Mustangs finally have place to call home
As workers put the final touches on the newly built stadium at Costa Mesa High on Tuesday, the one crew that has not been able to work inside of it is the football team.
Roman Ayala said he and his teammates have been chomping at the bit to get inside the state-of-the-art stadium.
Every time the Mustangs practice next to the facility, Ayala said they admire the lights, the synthetic field and the “CM” logo stamped at midfield. Training camp opened on Aug. 8, and since then, Ayala and the Mustangs have worked out on a field that is half the size of the one next door.
“Everything is on the field,” Coach Glen Fisher said when asked why his Mustangs have been unable to use the field. “The [Orange County] health department has to sign off on the kitchen area, and, you know, they just have all the little last-minute things that they have to sign off on before they can turn the field over to us.
“It’s tough. We don’t have a place to … work on field goals or [the] PAT. We’re kicking them into the air, but more importantly, I [was] running two programs on a 50-yard field.”
The Mustangs kick off the season on a full-sized field on Friday, on the road against Orange at El Modena High at 7 p.m. The following week is Costa Mesa’s home opener, and on Wednesday, Fisher heard the news he has been eagerly waiting for since the first day of practice: the Mustangs will get to play their first home game inside the 1,000-seat stadium on Sept. 2.
“Just told we practice in the stadium starting Monday and play there next Friday,” said Fisher, adding that Jake Haley, the school principal, informed him. “Pretty darn exciting.”
Fisher said there were contingency plans in place, just in case the stadium would not be ready in time for Costa Mesa to unveil it. He can toss those away, as the Mustangs won’t have to return to Jim Scott Stadium, the venue Costa Mesa shared with archrival Estancia since 2008.
The Mustangs now have a place they can call home. As for the name of it, Fisher said to call it Mustang Field.
“It’s a brand new stadium. They’re not going to do that right now,” Fisher said of naming the stadium. “[Mustang Field is] what it should be.”
Mustangs Field is where Costa Mesa will play three of its five nonleague contests, against Santiago on Sept. 2, Los Amigos on Sept. 16 and Savanna on Sept. 23. Each of those will take place on Friday night, as will the two home dates in the Orange Coast League portion of the schedule, against Laguna Beach on Oct. 14 and Saddleback on Nov. 4.
One of the league schools — Calvary Chapel — even asked Costa Mesa if it could use its stadium for the league opener on Oct. 6.
“They wanted to do their senior night and have us be on the visitor side,” Fisher said. “We’ll just leave [the visitor side] for guests. I know I didn’t want our first [league] game on the field to be as the visitors against Calvary.”
Costa Mesa will be the away team against Calvary Chapel, even though Costa Mesa is right across the street from the site of this year’s game, Orange Coast College. The Mustangs can probably walk to the game, but it won’t be a walk in the park for them.
Calvary Chapel is the defending league champion. The Eagles capped off an undefeated league title last year by beating Costa Mesa, 34-9, in the regular-season finale, dashing the Mustangs’ slim CIF Southern Section Southern Division playoff hopes.
The season ended on a sour note for the Mustangs, who lost four in a row in league and never scored in double-digits in any of the games. Injuries to quarterback Ben Swanson (collarbone), running back Mason Mataafa (shoulder) and defensive back Josh Snipes (neck) ruined a promising 5-1 start in Fisher’s debut season with the Mustangs, who finished 5-5 overall and fifth in league at 1-4.
Swanson, a 6-foot, 165-pound junior, is back for Fisher’s second season, as is Ayala, a senior offensive tackle and linebacker, Elijah Collado, a senior wide receiver and cornerback, and Cody Merrifield, a senior running back and safety. The team lost talented players in Cameron Curet, the do-it-all playmaker, and Snipes, both first-team Orange Coast League picks, and Mataafa to graduation.
“It’s going to be the same story. We have an opportunity to get out of the gate,” said Fisher, whose first five opponents went a combined 14-37 last year. “What would slow us down would be the same thing that slowed us last year. It would be the injury bug. We just don’t have the depth. We’re very young, so we’re going to make mistakes early on. We got a lot of guys that are playing for the first time on Friday nights. Some guys played last year only, so it’s their second year of football. We could have three or four sophomores, maybe even five, that start.”
Relying on youth might be problematic for a program trying to avoid its third straight losing season in league.
Fisher said the goal for the Mustangs is to return to the playoffs after a two-year hiatus. A top-three finish in league guarantees Costa Mesa a berth into the CIF Southern Section Division 13 playoffs, the lowest division in the section.
For Costa Mesa, which shares the No. 10 spot in the Division 13 preseason poll, to play host to a playoff game in its new stadium this year, it will be something else.
“We’ve been waiting a pretty long time,” Ayala said. “Hopefully we get a first win on the new field.”
Costa Mesa Mustangs
League: Orange Coast
CIF Division: 13
Coach: Glen Fisher (second year)
Staff: Vinny Romo (offensive coordinator), Gary Gonzalez (quarterbacks), Tavis Ve’e (running backs/secondary), Dick Freeman (offensive line), Brian McHugh (defensive line), Brandan Schieppati (strength and conditioning)
2015 season: 5-5, 1-4 in Orange Coast League (fifth place)
Offensive scheme: Spread offense
Defensive scheme: 4-2-5
Returning offensive starters: Six
Returning defensive starters: Five
Returning with honors: None
SCHEDULE
August
26 – at Orange at El Modena
September
2 – Santiago
9 – at La Puente
16 – Los Amigos
23 – Savanna
October
6 – vs. Calvary Chapel* at Orange Coast College
14 – Laguna Beach*
21 – at Estancia*
28 – vs. Godinez* at Santa Ana Valley
November
4 – Saddleback*
*denotes league game
All home games at Mustang Field
All games 7 p.m.
