New turf has the coach beaming
By DANIEL ARCHULETA Managing Editor
SAMOHI It may sound like big talk from a coach whose team is coming off a 2-8 season, but Santa Monica College’s head coach Robert Taylor has set his sights high.
While most of the team is comprised of freshman, his backfield is populated by sophomores that could potentially lead the way to a big season.
It may be early, but the team remains mighty optimistic.
“We expect to win the [conference] championship because I never set the standards lower,” Taylor said while his team was practicing at Santa Monica High School on Wednesday. “I could stand here and say if we won three games that would be better than two, but I’m not like that. We always set our standards high and the highest we could be is to win the championship and maybe make it into the state playoffs.
“We’ll see what happens with that.” The Corsair’s most recent conference title came in 2003, but the years since have been tough for the veteran coach who has been at the helm since 1994. This season will see the team join a new conference. SMC will now play in the western division of the American Conference. The Corsairs previously competed in the Western State Conference.
He attributes much of his confidence to the fact that his squad’s morale appears to be higher than in years past.
“I think their attitude is better,” Taylor said. “Losing breeds a negative attitude. The team has been pretty positive [this off-season]. We’ve been positive about some of the things we need to do.”
Taylor will get an enhanced sense of where his Corsairs stand when they scrimmage themselves on Saturday. But, the true test for this young team will come later this month when they scrimmage Long Beach City College, a team that has traditionally been among the best in Southern California.
“I’m just excited to see (the team) finally get on the field and see if we line up right,” Taylor said.
If this season is going to go as Taylor hopes, the arm of sophomore quarterback Luqman Nasouf is going to have to carry a heavy load. Nasouf played sparingly as a freshman, but he and his coach believe that his time on the sidelines will serve him well as he assumes a leadership role.
“He was second string last year, we didn’t know too much about him,” Taylor said. “This year he’s made a big improvement. He’s stuck in there and he’s going to have a great season.”
Nasouf is looking forward to putting last season’s poor showing in the past and moving ahead toward better days.
“We’d really like to win a ring this year,” the sophomore signal caller said.“That’s been our goal since last year ended.”
To accomplish this lofty goal, Nasouf is relying on a pair of standout tailbacks to help him lead the offense to the much ballyhooed — and rarely visited — promise land.
“We’ve got our main backs back including Bruce Hall and Cedric Hayes,” he said. “We have a lot of weapons.”
Among those weapons is a particular freshman with the DNA of an All-Pro NFL safety running through his veins. Edwin Reed, younger brother of Baltimore Ravens star Ed Reed, gives Taylor and the rest of the team reason to be optimistic. The coach considers the wide receiver to be the fastest player on the team and sees major things in his future.
“I expect him to be one of the more exciting players in (junior college) football, not just the conference,” Taylor said. “He’s a serious ball player.”
Joining Reed at wideout will be sophomore Josh Martin, who was an honorable mention all-conference player last season.
“He’s a long ball hitter,” he said. Putting up points may help the Corsairs stay in most ball games, but shutting down opponents will have to be a priority for this young team.
The defense will be anchored by line-backer Charlie Hatchet, a first team all-conference performer last season. Joining him in the middle will be Jamal Bernard, a sophomore defensive end who was all-conference in 2006, but was forced to sit out 2007 due to academic ineligibility. Taylor said he was the most recruited player on that ‘06 squad and should regain the form that made him attractive to scouts.
Bernard’s is not an uncommon story. Junior college athletics have traditionally been plagued by underachieving student-athletes who struggle to keep their grades up.
“All these guys have to do is what they did-n’t do in high school,” Taylor said. “We have kids that have graduated high school, but they are reading on a seventh-grade level.”
Taylor said that SMC does everything they can to ensure that athletes live up to their academic commitment all while trying to make them better ball players.
“We have every tutoring program known to man at Santa Monica College,” he said.“All of these kids can get all that they need to succeed in academics.”
There are times that the coach, who has big dreams for his team on the football field, has to put all of that aside and focus on getting players to understand that life is more than just sports.
“We preach academics more than we do football,” he said. “All of them want to get scholarships, but if your grades aren’t right, you aren’t going anywhere.”
He said that sophomores are more prone to take school seriously, but is constantly struggling with freshman to get them to understand that hitting the books is just as important as hitting an opposing ball carrier.
“That is something that helps them,” he said. “It takes them about a year to get a light bulb in their heads that they have to go to school. I have yet to see what will happen with this group (of freshman).”
Taylor and his Corsairs will get their chance to see first-hand what this year’s edition of SMC football will look like Sept. 6 against Orange Coast College in the season opener. The team’s first four games will be on the road, a fact that has the coach a little concerned. While taking to the road for so many early season games is a bleak prospect, there is a silver lining.
SMC is currently replacing the playing surface at Corsair Field. Gone is the sod surface that was widely considered less than perfect and in its place comes artificial turf.
“It’s a godsend,” Taylor said of the new turf.“When it is built, it will be the best thing athletically that has happened to the college since it was built.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 22, 2008. Read the original PDF.