Summer Status Update: Bishop Diego Football

The Friday night lights were switched off by the second week of November last year.

For the first time in memory, not one South Coast school that plays 11-man football — Santa Barbara, San Marcos, Dos Pueblos, Carpinteria and Bishop Diego — made the postseason.

Why did this happen and what are the coaches of these programs doing to turn things around? Presidiosports.com contacted each coach to find some answers.

Tom Crawford guided Bishop Diego to the CIF final in 2007. That team was loaded with a talented group seniors. Crawford and his staff are working hard to get Bishop back to the playoffs.

Here are his responses to our Q&A…

PS: You have a lot returning skilled players, does that give you a lot of encouragement for the 2010 season?

CRAWFORD: We’re quite positive about our prospects for the upcoming year.  Our young guys really got lots of game experience last year and they have all gotten faster and stronger as a result of their off-season work ethic.  We’ll be much more explosive on both sides of the ball and we sense that we’ll have a more confident group as a result of this development.  Development of depth is always a key for us given our numbers.  We’ll test ourselves early with Santa Ynez and other tough non-league games but we’re excited.

PS: Brad Holland left the area for a job in Carlsbad, does that mean your quarterback Kyle Holland is gone too? If so, who is stepping in to take the controls?

CRAWFORD: Yes, the Hollands moved south so we lost Kyle who had worked hard in the off-season and was developing nicely and, at 6-3, 215 pounds, was likely to be a college prospect.  Since this happened just before spring practice, we’ve scrambled a little but have worked two guys at quarterback — Andrew Saucier (who will be a senior and had restricted eligibility last year so was a member of our junior varsity squad) and Nolan Tisdale (who will be a junior and was the JV quarterback last year).  Both guys have picked up the system very quickly and have high football IQs, so we’re very pleased with their effort and progress.

PS: Are you doing workouts right now?

CRAWFORD: We are into our summer practice schedule.

PS: What kind of things are you doing in practice?

CRAWFORD: Obviously, since it is early in summer, we’re pretty heavy into fundamentals and technique building at this point but the work ethic is excellent — among the best we’ve had — so we’re actually much farther ahead than anticipated and we’ve installed significant portions of our offensive and defensive schemes already.  Our practices consist of individual fundamental development, group sessions to ensure everyone understands assignments and schemes and then typically full team work and conditioning.  Pretty standard I’m sure for most schools.  Of course, our guys are lifting several days a week as well and we’re real pleased with their commitment and progress.

PS: How many guys do you have out for practice?

CRAWFORD: We’ve had on average about 26 older players out on a consistent basis and, perhaps most encouraging, we already have 21 freshmen practicing right now which is a big jump for us and bodes well for our JV program and future.  We’re hopeful we can carry 26 to 28 boys on varsity and will have a JV squad of around 30 — both of which would be significant number increases for us over the past couple years.

PS: Is your team participating in a passing league right now? If so, who’s looking good?

CRAWFORD: We are doing quite a bit of passing league work this summer.   I think we have about 28 passing league workouts, which is important for us given our youth and the training of new quarterbacks. We work with San Marcos, Dos Pueblos, Santa Ynez and Santa Barbara a couple times during the summer, given proximity and the simple fact that all of their coaches do a great job of using passing league as a learning tool for the boys.

PS: Is it a relief a team like Oaks Christian is no longer in the league?

CRAWFORD: Talk about a loaded question.  Actually, having Oaks in the league presented a different type of challenge and experience than anything else you deal with and, as the outcome could not be your focus, it really forced coaches to identify and focus on some really important aspects of team and individual development — things like effort, camaraderie, persistence, courage, perspective, etc.  And despite all the negative on Oaks, I always found their coaches to be strong sportsmen, very complimentary of our kids, and excellent managers of their own players’ conduct.  All that being said, it is so important to be able to tell high school kids that they are truly competing for a championship and that it is something realistic.  So, yes, everyone is relieved.

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