Quarterback Rix Becomes Third to Transfer to Santa Margarita

Highly touted quarterback Chris Rix began practicing with Santa Margarita High’s football team this week and is expected to play for the Eagles in the fall.

Rix, who has made an oral commitment to attend Florida State, was at practice Tuesday morning and participated in a four-way passing league game Tuesday night.

Rix (6 feet 4, 200 pounds) played last season at La Puente Bishop Amat and the Lancers (11-1-1) reached the Southern Section Division I semifinals.

He passed for more than 1,500 yards and 13 touchdowns. Rix, a preseason all-American in four national publications, was rumored to be heading to several schools, including Division I powers Mater Dei and Los Alamitos.

“He’s accurate, moved the ball well, has a strong arm; he looked good,” Santa Margarita Coach Jim Hartigan said.

“We can do some of the same things we did when we had Carson [Palmer, who started last season at USC as a freshman]. We can do it just as well with Chris as we did with Carson.”

Rix is the third impact player to transfer to Santa Margarita, which reached last season’s Division VI title game. Two running backs, Costa Mesa’s Jimmy Herzog and Irvine’s Dave Doomey, also transferred. Herzog (1,502 yards, 18 touchdowns), a senior, was the county’s 10th-leading rusher, and Doomey (1,149 yards, 13 touchdowns), a junior, averaged 6.0 yards per carry.

“I’ve been here 13 years, and we get very few transfers,” Hartigan said. “I can only remember two kids in 13 years who were impact players, [quarterback] Chris Collins, who was injured half his career, and [running back] Bryant Wolfsberger. If you count these three and those two, I don’t think that’s very many.”