Hell Week Underway at La Cañada

Traditionally known as Hell Week, high school football teams begin to put the finishing touches before the season starts in just a few weeks.

Coming off of a three-week mandatory dead period, coach Dan Yoder wasted little time getting his team out to practice Monday morning.

“We did our traditional Midnight Madness. We started at 12:01 a.m. We had them out here run a little bit and I was pretty impressed with the shape the guys showed up in.” 

Quarterback Battle

The Spartans find themselves in a good situation with two junior quarterbacks competing for the starting job in Matt Jones and Grant Owen.

“There’s different strengths that each bring to the table. I’d love to be able to mold them into one kid. There’s still a competition going on and both of them look good,” Yoder said.

Jones and Owen said the competition has made them better.

“We’ve been competing since Spring. I couldn’t ask for a better competitor,” Jones said. “We’re remaining good friends. It is good competition. We’re pushing each other the whole way. Whoever gets the spot gets the spot and there’s no hard feelings.”

Owen said he will be happy regardless of the outcome.

“Competing for it is interesting because we’re good friends,” Owen said. “To me it doesn’t matter who wins as long as the best man wins and the best team is on the field.”

Regardless, the Spartans will have two returning players with quarterback experience next season.

“It’s definitely going to help next year. Experience can’t hurt,” Jones said. “We’re always going to get better out here.”

Owen agreed.

“This year will be a learning curve, but hopefully we can learn fast and hopefully with a year under our belts, we’ll do better next year,” Owen said.

Great Attitude

At the end on Monday night’s practice session the coaching staff had the team run a number of sprints. Nobody was more intense than senior lineman Marty Vardanian.

Vardanian won every single sprint amongst his group of linemen.

Yoder praised Vardanian for his work ethic.

“You can see it in everything he does. Sometimes you almost have to ask him to tone it down a notch because he’s so intense all the time,” Yoder said. “He’s a winner. He wants to win. He gets angry when we’re not (winning). He’s got that competitive fire that you can’t coach. He brings that to the weight room. In sprints he’s competitive. A lot of times you’ll see the kid that wins the first couple of sprints or the last couple of sprints. He wins all the sprints. His actions are inspirational. That’s what we’re looking for, a guy who will lead by his actions.”

Four questions with senior lineman Marty Vardanian

Q: How would you assess how things look with the team so far?

A: We’ve got a lot of dedicated guys this year. Everyone is working hard in the conditioning we just finished. Everybody was pushing it. Nobody was lagging it. I was happy about that.

Q: You seem like you are in excellent condition. What have you been doing the last three weeks? You seemed to have done very well. What have you done to keep yourself in shape?

A: I’m a dedicated wrestler as well as a football player. I go to wrestling camps, always conditioning trying and to always get better at. I went to a couple of camps this year to help me. It’s just mental toughness when it comes down to it. It’s my senior year and I want to do all I can do.

Q: Where do you see yourself fitting in with this team?

A: I want to play left guard. I’ve played left guard all three years on varsity. This year they moved from D-line to middle linebacker. Hopefully I’ll do well there.

Q: What is the outlook for the team as a whole?

A: I think we’re going to shock people because they are underestimating us as a small team. With all the dedication we have out here, I think we’re going to surprise some people and win against some big teams.

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