Prep Football Preview: Mariners, Vikings Recast

Bob Laws

Special to the Mirror

   With a core group of 14 talented seniors, everything came together last year for the St. Monica Mariners football team. They finished the season with a record of 9-3-1 and won the CIF Division 11 championship.
   "Last year was a dream come true," said St. Monica Athletic Director Jacqueline Hanson. "They made the entire school proud, and it just had a really positive impact on the school and all the sports teams."
   How good was last year's team? According to Coach Norm Lacey, five of those 14 seniors are now playing college football, three of them at top Division 1 schools. James Dunn went to Tulane, Joey Irwin to the Naval Academy, and Mike Murray stayed home and is playing for USC, which several experts have picked to win the Pac-10 conference title.
All this is pretty impressive for a small Catholic school with an enrollment of just 600. Athletic Director Hanson attributes the football team's success to Coach Lacey.
   "He's the greatest coach," Hanson said. "He's one of the best motivational speakers at our banquets, and I can only imagine he takes that onto the field. I've never seen a coach get so much dedication from his players."
   Coach Lacey appreciates the accolades, but he gives a lot of the credit to his coaching staff and the players themselves.
   "We're small in comparison to a lot of the schools we play against," Coach Lacey acknowledged. "We don't have a large talent pool, but we do get some really good kids and we have some excellent coaches on our staff. Basically, I think we do a good job of coaching kids and getting them fundamentally sound." 
   Lacey has been Head Coach at St. Monica for nine years. Before that, he spent 12 years as an assistant coach at Santa Monica High School.
This year's St. Monica team has only five returning seniors, but that doesn't necessarily mean this is a re-building year, according to Coach Lacey.
   Two returning seniors are All-League players. Dominik Martin is a stalwart at center, and probably will see some playing time on the defensive line as well. Michael Kim is a standout at offensive and defensive tackle.
   Dominik and Michael should dominate play this year," Coach Lacey said. "They're outstanding players who work very hard, and we expect them to be the nucleus of our offensive and defensive lines."
   Another key player on defense is Emmanuel English, who started at Right Tackle on the Varsity team as a sophomore. English will be a junior this year.
   The team's best skill-player, according to Coach Lacey, is Marcus Shelby, who played safety as a sophomore on the Varsity team in 1998.
"We need leadership at our skill positions, and that leadership is going to come from Marcus Shelby," Coach Lacey said.
   Shelby, who also plays basketball, will continue at safety this year, in addition to playing quarter back or wide receiver.
   Coach Lacey likes his team's chances in the newly-formed Camino Real League, which also includes La Salle, Verbum Dei and Cardinal High Schools.
   Because the new league has only four teams, St. Monica will play 7 pre-season games. They open September 7th at Venice High School, last year's Western League champion, and play several other quality teams in the pre-season.
   "We've got our hands full schedule-wise, and we've got our hands full getting these young players ready to play at the Varsity level," Coach Lacey said. "But our goal every year is to win the league championship."
St. Monica's cross-town rival, the Santa Monica High School Vikings, have not fared as well in recent years. The Vikings play in the highly-competitive Bay League. 
   "It's been a tough decade for us," said Athletic Director Mike Griswold, who was the head coach of the football team until 1978. "With the exception of '95 and '96, we haven't had a .500 season in the nineties."
   Santa Monica played for the League Championship in 1995 and '96, but lost to Peninsula High School both years. Last year they got a new Head Coach, Donald Paysinger.
   Paysinger heads into his second year with a lot of young players and even more question marks.
   "We're a very young team," Griswold said. "It looks like we might have a 10th grader at quarterback, 10th grade wide receivers, and some other 10th graders who look like they're going to get a lot of playing time.
   The sophomores include James Cooper, who will be vying for the starting quarterback position, wide receivers Charles Gordon and Chris Gary, and Chris Price, a 6'3", 295 pound offensive tackle. Other sophomores expected to see playing time are Terrel Maze and Giovani Salinas.
   The Vikings' top returning seniors are Joseph Young, a 6-foot, 200 pound strong safety and running back, and Jason Speciner, a 6'8", 270 pound offensive tackle.
   Speciner will be joined on the offensive line by three juniors who all played on the Varsity team last year as sophomores. 
   With a year of Varsity experience underneath their belts, Reuben Lawrence, Jon Cox and Darius Bell should help make the offensive line one of Santa Monica's greatest strengths.
   "Our offensive line was young last year," Griswold said. "They took their lumps, but they're bigger, stronger and faster this year."
   Griswold also expects Deon Lock, a senior tailback, to have a big year for the Vikings, especially if the offensive line performs up to expectations.
   In light of the team's disappointing 1998 season, Griswold didn't want to make any predictions about this year.
   "We only won two games last year," Griswold pointed out. "Coach Paysinger got a couple wins last year, and he's looking for a few more this year."
   The youth movement at Santa Monica might not pay off this year, but the future looks bright.
   "We might be all right this year," Griswold said. "But I hope we're even better when these guys get a year or two older."