Santa Maria St. Joseph running back is overlooked, underrated
Averaging 14.4 yards a carry, with 31 touchdowns and 1,827 yards rushing, KJ Cusack from Santa Maria St. Joseph is a running back who deserves respect, if not admiration, for what he can do when the ball is in his hands.
He has 4.5 40-yard speed, knows how to follow his blockers, and anyone naive enough to kick the ball toward him on a punt or kickoff is playing with fire. He has touchdown runs of 99, 85, 78 and 71 yards, returned a kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown and has punt returns of 87, 70 and 67 yards. Last season in a single game, he returned two kickoffs for touchdowns, returned a punt for a touchdown and returned an interception for a touchdown.
But if you really want to see the many talents of the 5-foot-9, 165-pound Cusack, get him to offer an invitation to his parents’ 350-acre ranch in Arroyo Grande. There’s a pond stocked with bass and bluegill for fishing, plus motorcycles and ATVs for action sports, not to mention a Jacuzzi and basketball court. And he’s starting to raise cattle.
Cusack also has a hunting license and owns a 12-gauge shotgun and 22-caliber rifle. Quails and rabbits, beware.
“Actually, I’m a pretty good shot,” he said by phone this week.
He would gladly invite some of the friends he made from Gardena Serra last summer attending camps and combines to drop by the ranch on their way to Santa Maria for tonight’s Northwest Division semifinal playoff game between two 12-0 teams.
“We have a cabin they can stay in,” he said.
Santa Maria is 137 miles from downtown Los Angeles, which is probably the reason Cusack is the most overlooked top running back in the Southern Section.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UC Davis and the Air Force are the schools pursuing him, but his coach, Mike Hartman, said, “There’s guys all over the NCAA that are smaller guys who have found their niche and are producing. KJ is one of those guys under the radar. Someone is going to get a real steal.”
It’s rare a football official takes the time to send me an e-mail insisting he has seen a special player, and that’s what I received regarding Cusack, who is well-known in Santa Maria because his father, Pat, owns a couple of car dealerships and was a walk-on at Notre Dame. His uncle is former major leaguer Robin Ventura.
Cusack constantly offers thanks to his offensive line.
“It’s fun to be recognized, but everyone forgets what the line does,” he said. “They’re everything to me. They’re the ones who make the holes. I just run. I just move my feet. They do the battle for me.”
St. Joseph has been largely overlooked as virtually everyone prepares for an expected Serra-Westlake Village Oaks Christian championship game.
But Cusack and his lifelong friends in Santa Maria are trying to crash the championship party. And it’s a rare opportunity for a teenager to convince others of his ability. Imagine what will happen if Cusack outruns and outplays the likes of USC-bound Robert Woods and highly recruited George Farmer of Serra.
“It’s great to be playing against players with equal speed to you, and it’s a great test,” Cusack said. “I know they won’t back down, and it’s going to be a four-quarter, hard-hitting brawl.”
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