Blazek’s Performance So Far Has Left His Coach Awe-Struck

Football Coach John Barnes’ words are, in college recruiting circles, probably falling on deaf ears.

Zach Blazek, the county’s leading passer, is the subject.

“If he were three inches taller,” Barnes says, “every college in the world would be after the guy.”

Blazek, at 5 feet 10, 165 pounds, is putting up numbers this season that can rival any compiled previously at the quarterback factory, Los Alamitos High.

He entered the season as a question mark and has proved to be an exclamation point. He has 15 touchdown passes without an interception and a 72.6 completion percentage at the midway point of the regular season.

“For five weeks, he has been incredible,” Barnes said. “I’m in awe of what he’s done.

“This is an incredible high school success story. Nowadays, we always talk about kids and their college plans. I don’t even know if he’s big enough to play college football.”

If Blazek, who has a 3.7 grade-point average, does continue playing--and it’s a big if--it will probably be at a community college.

“I’m not going to be able to play football [at a Division I college], obviously; I’m going to go get my education,” said Blazek, a senior interested in pursuing a business degree. “I’ve thought about that many times--this might be it for me.”

The Griffins are 5-0, ranked fourth in Orange County and fifth in the Southern Section Division I poll. They open Sunset League play tonight against Esperanza at Valencia High.

“Watching [Blazek] at the JV level last year, he was good, but he wasn’t a worldbeater,” Esperanza Coach Gary Meek said. “Right now, he’s a world-beater.”

Los Alamitos is averaging 44.4 points. That number should come down once play begins in the Sunset League, which also has No. 6 Edison and No. 7 Fountain Valley among the county (and section) top 10.

Los Alamitos has entrusted Blazek to carry on the tradition of Tim Carey, Mike Good, Kevin Feterik, et al, as the Griffins try to win their fourth section title of the 1990s.

“It’s a great honor, incredible,” said Blazek, who was quarterback of a 1-9 freshman team. “You say the names of the quarterbacks that have played here before, it’s a mouthful. I remember when I was in fourth and fifth grade going to games, saying, ‘Wow, look at those guys.’ Now, I look in the stands and I wonder if there are fourth- and fifth-graders wondering that about me.”

Blazek may challenge a national record before the season ends. He has completed 85 of 117 passes this season, a 72.6% completion rate that would rank second all-time to Tim Couch of Hyden (Ky.) Leslie County, who completed 75.1% in 1994. Though he needs 275 passing attempts to qualify, anything more than 65% would get him into the top 10.

The Southern Section doesn’t keep completion percentage records, but La Puente Bishop Amat’s Pat Haden is tied for fourth nationally (67.9% in 1969).

Individual records are secondary to Blazek, whose only goal “is to go 14-0 [and] everything else will take care of itself.”

Said Barnes: “Records are not important, championships are important. If [Blazek] gets any records, it will be because he’s earned them and we’ve needed them.”

For Blazek to get 275 attempts, the Griffins probably must advance well into the playoffs.

Edison Coach Dave White thinks Blazek’s success is the result of Los Alamitos’ system, but with an important qualifier.

“One, he’s good,” said White, once a quarterback at Oregon State. “Not to take anything away from him, because he’s having a great year and will continue to have a great year, but part of it is the system. They have great receivers who have speed, and they always have a good back [who] you have to respect. They don’t have a million patterns, but what they do, they do very well.”

That’s true, though tailback Josiah Doby is injured and the slack has been picked up by a committee of other backs. Receivers Keenan Howry (31 catches, 15.9 average), Blair Havens (24 catches, 17.6 average) and Ryan Godfrey (20 catches, 17.9 average) are in the top 15 county-wide for receptions.

“I think Zach’s right there with the Los Al great ones,” said Havens, a three-year varsity player who says Blazek’s numbers don’t lie. “He’s a great leader. I admire his work ethic--he’s all business on the field and tries to get better every day.

“He’s also got a quiet confidence about him that I admire. You never hear him talking about his numbers and stats, but you can tell that inside, he knows he’s good.”

Barnes says Blazek isn’t cut from the same mold as the quarterbacks before him, but does have two outstanding attributes: “He has a very strong arm and can throw it down the field with the best of them . . . [and] he’s real smart and understands what he’s doing. The things he tells me that are going on are very intelligent observations; in that sense, he’s probably as sharp as any quarterback we’ve ever had.”

If there’s any comparison at all to previous Griffins’ quarterbacks, aside from being left-handed like Good, it’s that Blazek seems to have established himself as a playmaker in the mold of Feterik, the 1995 Times Orange County player of the year.

“He just makes plays,” Barnes said. “Maybe there isn’t much there, but he can keep the ball alive, take a hair longer, find a guy and drill it.

“I don’t know if there’s a more productive guy in Southern California right now than he is. There are probably better athletes, better passers and better quarterbacks, but to find the production and match what he’s done would be awful hard.”

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Featured Game

LOS ALAMITOS VS. ESPERANZA

When: 7 tonight.

Where: Valencia High.

Records: Los Alamitos 5-0, Esperanza 3-2.

Rankings: Los Alamitos No. 4; Esperanza is unranked.

Noteworthy: Esperanza, which has won the last two meetings, sends an inexperienced secondary to face one of the county’s best passing attacks. Los Alamitos’ front seven cannot let Esperanza’s offensive line wear them down with the running game.

In Fine Company

The record of Zach Blazek, above, through five games, and how he compares with other Los Alamitos quarterbacks of the 1990s:

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Year Quarterback Record Att Cp Pct. Yds TD Int 1997 Zach Blazek 5-0 117 85 .726 1,342 15 0 1996 Sean Stein 9-2 277 180 .650 2,547 25 4 1995 Kevin Feterik 11-2 251 174 .693 3,226 28 10 1994 Kevin Feterik 12-1 247 166 .672 2,911 27 6 1993 Mike Good 14-0 231 135 .584 2,067 26 8 1992 Tim Carey 13-0-1 236 154 .653 2,472 26 4 1991 Tim Carey 12-2 258 133 .516 1,643 13 6 1990 John Collins 6-5 239 130 .516 1,546 11 6

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