A ten-minute drive down the 22 from Long Beach, a large collection of some of the best high school football players in the state gathered at the Rose Center in Westminster, for the CIF’s 33^rd Annual Press Conference/Luncheon.  Every year, the twenty-six teams competing in the divisional championships gather the Monday before the games are held to be interviewed by the press, eat some free food, and generally kick off the festivities leading up to the big championship weekend.  This year, for the ninth time in twelve years, the Poly Jackrabbits were there.  For the first time, so were we.

It was obvious from the moment Poly coach Raul Lara asked to make sure he could pronounce our names correctly that the team was experienced in this realm.  “They’ll want me to stand up and introduce you with the players,” he explained, patiently.  Lara was joined by Poly AD/Assistant Coach Rob Shock and Defensive Coordinator Jeff Turley, as well as four of his players, QB Morgan Fennell, MLB George Daily-Lyles, DE Iuta Tepa, and big O-Lineman Albert Parrish.

The vibe in the room was great—it was 26 football programs, all of whom are sure they’re going to win this weekend and get that CIF Championship plaque.  We haven’t been in a room that confident since we were at a local congregation of Democrats back in early November.  The teams who would be playing each other this weekend were sequestered to opposite sides of the room, separated by the long tables of food (literally a buffet buffer), so there wasn’t as much friendly jawing as we would have liked, but it is only Monday.

It was interesting watching people watch Poly—there were a few coaches on our side of the buffet table who spent most of the afternoon craning their necks to get a better look at the players.  When Dr. John Dahlem (past president of the CIF-SS) gave his history speech to kick things off, he spent about half of his time talking about Poly, referencing a 1920 victory over Phoenix High School in the Southwestern US Championship—by a score of 102-0.  Then Pete Carroll took the stage and gave a ten-minute motivational speech encouraging the kids to take on the USC philosophy and compete in every moment of their lives, while still savoring this championship week.  We’re pretty sure even the sportswriters in the room were ready to strap it on after that.

Of course, when he left the stage he made a bee-line for the Poly table, greeting the coaches and players, and congratulating them on the 1920 victory, which was just a little more impressive than his team’s win over UCLA last Saturday.  After everyone had eaten, and all the coaches and players had been introduced, we got a chance to talk more with Poly’s coaches about their upcoming opponent, Tesoro, as well as with the kids from the team, who were looking loose and relaxed.  We chatted with Tesoro coach Brian Barnes after, and he of course had nothing but good things to say about the ‘Rabbits, perhaps fearing early-week bulletin board material.  “They’re great,” he said, “and they’ve been to the championship more years than our school has even been around.”

Morgan Fennell had the quote of the day, right before everybody left, when he dismissed conventional wisdom that Poly’s size is what has led to their program’s success: “When they actually see us, they think we aren’t that big.  I can’t tell you how many times people see George [who’s under six foot tall] and they ask, ‘Is that really your middle linebacker?’  And I say yeah, just wait till he hits you.  We ain’t giants.  We just got giant hearts.” 

To quote Pete Carroll: “Awesome.”  It’s going to be a great week, and the luncheon was the perfect way to start it.  Stay tuned over the next five days as we bring you feature stories on more Poly players, and break down, in great detail, what we’ve seen of Tesoro’s offense and defense on tape—we’ll have some great stuff for you to watch for this Saturday at Angel Stadium, in the champ-ee-ohn-shiiiiip!