Standing under four palm trees in the quad area of Calabasas High, Los Alamitos football players have their eyes trained on coach Ray Fenton\u2019s face for more than five uninterrupted minutes.<\/p>\n
Looking to see if anyone loses focus when a mother walks by and starts yelling at her daughter, the answer is incredibly no. The players keep listening and keep their eyes directed on Fenton.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tough enough to make teenagers listen for 30 seconds to adults these days, but to see an entire football team not letting anyone or anything disturb their focus while their coach is speaking provides a hint why Los Alamitos is 7-0 and the surprise high school football team in Southern California this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has their eye on coach,\u201d offensive lineman Braiden McKenna said. \u201cIt\u2019s all the little things that keep you disciplined. Wearing your mouthpiece, keeping your eyes on him.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not true that Los Alamitos doesn\u2019t have any stars. They might not have been mentioned much in preseason hype lists, but players have performed at a high level so far.<\/p>\n
Tight end Beckham Hofland, 6 foot 5 and 230 pounds, is a load to cover and also serves as a kicker. Running backs Kamden Tillis and Lenny Ibarra are versatile and reliable. Quarterback Colin Creason, who sat out last season while transferring from Long Beach Poly, keeps improving. The offensive line, led by the veteran McKenna, who plays center, is very good. Ibarra leads the defense with 66 tackles.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Coach Ray Fenton and his 7-0 Los Alamitos football team.<\/p>\n
(Eric Sondheimer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so much easier to want to win with someone you care about and they care about you,\u201d McKenna said of the team chemistry.<\/p>\n
Los Alamitos has had more talented teams in recent years aided by transfer students. This one is mostly home grown, and Fenton couldn\u2019t be happier.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re friends,\u201d Fenton said. \u201cThey\u2019ve grown up together. You play harder with guys you\u2019re friends with. You don\u2019t want to let them down. They\u2019re Los Al kids. They take pride in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
They won in Hawaii 34-31 on tying and game-winning field goals by Ibarra, who practiced kicking the ball between two palm trees at a park. They knocked off Gardena Serra 42-21. They beat a good Granite Hills team 49-42. Seven straight wins came over seven weeks, so now they are on a two-week break to prepare for the daunting task of facing three good Alpha League opponents \u2014 Edison at SoFi Stadium on Oct. 16, at San Clemente on Oct. 24 and a finale against Mission Viejo on Oct. 30 at Artesia.<\/p>\n
They are serious contenders for a Southern Section Division 1 playoff berth even though some people still can\u2019t figure out how they keep winning.<\/p>\n
The answer is simple: they\u2019re hungry. Never underestimate a team where one teammate after another supports each other no matter the challenges, no matter the obstacles, no matter the skepticism of others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is throwback,\u201d Fenton said. \u201cIt\u2019s old school. Play for your local school, play for your community, play for your friends. The kids you played Pop Warner with are the kids you\u2019re playing high school football with. It\u2019s the way it was supposed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Standing under four palm trees in the quad area of Calabasas High, Los Alamitos football players have their…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":279652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,4160,718,21374,144539,22739,1532,2961,144540,144541,144542,224,5337,17851,81274,9323,5950,144543,144544],"class_list":["post-279651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-coach","tag-community","tag-eye","tag-fenton","tag-focus","tag-friend","tag-la","tag-lenny-ibarra","tag-los-alamitos","tag-los-alamitos-football-team","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-oct","tag-palm-tree","tag-player","tag-season","tag-talented-team","tag-veteran-mckenna"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115321964239154433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}