On a beautiful day for seven-on-seven summer football, Mason York shows he’s somebody
There couldn’t have been better playing conditions for Saturday’s Battle of the Beach seven-on-seven passing tournament at Huntington Beach Edison High. The sky was overcast, the temperature was in the upper 60s and no one was allowed to sack the quarterback.
Edison coach Jeff Grady made people laugh with his scheduling. You’d think the home team would start off with an easy opponent, like it was a homecoming game. Instead he scheduled defending Open Division state champion Bellflower St. John Bosco.
Edison won the matchup and went 4-0 in morning pool play.
It was an opportunity to see Edison’s latest “overachieving” star receiver, Mason York. Well, overachieving only in the minds of those who don’t know what good players look like.
“That is the Edison way,” York said. “Usually we have one scholarship guy on the roster, but we win games. And there’s a reason for that.”
York, 6 feet 3 and 190 pounds, is the latest Charger to work his butt off to keep getting better. He joined the track team and ran the 400 meters in 49.91 seconds this spring and improved his 200 time by more than a second while also running on two relay teams.
“I’m usually a long-speed kind of guy, so it helped me build up my quickness and get off the ball quicker, which is a big help to my game,” he said.
He caught 47 passes as a junior with nine touchdowns. He’s got college offers coming in and is approaching recruiting with an old-school attitude.
“My mom told me if I’m committing somewhere, we’re not changing,” he said. “We’re staying there and not trying to transfer out. We want to build a relationship for four years.”
Edison was beaten by Rancho Cucamonga in the opening round of the afternoon playoffs when York had to sit out because of calf tightness, but the day was one for the Chargers to be proud about.
“This is like the biggest tournament in the local area,” York said. “It has everybody who’s somebody.”
It’s time to put York in the category as “somebody.”
Champions
Bruce Rollinson is no longer Mater Dei’s football coach. The new head coach, Frank McManus, has a loud, energetic voice that was easily heard around Edison’s field on Saturday as he urged players to come through in big moments. They did just that, going unbeaten on the day and defeating Rancho Cucamonga in the championship game. Rancho Cucamonga defeated St. John Bosco in the semifinals.
Stanford-bound quarterback Elijah Brown is well known for his decision making, and combining that with receivers such as Marcus Brown and the Monarchs’ talented crew of defensive backs led to an 8-0 record.
Mater Dei has added former JSerra head coach Scott McKnight as an assistant coach in charge of special teams.
One of the individual standouts all day was receiver Jordan Ross of Downey Warren. Recently committed to Colorado State, he had several spectacular catches against Mater Dei in pool play. Warren was without quarterback Madden Iamaleava, who was competing in a volleyball tournament.
Next Saturday there will be tournaments at Mission Viejo, St. John Bosco, Simi Valley and Baldwin Park.
Stipend champion
Working for a charter school has its benefits, such as coaching stipends much better that others in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It means Lake Balboa Birmingham coach Jim Rose could receive the most money of any coach this coming season.
He’s scheduled to receive $9,500 as football coach, $6,000 as girls’ seven-on-seven flag football coach and $7,500 as softball coach for a total of $23,000. LAUSD pays football coaches $5,622 and softball coaches receive $5,024.
Husky recruiting haul
It was a huge week for the Washington Huskies football team in terms of recruiting Southern California in the class of 2024.
Cornerback Peyton Waters of Birmingham, the City Section Open Division player of the year, committed to Washington on Thursday, joining tight end Decker DeGraaf of Glendora, receivers Jason Robinson of Long Beach Poly and Justice Williams of Westlake Village Oaks Christian, and quarterback Dermaricus Davis of Etiwanda. One of Washington’s recruiters is former Woodland Hills Taft running back Lee Marks.
UCLA commit
Eric Freeny, a 6-foot-4 senior guard who helped Corona Centennial win three consecutive Southern Section Open Division basketball championships, announced his commitment to UCLA on Saturday.
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