Riley Getting Ringing Endorsements

Pardon Bernard Riley if he feels as if he’s entering tonight’s season opener against Los Angeles Washington carrying the weight of the entire Los Alamitos football team on his broad shoulders.

All the sudden attention he’s receiving has been dizzying.

Student Sports Magazine calls the 6-foot-3, 305-pound defensive lineman the “top prospect in the state and one of the nation’s top two DLs.”

Street and Smith’s concurs, saying Riley, a senior, is “attracting widespread recruiting interest.”

And on Sept. 1, the first day college football coaches could contact him, according to NCAA rules, the telephone at his home “rang real bad,” according to Riley.

Pressure? Riley says he feels none. But he also doesn’t feel as if he deserves such attention, at least not yet.

“I think I’m good but not the best,” Riley said. “I’d love to be the best, although in my mind I can still see myself getting better in my all-around game.”

Outgoing, polite and thoughtful, Riley answers questions respectfully, with “yes sirs” and “no sirs.” But on the field he has developed a reputation as a force who can’t be blocked, a leader by example who dominates opponents.

A second-team Times’ all-county lineman in 1997, Riley recorded 122 tackles for the Griffins, who finished 9-3 after advancing to the Division I quarterfinals.

He also scored seven touchdowns, lining up at fullback in Los Alamitos’ goal-line offense. This season, he expects to see some action at tight end.

“He’s very quick. He’s improved a million percent over last year,” Griffin Coach John Barnes said. “Right now, he looks like an NFL guy on the field. He doesn’t look like a high school or college player.”

Barnes and Riley agree that Los Alamitos scrimmages have been spirited at times.

“He puts a lot of pressure on our offensive line,” Barnes said. “There’s nobody who can really block him. I can’t imagine that any offensive line we face this year will see two better defensive players than Bernard and Sagan Atuatasi.”

Atuatasi, 6 feet 3, 300 pounds, and Riley are expected to provide a formidable defensive front for the Griffins, who are eager to begin the season at 7 tonight at Cerritos Gahr High.

“We just want to see how good we really are,” Riley said. “We don’t know if we have prepared enough or if we’re over-prepared. You never know. We just want to be the best we can be.”

Riley is relatively new to football. He grew up playing baseball and didn’t care for football until he entered ninth grade at Brentwood Liberty Union High in Northern California.

A year later, his mother, Cindy, accepted a transfer with the phone company where she worked and the family moved to Southern California. Riley enrolled at Los Alamitos and became a starting defensive lineman as a 270-pound sophomore.

By the time Riley showed up to fall football practice in 1997, he was well over 300 pounds. Although he had what many would consider a stellar junior season, the extra weight made him uncomfortable, he said. When last spring rolled around, Riley went out for the track team to get some additional exercise.

“Physically, his weight is the same, but he is quicker and stronger and faster,” Barnes said.

Riley is producing in intangible ways too.

“He has great character and he’s a great team leader,” Barnes said.

Riley, who would like to become an architect, said he has narrowed his list of college choices to about eight, including UCLA and USC. But he realizes, he said, no matter where he goes, he’ll be just another player among many large players, rather than the biggest guy around. That makes this, his senior year, all the more important.

“When I get to college I know there will be 20 guys like me on the team,” he said. “Right now, I have to take advantage of my size while I can.”