Orange County Prep Player of the Week : Cheatham Meets His Match Against Greeney

If Jeff Greeney, a Los Amigos High School middle linebacker and running back, seems nonchalant about his fine performance last week, forget it.

Beneath those shrugging shoulder pads and that ‘Who, me? ‘ attitude is a guy who knows that he not only did the job, he did the job against Rancho Alamitos Thursday: keeping running back Sean Cheatham, the state scoring leader, from running away with another high-scoring victory.

Greeney, The Times’ Player of the Week, couldn’t completely shut down Cheatham, who gained 207 yards in 35 carries and scored 2 touchdowns. But Greeney had 18 tackles and helped slow down Cheatham.

Greeney upstaged Cheatham on the scoreboard, too. He rushed for 106 yards in 16 carries for 3 touchdowns in leading Los Amigos to a 24-14 Garden Grove League victory.

This season, Greeney, a senior, has rushed for 317 yards in 67 carries and has scored 6 touchdowns for the Lobos (2-3, 1-1).

“We had warned Sean about Jeff,” said Mark Miller, Rancho Alamitos coach. “We knew he was tough. Our plan was to run straight at him to neutralize his quickness. But he (Greeney) was all over the field. I’ve never seen him play this well before.”

Greeney said he has been priming himself for such an opportunity since he first saw an article about Cheatham in the newspaper.

“When I saw him, I said, ‘Man, if he can be there, I can be there too,’ ” Greeney said. “Also, I think a lot of us (defensive players) are tired of seeing how much he gets away with. Someone had to stop him.”

Greeney watched Rancho Alamitos’ game films several times before the game and noted that Cheatham’s success depends entirely on the number of times he carries the ball, an average of about 27 per game.

“It was obvious there’s only one way to win against Rancho,” Greeney said. “Stop the guy.”

As defensive team captain, Greeney spent a lot of time with his teammates trying to convince them they would be the ones who would stop Rancho Alamitos.

“All week, every time we’d pass each other in the hall we’d just say, ‘Cheatham,’ or, ‘It’s Cheatham Week, let’s get him,’ ” said Jim McGovern, a cornerback. “We were all looking forward to stuffing him.”

Flanker Joon Kang said that in the four years he has known Greeney, he has never seen him as inspired as he was Thursday afternoon.

“We had a team meeting before we got on the bus,” Kang said. “Jeff is a real leader; he got everyone really psyched. He knew we had to win this game to help our pride, and if anyone was standing in the way, we’d have to get him out of the way.”

Greeney wasn’t the only one with inspiring words.

“Our coach (Art Michalik) has great head-coach speeches,” Greeney said. “You know, the kind they stay up all night thinking up. Well, basically it wasn’t a speech. It was something you have to put in earplugs for.

“But it worked, we stopped him (Cheatham) and we won. We accomplished our mission.”

Jeff Greeney

Los Amigos High School

Position: Middle linebacker / running back.

Height, Weight, Class: 6-2, 205, Sr.

Last Week: Greeney rushed for 106 yards in 16 carries for three touchdowns and made 18 tackles to lead Los Amigos to a 24-14 Garden Grove League victory over Rancho Alamitos Thursday.

Season: Greeney has rushed for 317 yards in 67 carries and scored 6 touchdowns for the Lobos (2-3, 1-1).