The Scripps Ranch High School varsity football team will bring its 3-1 record to La Jolla High School to challenge the Vikings on Friday, Sept. 14, following last week’s home loss to Mira Mesa High. 

By Ralph LoVuolo

Last week, the Scripps Ranch High School varsity football game against Mira Mesa was labeled “The Battle of the 15,” and a battle it was.

The evening events started off with a tailgate party hosted by the Scripps Ranch High School (SRHS) ASB in the quad, with more than 300 kids and faculty showing up. Then, the senior varsity players and cheerleaders honored the faculty for all their hard work and dedication to the school and students.

The stadium was packed for the event, with stands filled on both sides of the field, resulting in a standing room only situation. The class of 2018’s gift to the school was presented, which was a giant flag/banner reading “Home of The Falcons.”

At kickoff, both teams were 3-0 and the first quarter was exactly what one would expect from both teams with equal records. The teams battled hard offensively and defensively, and the first quarter was scoreless. However, Mira Mesa scored in the second quarter and then dominated the game from there.

Before the half, there was a controversial call over a touchdown catch. Johnny McGoldrick, defending for Scripps Ranch, jumped up at the same time the Mira Mesa player did. They both grabbed it, but the officials determined it was a tie ball going to the visiting team, giving Mira Mesa its first touchdown, which became the turning point of the game. The Falcons eventually lost to Mira Mesa 0-21.

Earlier, the SRHS freshmen were defeated by Mira Mesa 32-21. The Falcons JV team lost to Mira Mesa 7-13.

This week Scripps Ranch varsity will take on La Jolla on Friday, Sept. 14, in La Jolla at 6:30 p.m.

Players and cheerleaders in the Scripps Ranch Pop Warner Football & Cheer Association enjoyed a full slate of football action Saturday, Sept. 8 on the field at Scripps Ranch High School.

Here are Saturday’s results:

Falcons Flag team won 24-0 over Ranch Bernardo
Falcons Mitey Mites lost 44-37 to LCC Mavericks
Falcons Jr. Pee Wee won 7-6 over Poway
falcons Pee Wee beat Temecula 28-0

Young cheerleaders full of pep kept spirits high all day long Saturday during a full slate of Pop Warner football games on Sept. 1 at the Scripps Ranch High School football stadium. These young women are in the Scripps Ranch Pop Warner Football & Cheer Association. The youngsters are not only the cutest kids around and cheer on the players, they are skilled in their routines and compete at cheer competitions, all of which takes hours of hard work, focus and skill.

Players on the youth football teams in the Scripps Ranch Pop Warner Football & Cheer Association enjoyed a full day of gridiron action on the field of the Scripps Ranch High School football stadium on Saturday, Sept. 1. Here is a sample of the exciting plays that took place.

The Scripps Ranch High School varsity football team gained a perfect 3-0 record this season after defeating Fallbrook 28-3 at Fallbrook on Friday, Aug. 31.

Once again, the Falcons put a decent amount of points on the board while the defense held the opposition to a minimal amount of scoring.

The entire Scripps Ranch football program is looking strong and seems to have the start of a great turnaround from last season.

Earlier, the Falcons freshmen won against Fallbrook at home 36-0. This is the third game in a row that Scripps Ranch freshman defense shut out the other team.

The Falcons junior varsity won against Fallbrook 16-14 at Fallbrook.

The Scripps Ranch varsity will take on archrival Mira Mesa next Friday, Sept. 7, at home beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The undefeated Scripps Ranch High School varsity football team brings it’s 2-0 record to Fallbrook following the Falcons’ impressive 31-7 home victory over Del Norte High School last week. The Falcons captured a 28-22 victory in its season opener at Serra High School on Aug. 17.  Scripps Ranch will play Fallbrook High School on Friday, Aug. 31 at 7 p.m. in Fallbrook.

Many of the Falcons players feel that this year’s earlier start in preseason training with top notch trainers prepared them for the season more than ever.

According to Frank Gebase, one of the offensive coaches, all the kids on both offense and defense are working very well together, which will hopefully lead to winning results.

Football is not about throwing 11 players on the field, it is about timing and learning all the formations, which are essential to the success the team. Having a younger team, with only six seniors on the roster, the Falcons lack size, but with the hard work ethic and speed, they hope to compete at the same level.

With the enthusiasm of players like senior linebacker Taylor Green, the team plans to have a winning season, after last year’s season that fell short of expectations.

“All the hard work and many hours I have put in throughout the years have led up to this season,” Green said. “The team is looking good over the past few months and we are all ready to play. This is going to be a great season.”

This year’s team is trying to bring back a winning culture to Scripps Ranch football. The conference change will be a big factor on this year’s record, as they no longer have to play tougher, out of reach teams from Division 1 or the Open Division. The more suitable schedule for the Falcons should result in a much more promising season for Scripps Ranch fans.

“We are going to do better than last year, we just have to play smarter since we lack in size,” said junior quarterback Dillon Gebase. “We have great team chemistry with a lot of bonding amongst our players. We are all very close and I can’t wait to make great memories with them on the field every Friday night for years to come.”

Not only in the record books, but in life, the coaching staff wants to build upon the culture they are creating for the players. The coaches have stressed the importance of maintaining good grades as a student athlete and having good character both on and off the field.

For more than 20 years, boys and girls have honed their basketball skills in the Scripps Ranch chapter of National Junior Basketball (NJB). NJB’s parent-run program is designed to introduce, teach and develop the fundamentals of basketball, as well as to promote good sportsmanship, teamwork and healthy competition.

Last year Scripps Ranch NJB had more than 40 teams and 400 neighborhood children in its program. Practices are typically once a week (between Monday and Friday at either 4:30 to 6 p.m. or 6 to 7:30 p.m.) and games are played on Sundays, usually at the Scripps Ranch High School gym. 

The fourth grade girls and seventh grade boys teams won the NJB National Championship in their respective divisions.

Unfortunately, due to the program’s inability to secure sufficient court space, Scripps Ranch NJB will not offer Division 1 (seventh and eighth grade) basketball this season. However, the program will continue to feature basketball for boys and girls in grades 3-6.

The season runs November through February.

Visit ScrippsRanchNJB.org to learn more and to register children for a fun season of basketball. Registration closes on Sept. 29.

The Scripps Ranch High School varsity football team thrilled the local crowd as the Falcons captured an impressive 31-7 home victory over Del Norte High School on Friday, Aug. 24.

This was the first home game of the season for Scripps Ranch and the team did not disappoint its fans, gaining its second win of the young season, with no losses.  

Scripps Ranch dominated throughout the game with the Falcons defense deserving credit for holding the opposing team to only 7 points.

Falcons quarterback Dillon Gebase contributed to the offensive effort by completing 15 of 21 passes for 202 yards and three touchdowns.

The Scripps Ranch Falcons will travel to play Fallbrook High School on Friday, Aug. 31 at 7 p.m.

The Scripps Ranch High School varsity football team captured a 28-22 victory in its season opener at Serra High School on Friday, Aug. 17.  

The teams began with turnovers, each throwing interceptions in the first series, before the Falcons punched in the first TD. But the Conquistadors came back and Scripps Ranch soon found its team behind.

Then, the Falcons offense woke up, scoring 21 consecutive points before the Conquistadors mounted a late comeback effort, which was not soon enough to prevent a Scripps Ranch victory.

Earlier on Friday afternoon, the Scripps Ranch junior varsity team shut out the Serra High School JVs 21-0.

The 2018 Scripps Ranch High School Football kicked off Thursday evening, Aug. 16 as the Falcons freshman team played Granite Hills High School, beating them 43-0.

Scripps Ranch appeared to scramble to find any kind of rhythm to their game during the very first two minutes. But as soon as they got in sync, they dominated the rest of the game, capturing a big win and a shut-out to start the season on the right foot.

When it comes to Kari Sullivan, president of Scripps Ranch Pop Warner Football and Cheer Association, it’s impossible to avoid the fact that the sport nearly runs in her blood. Her dad was a Pop Warner coach.

“He didn’t have any sons, but he did have me,” Sullivan said. “He loved football, so I would go along with him and watch him coach. I grew up loving football.”

All four of her children have roots in the Pop Warner program. Even her daughter, now a high school freshman, has been involved with the program’s cheerleading sector for years.

“My two-year-old son said to me one day, ‘Mommy, I want to play football,’ and I said, ‘Well, that’s great but you’re two,’” Sullivan said. “He repeated that to me every single year until he was eligible to play.”

With this in mind, Sullivan’s position as the president of the Scripps Ranch Pop Warner league makes perfect sense. She said it’s really about making the sport something both the kids and their families can love. Sullivan said her greatest hope is that kids walk away from practice being generally well-rounded individuals.

“We talk a lot about conduct, on and off the field, because I think one of the main things football teaches kids is discipline and teamwork,” Sullivan said. “Those things translate to off-the-field activities, too. It’s really important that whether they’re with us, not with us or at home … that they’re being their best selves.”

Sullivan said one of the league’s primary considerations will always be safety.

“All of our coaches, all of our staff and volunteers are concussion trained,” Sullivan said. “All of our coaches are, in addition to that, Heads Up Football trained, which is a training mechanism for teaching kids how to tackle with their heads in the right position.”

Sullivan said it's all about ensuring kids know the best techniques to approach tackling. On top of this, she said the equipment is frequently updated and inspected.

Marlon Gardinera is starting his second year as head coach for Scripps Ranch High School (SRHS) football, and he is shaking things up with what some might call an unconventional approach.

Not historically known as a powerhouse football team, SRHS has struggled in the past to attract and retain top football talent, often losing promising players to private schools. What SRHS and the surrounding community do have plenty of, however, are bright students with the capacity to excel in the classroom. Gardinera, or Coach Marlon – as he is known in Scripps Ranch – recognizes that this aptitude, combined with the real-world skills that can be learned through playing football, provides a recipe for achieving success on and off the field.

“Football is a unique activity that gives you so many life lessons,” Gardinera said. “I use football to teach young men the right way to do things: discipline, focus, effort. We’re relentless in pursuit of them learning those things; and it works out that if you learn those things, you’ll probably play football pretty well.”

Having played competitive team sports in high school and college, himself, followed by a successful professional career in corporate management for the last 23 years, plus eight years of coaching Scripps Ranch Little League and Pop Warner Football, Gardinera knows a thing or two about success both on and off the field.

“My job here is to take the excellence and academics that we all expect from Scripps Ranch High School and bring that out on to the football field,” Gardinera said. “The obligation and responsibility is to help these young men grow in to good men.”

According to SRHS freshman football coach Robert Hasson, “Marlon uses the term ‘student-athlete’ and stresses that the ‘student’ comes first. He has instituted study hall, tutoring and mentoring programs. He has raised the bar.”

Gardinera established a 2.5 minimum grade point average (GPA) requirement for students to play on his teams, which is one half point higher than the school district requirement of 2.0. On the whole, however, the team’s collective GPA far exceeds the minimum. In the 2017-2018 school year, according to Gardinera, the team’s average increased from 2.97 to 3.24.

Parents have expressed their support and enthusiasm for the changes Gardinera has implemented. Adria Shaw has two sons at SRHS; one who is an incoming freshman and another who will be entering his junior year as a varsity football player.

“They’re having more fun playing football,” Shaw said. “It’s also hard work, but I think they’re learning how to balance school and the demands of football much better than I’ve seen in the past.”

Kevin Merrigan – father of Riley Merrigan, who is entering his second year on the team – has lived in Scripps Ranch for 22 years and reflected on the SRHS football program, historically.

“Before Coach Marlon, I don’t think they had a football program. They had a team, but they didn’t have a program,” he said. “What makes a successful athletic team in high school is a program. [Coach Marlon] is making it so that they are doing things together, working out in the summertime, collaborating together, studying together. It’s a very well-organized ‘team’ feeling. He is 100 percent headed in the right direction on turning this program around for the kids.”

Referencing the study hall and “big brother” mentoring programs that Gardinera implemented, Diane Merrigan – Riley’s mother – observed that the student athletes “help each other and lift each other up,” she said. “I think that’s helped build the team [on the field], as well.”

While a focus on academics under Gardinera is evident, the physical preparation necessary to realize success on the field also remains a priority.

“Coach Marlon is trying to get these kids in to the weight room and conditioning before football starts, and to eat properly. They have regimens and classes where they talk about the importance of nutrition and sleep,” Kevin Merrigan said. “He’s teaching the value of both physical and emotional health.”

Hasson said that they are working diligently to change the culture, but recognizes that it is going to take time. It will also require a collective effort, according to Riley Merrigan.

“We’re trying to go in the right direction and get better every single time we step on the field,” he said. “I think we can achieve that if everyone puts in hard work and is dedicated to it.”