Football Players of the Year
- 12-18-2004
- By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions
Sometimes sports, as in life, comes full circle for an athlete. For others there might be an unexpected change in direction.
Take, for examples, St. Augustine quarterback Jason Forcier and Oceanside defensive lineman Russell Tialavea, the Breitbard All-CIF Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year. Forcier and Tialavea headline the Breitbard All-CIF first and second teams selected by a vote of selected San Diego media.
Forcier’s honor brought full circle his return to San Diego. He grew up playing Pop Warner football in San Diego and Carlsbad, but then he played his first three years of high school football in Orange County at Santa Ana Mater Dei. In his homecoming season as a senior at St. Augustine, the Michigan-bound quarterback, a 6-foot-2, 205-pounder, accounted for 48 touchdowns passing and running while totaling 3,724 yards offense.
”It’s funny,” Forcier said. “When I was at the PPR show (Prep Pigskin Report Silver Pigskin Gala), people thought I was the new guy in San Diego, but what they don’t remember is I probably played Pop Warner against a lot of those guys.”
Forcier completed 189-of-307 (.612) passes for 2,770 yards and 36 touchdowns, rushed 80 times for 919 yards and 12 touchdowns and caught two passes for 35 yards.
"I knew when Jason was coming down to play quarterback for Saints, we had special young man and that San Diego has probably never seen a quarterback who can do everything the way he can run and throw," said St. Augustine coach Jerry Ralph. "He can make the impossible plays and kept pulling them off week after week."
Foricer originally gave Arizona State an oral commitment, but that was when Michigan wasn't expected to recruit a quarterback in this year's class. When Michigan made a late bid for Forcier, the kid who grew up watching Michigan games with his father, who is from the Detroit area, changed his mind.
Michigan even sent quarterbacks coach Scott Loeffler to Saints' quarterfinal playoff game at Brawley, a 35-33 loss, to see Forcier play one more time.
"I told them Brawley was about two hours from San Diego," Forcier said of the Imperial Valley desert school. "If traveled to see me in that game, I knew they were serious."
Tialavea’s story was one of breaking away from his family's football roots. His father, Richard, and three uncles, Robert, Donald and J.T., all played football at El Camino, the cross-town rival of Oceanside, once the North County city’s only high school.
”I followed some of my cousins to Oceanside, and I have no regrets,” Tialavea said. “I had a great time at Oceanside, playing for Coach (John) Carroll. There are Samoan players at El Camino and Oceanside, but there have been Polynesian football players at Oceanside for a long time; I enjoyed being a part of that.”
The BYU-bound Tialavea, a 6-3, 280-pounder who played both ways, was recruited as a defensive lineman for his quickness, size, and strength. He played the championship game with a shoulder injury that required him to wear a harness, but he finished the year with 13 sacks, 72 total tacles, 30 unassisted tackles and five fumble recoveries. He was in on 30 tackles behind the line of scrimmage and hurried the quarterback’s throw 53 times.
In Oceanside’s point system, assigning points for various defensive categories, Tialavea was the first defensive lineman to lead Oceanside’s defense in Carroll’s 16 seasons at the school.
”Russell is the most dominant defensive lineman I’ve had the pleasure to coach at Oceanside,” Carroll said. “He has the combination of quickness, size and natural strength. That’s a deadly combination for a defensive lineman.”
Repeat first-team members of the Breitbard All-CIF team are Brawley running back Zay Shepherd and Monte Vista defensive end Clinton Snyder. Shepherd was also named the state's Medium Schools Player of the Year by CalHiSports.com.
Other repeat members of the first or seconds team are Hilltop receiver Kevin Pike, West Hills receiver Ryan Sevier, Monte Vista running back Darrell Mack, Chula Vista running back Larry Richardson and Marian Catholic lineman Angel Carillo.
The Breitbard All-CIF team has been sanctioned as the official All-CIF team of the CIF San Diego Section since the section office’s inception in 1960, when the section split off from the Southern Section.
Breitbard Star-of-the-Month plaques have been awarded to San Diego high school athletes since 1946, when Bob Breitbard founded the Breitbard Athletic Foundation and San Diego Hall of Champions.
