Nitros still exuberant following win over rival
SOUTHEAST GLENDALE — The Glendale YMCA Quarterback Club, in its 69th year, meets Tuesdays at the Elk’s Lodge. The following are odds and ends from the first meeting of the year.
EBERHART RECAPS OPENING VICTORY
Glendale High Coach Alan Eberhart normally doesn’t bring up the subject matter of playing cross-town rival Hoover until the teams meet in the final week in the “Battle for the Victory Bell.”
That wasn’t the case Tuesday.
Glendale began its season Thursday with a 20-6 nonleague victory against Hoover at Moyse Field. Glendale and Hoover agreed shortly after last season to meet in the opening week with the hope of generating additional interest in the community.
Eberhart said things went as planned.
“It sounds strange to play Hoover in a first game,” said Eberhart, who praised the efforts of wide receiver Mike Davis, quarterback Evan Norton and running back Alex Yoon. “A lot of people came and they saw an exciting game.
“Hoover played very hard and we played real hard. We want to try to create some more excitement and things worked out well for us.”
The teams will next meet Nov. 10 in a Pacific League game.
LONG SEASON AFTER JUST TWO WEEKS
Things haven’t gone as planned for Glendale Community College during the first couple of weeks. The Vaqueros dropped nonconference road games against Pasadena City College on Sept. 3 and Golden West on Saturday and will play their first home contest at 7 p.m. Saturday against East L.A. College at Sartoris Field.
“We went into the season looking to rebuild and we didn’t have a large group of freshmen last year,” Glendale college Coach John Rome said. “Against PCC, we found out we couldn’t tackle well and they had five one-play drives and we had some turnovers.
“We did see some improvement [later in the game]. We ran and threw the ball for more than 200 yards. Against Golden West, we couldn’t run or throw well and we still didn’t tackle.”
CLUB WELCOMES NEW MEMBER
The Glendale YMCA Quarterback Club welcomed its newest addition Tuesday, as Village Christian became a member. It marked the first time that the club added a new school since 2007, when St. Francis became a member.
The Crusaders will have a representative from their team/school and will join Glendale college and Crescenta Valley, Hoover, Glendale and St. Francis highs throughout the season at the meetings.
Village Christian first-year Coach Jay Schroeder, who played quarterback at UCLA before playing in the NFL for 11 seasons, was the guest speaker at Tuesday’s meeting. Schroeder played for the Washington Redskins, Los Angeles Raiders, Cincinnati Bengals and Arizona Cardinals. He also spent several seasons playing baseball in the Toronto Blue Jays organization.
Schroeder retired from the NFL in 1994. He started only one college game at UCLA in 1980 before he was chosen in the third round of the NFL draft in 1984 by the Washington Redskins.
His first NFL game experience came in 1985 when starting quarterback Joe Theisman‘s leg was brutally broken during a game against the New York Giants, ending his career. Schroeder finished the year as the starter and the next year he passed for more than 4,000 yards en route to a Pro Bowl selection.
Schroeder started 10 league games for the 1987 Super Bowl-champion Redskins, who defeated the Denver Broncos.
“I was very fortunate to play in the NFL for 11 years, but my first love was baseball,” said Schroeder, who was named Village Christian’s coach in December. “I was recruited by every PAC-10 school and I wanted to go to USC and play baseball for [former coach and Glendale resident] Rod Dedeaux.
“I went to UCLA and then left to play baseball [with Toronto]. I came back wanting to play football and had some individual workouts and was drafted in the third round by the Washington Redskins.
“I got to play with some great players throughout my career in the NFL. The game in which I replaced Theisman was a Monday Night Football game. He gets hurt and Washington Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs says, ‘Now what do we do?’ and I’m standing right next to him. Not exactly a vote of confidence. It took 21 minutes to get Joe off the field, so I had time to find my helmet and warm up. I’d never taken a snap, so I felt like I had to introduce myself to the guys.”
