Local football teams get closer, prepare for season ahead in Surf City passing tournament
The calendar will soon flip to August, bringing with it the excitement of high school football.
Huntington Beach High’s football team showed signs of coming together on Saturday, when the program hosted the Surf City Passing Tournament on campus.
The Oilers notched wins over Valencia West Ranch, Covina Charter Oak and Riverside JW North to advance through pool play, before falling to finalist Western in bracket play. El Toro topped Western to win the passing tournament.
Freshman Brady Edmunds and senior Zain Bhakta took the snaps at quarterback for the Oilers. Huntington Beach coach Brett Brown said the competition for the starting job remains ongoing.
Edmunds, who stands at 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds, has received a lot of attention this summer. He already has offers from Arizona State and Connecticut.
A couple of returners are expected to lead the Huntington Beach receiving corps in seniors Musashi Ray and Hunter Gray.
With a standout offensive lineman in Justin Tauanuu leading in pass protection, the Oilers believe they have more possibilities on that side of the ball.
“We joke, myself and our coaching staff, that he’s our Trent Williams,” Brown said, comparing Tauanuu to the All-Pro offensive tackle of the San Francisco 49ers. “It’s nice to have a guy like that that is so versatile. He’s a good run blocker, good pass blocker. Last year in the playoffs, we put him at tight end a little bit, so we could move him around.
“He’s not only a big dude, but he’s an unbelievable athlete for how big he is, how well he runs and moves and bends and all kinds of stuff. He’s a special kid that you don’t have all the time.”
Tauanuu, a 6-foot-6, 285-pound senior, committed to Stanford in June.
An offensive line competition featured stations for bench press, power cling, tire flipping and plate pushing. The Oilers came away victorious in two of the most popular events of the day, a tug-of-war and a hotdog-eating contest.
Senior defensive lineman Sean Marella devoured six hotdogs in five minutes to win the competition. His teammates then chased him down with a championship belt.
“They’re cheering each other on,” Brown said. “It’s really cool to see. We have such a close group of guys. They really care about each other, and they’re battling for each other.”
Fountain Valley and Ocean View were also among the local contingent in the passing tournament. The teams squared off in pool play, with the Barons pulling out a 28-12 win over the Seahawks.
Both squads return their starting quarterbacks from a year ago. Fountain Valley’s Noa Banua and Ocean View’s Frankie Armenta are entering their senior seasons.
Fountain Valley advanced to the final of the silver bracket after going 1-2 in pool play, where it fell to Tesoro 34-12.
Ocean View has a new coach in Daniel Hernandez. He has history with the Seahawks, as he was on former head coach Luis Nunez’s staff in 2012 and 2013. More recently, Hernandez served as the offensive coordinator at Santa Fe Springs St. Paul for the last four seasons.
Hernandez said numbers are on the rise in the Ocean View football program, adding that he wants to instill a culture of trust from the start. He said his team has challenged itself on the seven-on-seven circuit.
“We don’t back down from anybody,” Hernandez said. “People are going to beat us. That’s great. It’s going to happen. It’s part of the game. You’re going to win some games, you’re going to lose some, but I want my kids to constantly compete. We won’t ever lay down for anybody. We won’t back down to anybody, and that’s my mentality.”
CdM’s Kaleb Annett commits to Boise State
Kaleb Annett, a senior quarterback at Corona del Mar, has committed to play football at Boise State.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pounder took to Twitter to make the announcement on Tuesday. The post included a hype video displaying Annett in the Broncos’ uniform.
As a junior, Annett completed 58.9% of his passes for 1,412 yards. He had 11 passing touchdowns and six interceptions. He saw action in nine games at the quarterback position, making a handful of starts in place of then-starter David Rasor.
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