that any great captain must do. I will set the bar high for my teammates to improve each day. When it’s all said and done I’d like to be remembered as a hard worker who left it all on the field every chance he got,” Kehl said. This is could be another fun year to watch as the Eagles attempt to defend their back-to-back league titles. The offense won’t drastically be different this season but opposing defenses might change their focus and look to stop the run first. When that happens Kehl will be confident to lead the Eagles through the air. Coach Shevlin’s pass-happy offense could be tested this season not because of a new quarterback but because of the absence of a marquee receiver that the Eagles have had. Two years ago Jamie Stewart was one of the best in Southern California; he’s at Harvard starting for the Crimson. Last season Nick Karsseboom, was the go to guy, averaged 22 yards per catch and caught 11 TDs. This season Kehl will look to senior Landon Sharp, juniors Jake Palmer, CJ Shevlin and Isaiah Gray. All have the potential to make the opposing defenses think twice on a rushing offense that could be explosive. At tight end sophomore sensation Taj Balogun has size, speed and good hands to extend the field. Balogun could also be inserted at quarterback in an emergency; he led the frosh/soph team to a 9-1 record as the quarterback. The running back situation a season ago featured three backs that could move the ball down field. Gone are Miguel Wagner-Bagues (MIT) and Ryan Kelly (Santa Monica CC) but the emergence of Taz Tauase (5’8” 175) who was a sophomore, returns. He’ll be one of the top backs in the South Bay and has the credentials to back that claim up. He was selected to the All-Ocean League 1st team last season and has earned two MVP awards at the Rising Stars USC camp for running backs. Though Tauase looks to be the featured back there are plenty of others who are just as capable of filling in including sophomores Tyler Villalobos and Kyle Freeman and junior Ashton Saltz. Of course every offense is as good as its offensive line. Coach Shevlin has some experience returning in the form of juniors George Hayes (6’4” 245), Duncan Papalii (6’2” 245) and Brandon Weldon (6’3” 250). All three, who are being studied by four year schools, will be a big reason the running game could be the focus of the offense. Add in talented sophomore Jess Caravello at center and Jake Palomo at guard and this group has the potential to be one of the top lines in the area. Will There Be Football in L.A.? By Adam Serrao, asixlion@earthlink.net As another football season sits upon us, fans here in Los Angeles are left wondering if L.A. will ever get a team of their own again. The Los Angeles Raiders and the Los Angeles Rams both fled the area and played their last football games in L.A. on Christmas Eve of 1994. Some present, huh? Los Angeles has been starved of football ever since. Well, the city is hungry again. People from all around Los Angeles are pitching ideas - some sensible and some just ridiculous - to get commissioner Roger Goodell to choose their city as the host city of L.A.’s next great football team. Despite the efforts, however, everything still seems like just “talk.” So what’s it going to be? Will there actually be a football team back in Los Angeles anytime soon? NFL owners met in Chicago most recently just a few months ago and one of the things that they discussed was the proposition of a new NFL team in Los Angeles. That wasn’t the first time. NFL owners have been discussing a proposed plan to bring the NFL back to L.A. for years now. Still, nothing. The three teams being considered for relocation are the San Diego Chargers, the Oakland Raiders and the St. Louis Rams. There is only room for two out of the three teams to relocate, but at this point it still seems as if absolutely no teams are gaining ground on a potential move. Executive vice president of NFL ventures and business operations Eric Grubman discussed a Raiders possible move at the meetings in Chicago. “The facts on the ground are that there’s been no viable proposal to the Raiders,” he said. So with all of the talk that the Raiders could come back to Los Angeles lately, it seems as if there hasn’t even been a proposal yet for them to do so. The Rams, on the other hand, have had their current owner, Stan Kroenke, buy 60 acres of land in Inglewood, California with the plan of building an 80,000-seat NFL stadium on it. Still nothing on the horizon for St. Louis, though. Kroenke’s hope is that by controlling a local site that is big enough for a stadium plus parking, Goodell and the rest of the NFL will be swayed to approve a move. After all is said and done, however, Kroenke’s appeal to the league is just another of more than a dozen stadium proposals that have come and gone in the last two-decade effort to bring America’ s biggest sport to the nation’s second-largest media market. Like all of the rest, the league will most likely simply snub their nose at it as well. Not much is known of San Diego’s efforts to come to Los Angeles except that they are asking for a new stadium in San Diego and not getting it. Also, their starting quarterback, Philip Rivers, has been outspoken about his hatred of L.A. and the team just signed him to a new four-year, $83 million deal. Seems as if they have assured the San Diegan that he won’t be going anywhere, although that certainly cannot be confirmed. Naturally, the NFL has heard proposals from all three teams regarding new stadium deals and done nothing with them. The August meetings have come and gone and still nothing but generics remain. Generics like, “We are extremely optimistic that a deal will get done,” or, “Los Angeles would make a great market for an NFL team.” We’ve all been hearing that for years and like a politician announced jargon to attempt to sway your vote, the NFL uses their jargon to try to appease its fans. When all is said and done, though, there has been absolutely no progress made on a team moving to L.A. What the city of Los Angeles would need first is a temporary residence for a team while their new home stadium is built. The Rose Bowl has already eliminated itself from that conversation. Other sites like the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and even Dodger Stadium remain but again, talks have not even progressed enough to decide See Eagles, page 14 See Football, page 14 Head coach Steve Shevlin is entering his 22nd season as the Eagles head coach.
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