Villasenor Small but Catch Totals Are Prodigious

Pepe Villasenor is small but his numbers are huge.

Villasenor, a 5-foot-8, 155-pound senior on the St. Bonaventure High football team, has been the region’s receptions leader the past two seasons, catching 147 passes for 1,581 yards and 14 touchdowns during that time.

Opponents have taken notice, draping the diminutive Seraph with double and even triple coverage as the season has progressed.

But Villasenor has yet to be shut down completely. Last Friday he caught five passes for 54 yards and a school-record four touchdowns in a rout of Oak Park that clinched the Tri-Valley League title.

Villasenor is the regional reception leader with 81 and is sixth in receiving yardage with 920. The latter total would be higher but the Seraph offense is based on short passes and Villasenor is often pulled from lopsided games.

St. Bonaventure (8-1-1, 3-0-1) earned the No. 3 seeding in the Southern Section Division X playoffs. The Seraphs play host to Verbum Dei (7-3) in a first-round game tonight at Ventura High.

“[Villasenor] has great feet and some unbelievable moves,” Santa Paula Coach Hoppy Mumford said. “And he’s tough. I’ve seen him get hit by some big-time players and he just bounces up and makes the first-down signal.”

Villasenor, an Oxnard native, has never lacked for confidence.

St. Bonaventure Coach Jon Mack remembers Villasenor flying into a 1993 St. Bonaventure open house for prospective students.

“He was a sawed-off bundle of energy who wouldn’t shut up,” Mack said with a laugh. “He’s about [4 feet 3] and he’s predicting championships and records to come.”

But Villasenor had to be talked into playing football when he enrolled. He caught a single pass as a freshman on the junior varsity, then became a varsity kick returner the next season.

Now, he holds St. Bonaventure records for receptions and yardage in a game (14 catches, 189 yards), season and career (174 catches, 1,759 yards).

“I believe in myself because people believe in me,” Villasenor said. “My mom, my friends, my coaches, they only look at the size of my heart.”