The Live Oak High football team has made the Central Coast Section playoffs for five consecutive years. Last season, the Acorns went 5-2 in the ultra-competitive Blossom Valley League’s Mount Hamilton Division and defeated Sacred Heart Cathedral—a team out of the vaunted West Catholic League—in the playoffs.
What can Live Oak do for an encore?
“Our goal is to always get to the playoffs and see what happens from there,” said Mike Gemo, who is entering his eighth season as the Acorns football coach. “This team doesn’t want to be the one that sees the playoff run end.”
As long as Live Oak has Jonathan Singleton under center, there is an excellent chance the team’s postseason run will continue. The 6-foot, 190-pound senior is coming off a terrific junior season in which he threw for 2,184 yards and 25 touchdowns and rushed for 494 yards and five TDs.
“Everything runs through Jonathan Singleton, whether it’s the offense, practice, anything,” said Gemo, whose team wrapped up its summer session two weeks ago. “He’s one of the premier quarterbacks in this league and in the CCS. He’s a strong kid who throws the ball well, is accurate with it and can run. We’ll probably play him on defense at safety as well. He’s the most important piece of this team right now.”
The Acorns are hardly a one-man team. They return 16 players, of which half started at some point in the 2017 season. A.J. Gustaveson returns and ready to take over the starting running back position. The junior packed on some muscle and speed in the off-season, and the effect has been noticeable.
“Guys are looking forward to seeing what he can do,” Gemo said. “The (running lane or) hole doesn’t have to be very big for him to get through. He can squeeze in there and has breakaway speed.”
Senior fullback/linebacker Connor Dietz is entering his third year on the varsity and is one of the more reliable players in the program.
“He’s a very hard working kid, and he knows what we need out of him,” Gemo said.
Julian Mendoza returns to lead a promising offensive line. The junior offensive tackle made “huge gains” in the weight room in the off-season, increasing his core lifts.
“Julian got bigger, stronger and faster,” Gemo said. “He’s in better shape this year, and he’s leading the linemen in sprints instead of being in the middle of the pack.”
Live Oak didn’t take part in any scrimmages or outside camps, focusing on internal matters and developing team chemistry in the summer session.
“Our focus is to get better by working together as a team,” Gemo said. “We can’t win as a team if we don’t practice as a team. … The goal in the summer session is to get the kids in some type of football shape so their bodies will be conditioned to practice and doing fundamental drills. We spend a lot of the summer doing a lot of fundamental work.”
The Acorns begin padded practices on Aug. 3, the official start date for every team in the CCS. Singleton’s motto for the summer was to grind everyday, and he did just that, attending football camps at Cal Poly, UC Davis, San Jose State and Davidson College. In the camps, Singleton engaged in a lot of individual drills that tested his accuracy, reaction time, vision, ability to connect with receivers and make certain throws.
Colleges were also looking to see if he possessed the intangibles: leadership, poise under pressure, the ability to communicate with the coaches and players to make sure everything is flowing smoothly.
“I definitely took a little bit from each camp and learned something new that I could bring back to Live Oak and help us succeed,” said Singleton, who has an offer from Ottawa University, a NAIA program in Arizona.
In the UC Davis camp, Singleton said the Aggies coaching staff reinforced the attributes a quarterback needs to successfully lead a team.
‘They really emphasized being a leader, being vocal and always communicating,” he said.
Singleton, who carries a 4.5 GPA, sounded plenty excited for the upcoming season, noting the team’s potential in several different areas.
“We’re looking really good,” he said. “We have a pretty young team, but they’re all hard workers and dedicated. (Junior) Jesse Isais and (sophomore) Caleb Ojeda both play wide receiver and cornerback, and we’ve already developed a connection on the field. They came up to the varsity for the playoffs last year, and they ended up playing a good amount.”
Gemo expects his team to improve as the season goes along, and hopes the players learned something from last season.
“I thought we let some games slip away earlier in the year,” he said. “We can improve on that. But what I liked is we came together and had a big victory against a West Catholic school in the first round of the playoffs before running into that Half Moon Bay buzz saw (HMB advanced to the CIF State Division 3-A championship game). The kids didn’t back down, and we look forward to having that type of attitude again.”
