Vedder Isn’t Mad, It’s His Method : Football: Laguna Hills quarterback trains with Marv Marinovich and an acupuncturist.

This is a story about a high school football player. Perhaps you’ve heard it before.

He’s a quarterback. A left-hander.

He’s Orange County’s top-ranked passer.

He has followed a strict training regimen since he was young, preparing him for one thing--throwing the ball.

When he was 14, his parents pulled him out of public school and enrolled him in a private, two-days-a-week school. It gave him more time to train with his strength and conditioning coach.

He swears by acupuncture. He visualizes plays.

He works out with a private passing coach during the season.

He meditates before games. He began his high school career at Mater Dei before transferring to a South County school.

Another Todd Marinovich feature, right?

No, this is about Laguna Hills junior Justin Vedder, whose story follows a path somewhat similar to Marinovich’s.

Vedder has trained with Marinovich’s father, Marv, since moving to the county from Loveland, Colo., five years ago.

“We read about Marv in a magazine during Todd’s senior year at Capistrano Valley,” Vedder said. “Marv has become like a second father to me.”

Vedder also has developed a close relationship with Todd Marinovich, following his career at USC and now with the Raiders. The two players work out together regularly in the off-season.

“Marv always jokes about the comparisons,” Vedder said. “He used to call me ‘Little Marinovich.’ “Todd has helped me a lot on the mental aspects of the game. He has changed a lot over the years, changed for the better. Sometimes, the papers make him sound like a villain. He’s not.”

Vedder’s throwing motion and technique somewhat resemble Marinovich’s, although he’s hardly the second-coming of the RoboQB, a tag Marinovich earned for his intense training.

Marinovich finished his four-year career as Orange County’s career passing yardage leader (9,182 yards) while running high-tech offenses at Mater Dei and Capistrano Valley.

Laguna Hills uses a more conservative, ball-control offense that features running backs Dan Ciska and Fred Kim. Still, Vedder has completed 39 of 69 passes for 730 yards and nine touchdowns.

Vedder also has accomplished one thing that Marinovich didn’t--winning a Southern Section title. He led the Hawks to the Southern Section Division VII championship as a sophomore last season, beating Pacific Coast League rival Trabuco Hills, 35-28, in the finals.

The teams meet again Friday night in the league opener.

Although not flashy, Vedder, 6 feet 1 and 170 pounds, is a smart, steady passer who makes few errors. Laguna Hills Coach Steve Bresnahan even gives his quarterback some freedom when selecting plays.

Vedder has been sacked only once since he became a starter early last season, and the Hawks are 12-1-1 with him in the lineup.

He attributes much of his success to Bresnahan and his staff.

But he adds that his work with passing coach Steve Clarkson, a former San Jose State quarterback, as well as Marinovich, Dr. Bill Harrison and acupuncturist Benny Podda also made an impact.

“Justin is always looking for means to improve himself,” Marv Marinovich said. “There are a lot of athletes who don’t want to put the time in, but Justin always does what it takes. He’ll get the job done.”

Some of Vedder’s training methods border on bizarre.

Two years ago, he began working with Harrison, a Laguna Beach doctor specializing in hand-eye coordination. Among his drills:

--Following a drop of water running along a piece of string stretched across a room. The purpose is to keep his focus on a moving target such as a receiver.

--Watching rows of numbers flashing at speeds of 1/25 to 1/100 of a second on a slide projector. Vedder listed the number of times he saw a specific number or added the numbers on each row in order to increase his focus and intensity.

A year ago, Vedder began to explore acupuncture, an ancient Chinese practice of piercing body parts with needles to relieve pain.

He receives treatments once a week during the season, twice a week in the off-season. Podda also has worked with Todd Marinovich, Cal tailback Russell White, former Savanna quarterback Brad Belanger and Mater Dei linebacker Parker Gregg.

Although never seriously injured, Vedder seeks acupuncture for stiffness and sore muscles.

“It really relaxes you,” he said. “It helps a lot with injuries. I remember Todd came in a few weeks ago after the Chiefs game, and he was totally beat up. Acupuncture relaxed him, helped with the soreness.

“With me, I start to get beat up toward the end of the year. My body is fatigued. I went to (Podda) before the (section) championship game against Trabuco Hills last year.”

Besides acupuncture, Podda also works with Vedder on relaxation techniques, stretching, meditation and strength and endurance conditioning.

“Some of the things he does are a little unorthodox,” Vedder said.

Such as:

--Vedder’s breathing exercises, where he releases a breath when he throws the ball, similar to what a boxer does when throwing a punch.

The exercises are based on a Zen concept developed 3,000 years ago. The purpose is to aim Vedder’s breathing toward his target, helping him to become better focused.

--Chi Chuan, a Chinese martial art that Podda describes as a “moving meditation, where your breathing moves your body with an effortless power.”

Vedder also meditates at home or on the bus before each game.

“Benny teaches you to get your mind off the game,” Vedder said. “He’ll give you a word to remember when you’re relaxed. A word like ‘easy’ or ‘simple.’

“Then, during a game, I just say the word, and it relaxes me.”

Vedder’s training took a serious turn just before his eighth-grade year, when his parents pulled him out of an Irvine public school. They enrolled him at Pathfinder School in Mission Viejo, where he attended classes twice a week for two hours.

Vernon Vedder said the change taught his son self-discipline. Justin scheduled his study periods and completed his schoolwork on time.

It also gave Justin more time to train with Marinovich. Workouts increased from two or three times a week to five or six.

“The year at Pathfinder was pretty interesting,” Vedder said. “There were no dances, no activities, no friends except for Marv. I learned a lot that year. I learned how to schedule things for myself. Looking back, I would say it was worth it.”

Although his father encouraged him to train under Marinovich, Vedder said he feels no pressure from his parents--a subject that often arose in Todd and Marv’s relationship.

“He’s different than a lot of kids in that there’s not a lot of parental pressure on him,” Bresnahan said. “(Todd) Marinovich always had that aura of parental pressure. But Justin likes to do it on his own.”

Vedder spent his freshman year at Mater Dei, playing on the freshman team with fellow quarterback Rob Petko, now at Valencia.

Vedder was unhappy at Mater Dei, saying he “wasn’t in control.” At semester break, he decided to transfer.

“We lived in Irvine at the time, and he didn’t want to go to any of the schools there,” Vernon said. “We looked at a lot of schools--Carson, Capistrano Valley, Mission Viejo, several San Diego schools.”

They also visited Laguna Hills. Vedder and his parents liked the coaching staff and the academics. They signed a lease on a Laguna Hills home and received an inter-district transfer.

“He’s just taken in at Laguna Hills,” Vernon said. “The kids here are great. The system here is great for him. The other night, after the Garden Grove game, he told me he was having the best time of his life.”

Said Justin: “I have no regrets about transferring. I love it here at Laguna Hills.”

TRABUCO HILLS VS. LAGUNA HILLS

Featured Game When: 7 p.m. Friday Where: Mission Viejo High School. Records: Trabuco Hills (5-0); Laguna Hills (5-0). Rankings: Trabuco Hills No. 6; Laguna Hills No. 10. Noteworthy: Laguna Hills, which beat Trabuco Hills, 35-28, in the Southern Section Division VII championship game last season, has a 12-game winning streak, tied for the longest in Orange County with Los Alamitos.