NICK’S KNACK : Cappelletti’s Son Making Name for Himself on Other Side of the Line

The comparisons between Nick Cappelletti and his dad, John, the 1973 Heisman Trophy winner, pretty much end with the last name.

When Nick Cappelletti steps on the field Saturday night in the Southern Section Division V championship game for top-seeded Santa Margarita’s football team, he will be doing so as his own man, not as John’s son.

Nick goes into this game against Tustin at Cal State Fullerton trying to help the Eagles win their second consecutive Division V title. He also sees it as a potential end to his own modest football career.

“This season has meant everything to me,” Cappelletti said. “I’ve worked hard to be the best football player I can potentially be.

“This could be the last game I ever play. That’s the way I look at it.”

The only Division I college recruiting him is Penn State--John’s alma mater. He already has ruled out the Nittany Lions, but might walk on at San Diego or San Diego State.

“I don’t really like it if [my name] is the only reason why they’re doing it,” Cappelletti said. “I don’t want to go there because I’ll only be in his shadow.”

The family name can be a touchy subject with Nick.

“Sometimes it’s a distraction; because of my last name, they’re my best friend or they don’t like me because they don’t like my dad,” he said.

Nick Cappelletti is the anchor of Santa Margarita’s defense, which has given up only seven first-half touchdowns this season and nine through three quarters. That statistic is important because the Eagles usually have halftime leads that enable reserves plenty of second-half playing time. Their average margin of victory is 36.2 points.

By linebacker standards, Cappelletti is small at 5 foot 11, 175 pounds. His father, a halfback, played at 6-1, 218, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and played eight seasons in the NFL, including four with the Rams. He now is a marketing representative for an Irvine company.

But if John deserved accolades as a player, Nick deserves accolades for reaching his own level of success. This is his second season as a starter, but he wasn’t allowed to play tackle football until he reached high school, and it showed.

“He was a freshman on our B team, and people are thinking, ‘Geez, he can’t even make our A team,’ ” Santa Margarita Coach Jim Hartigan said. “You see the name Cappelletti and you expect him to be a star right away or be a running back, but he’s earned his own name and respect; everything he’s gotten, he has earned.”

As a sophomore, Cappelletti was the junior varsity’s defensive MVP. He has gotten the most out of his physical abilities. His dad hasn’t gotten in the way, hasn’t embarrassed him, hasn’t tried to gain him special favor.

“He’s good about letting me do what I want,” Nick Cappelletti said of his father. “He doesn’t pressure me. He’s not a football dad at all. He’s calm, stays in the background, doesn’t say much. He lets the coach coach.”

Maybe all one needs to know about the Cappelletti home is that John’s Heisman Trophy shares mantel space alongside the Little League, soccer and football trophies of his four sons, ages 8-17.

“If I never really had a football career,” John Cappelletti said, “would Nicholas have gone on to do what he did with or without me? I think he would have.

“I can’t expect that [kind of success] from anybody. They have one shot at this and it has to be their shot, not mine. I don’t want them to feel they have to match up to that.

“These are two completely different lives we’re talking about. What I did in the past has no substantial effect on him.”

But Nick Cappelletti does have a substantial effect on Santa Margarita’s defense, which is often overshadowed by its high-powered, flashy offense.

The defense asks the linemen to occupy blockers and entrusts the linebackers to make most of the tackles. Cappelletti has a team-high 149. He will need a few more to stop second-seeded Tustin (also 13-0) and its tailback, DeShaun Foster, who has scored 53 touchdowns and is averaging 10.4 yards per carry.

“In [Santa Margarita’s] 4-3 front, very few teams are going to line up in an I formation and run the blast [with the fullback leading] at Cappelletti and have success, because you’re not going to have success,” Woodbridge Coach Rick Gibson said. “He controls tackle to tackle better than anybody we’ve seen this year.”

Tustin, by the way, does run Foster out of the I formation as well as the double wing.

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Tonight’s Championship Games

SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION II

Chino Hills Ayala (11-1) vs. Palos Verdes Peninsula (13-0), 7:30 p.m., Cal State Fullerton

SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION III

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (11-2) vs. Arroyo Grande (9-3), 7:30 p.m., Pierce College

SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION IV

Riverside North (12-1) vs. Chino (11-1), 7:30 p.m., Citrus College

SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION VI

Hacienda Heights Wilson (12-1) vs. Bell Gardens (12-1), 7:30 p.m., Cerritos College

SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION VIII

La Mirada (13-0) vs. Laguna Hills (12-1), 7:30 p.m., La Mirada

SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION XI

Lancaster Paraclete (12-1) vs. Banning (9-4), 7 p.m. at Nicolet Middle School

SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION XII

Brentwood (11-2) vs. Arrowhead Christian (10-3), 7:30 p.m., University of Redlands