QB Katz leads a veteran team onto the field tonight
By GERRY SHIH I Special to the Daily Press
If success is the best revenge, then revenge, as the 2007 Santa Monica Vikings will tell you, is a dish best served cold.
Second-year head coach Zach Cuda seems to have thoroughly inculcated a cool, steely intensity in his charges, as the Santa Monica High football team launches its bid for Ocean League dominance this Friday at home against Huneme High School. Around the team there is a palpable feeling that this year’s squad is driven not soley out of ambition — but also out of spite after CIF officials last year selected deadlocked rivals Morningside High School to advance to the playoffs at Samohi’s expense.
After being decimated by injuries at the start of last season, the Vikes’ stumbled through its calendar until players recovered before the eighth game of the season, and the rejuvenated roster went on to outscore its opponents 142-45 in the final three regular season games. The dramatic wins included a 63-35 rout of eventual league co-champions and perennial powerhouse Culver City High School, but even that wasn’t enough to secure a playoff berth in the eyes of the CIF.
“We felt like we were playing as good as anybody,” Cuda said of the sour end to the season, but acknowledged the motivation that could be drawn from disappointment. “We’re not leaving it up to question this year. We’ve got to win early and often, and we’re not going to leave it up to somebody who’s never seen us play.”
Cuda knows the powerful benefit of playing with a chip on the shoulder, and indeed, the key players seem to all echo Cuda.
“We have to take care of business early and leave nothing in someone else’s hands,” said third-year starting quarterback, senior Ryan Katz, an Oregon State recruit. “It starts from game one, all the way to game ten.”
Much of the business will be taken care of by defensive cornerstone Max Monbouquette, an omnipresent senior middle linebacker who embodies his class — a collection of players lockstep with Cuda’s no-nonsense approach and looking to lead by example after weathering the rollercoaster ride of last season as juniors.
“It was rocky but we’ve been working since the end of last season,” Monbouquette said.“[The seniors] have led and put in a ton of work and it’s been a flawless transition. We’ve kept pretty much everything we had last year and added onto it.”
While Monbouquette looks to top his team-leading 90 tackles from last year, a strong secondary with three returning starters will likely lessen his burden. The returning two cornerbacks and strong safety, Al-Rilwan Adeyami, Terry Wilson, and Taylor Wright, respectively, will need to utilize their experience to survive in the famously pass-heavy Ocean League.
On the flip side, an excellent example of the league’s aerial prowess lies in Katz, a mobile signal caller who has long been identified as one of the area’s most promising talents. Recruited by Oregon State since his sophomore year, Katz justified the interest shown in him with an explosive end to last year and rounded out the season with an impressive 60 percent completion rate.
This year, the Vikings will look toward 5-foot-6, 140-pound senior receiver Jon Dunn to convert Katz’s passing ability into passing yards, as well as return kicks on special teams.
Cuda said that his number one slot receiver presents a bit of a mismatch for defenses: Bigger linebackers struggle to track him across the middle, while quick-er cornerbacks find him, well, also too fast to chase down the perimeter.
There is also good chemistry between thrower and catcher, who have worked on their timing for nine years. Dunn said he has been best friends with Katz on and off the field since they two were in third grade, when they began playing together in Pop Warner football.
Surveying his roster, Cuda said he is very satisfied with the emergence of his key players as well as his team’s ability to circumvent another potential injury crisis like last year.
“We’re deeper than ever,” he said. “The numbers are better, we have more kids who have worked in the weight room and are varsity-ready.”
The consensus from coaches around the league is that everyone’s schedules are tough from top to bottom: Culver City, Beverly Hills, Inglewood, Morningside, and Santa Monica are all championship contenders, while the Vikings have also set their targets on making a statement against early-season rivals Venice High School, who defeated the Vikings last year, 23-48.
When asked about his expectations, Cuda said he realistically sees the team going 8-2 and carefully left a margin of two games’ worth of error, typifying his cold, methodical approach even as his assistants tried to cajole him into stating “10-0” for the record.
But on Wednesday afternoon, as Cuda turned his back to run a sprint drill with taut efficiency, assistant coach Jerry Black leaned in as the head coach looked elsewhere and offered his opinion with a wink.
“I really think we can we go undefeated.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 7, 2007. Read the original PDF.