High School Football

Servite's Freshman coaching staff might have something to say about that. The Servite freshman are 7-0.

All I know is that one of the coaches in my CDM/Cypress frosh game started every single rules conversation with the phrase "I don't want to come off as a dick but ... "  ... ROFL. Same with the Varsity game we had with Trabuco Hills .. said the same thing to the LJ on his side. 

Make that 8-0 with a 19-16 win over Bosco.

Servite is doing great this year, but it might even be brighter over the next couple years....   

Happy 60th Anniversary to Marcus Woods, Rick Aschenbrenner, Jim Sheridan, Tony Pena, Phil Messer, Bill Holden, Mike Meers, Riley Shinnefield, John Hemmon, Frank Daley, Bill Halligan, and so many more, including Head Coach George Dena, and to all the fans of the 1964 Servite Varsity Football Team living and dead.

Happy 60th Anniversary of Servite's first ever victory over Mater Dei Football on October 29th 1964 by the score of 13-0, which led to Servite's first Angelus League Varsity Football Championship.

Pain heals, chicks dig scars, but glory lasts forever!

That article is freaking gross.

Also, Servite sophomore QB Colin O'Connor, who filled in for senior starter Leo Hannan while Hannan was injured, has transferred to Yorba Linda.

Lawsuit: Sexual assault on team
Santa Margarita school principal in an email says at least 9 football players were violated
By Scott M. Reid
sreid@scng.com
On the afternoon of Sept. 24, a 15-year-old sophomore Santa Margarita Catholic High School varsity football player tried to enter the team’s locker room to get dressed for practice.

The sophomore, dressed in his school uniform, khaki shorts and a blue polo shirt, his practice gear under his arm, could hear yelling and cheering coming from inside the locker room and players banging on lockers but when he turned the door handle to the room it seemed locked. He knocked on the door. Another player at the school briefly opened the door a crack, stuck his head out and then shut the door quickly. The sophomore heard another player inside the locker room say, “He’s good, he’s good” and the sophomore was let in, according to two people familiar with the incident.

The sophomore didn’t realize he was about to be sexually assaulted by his teammates, one in a series of alleged similar assaults by Eagles players on their teammates at the southern Orange County Catholic high school this season that have been confirmed by the school’s principal in emails obtained by The Orange County Register.

Waiting in the room a short distance from the football coaches’ offices were 15 to 18 varsity players standing in front of the lockers. All of them seemed to be staring at the sophomore.

Suddenly a player shouted, “Get him!” and the lights were switched off. Two players pounced on the sophomore, slamming him into a locker, injuring his right shoulder and arm, and then, joined by other players, pulled the sophomore to the ground, according to interviews, medical records including photos, school emails and a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the school and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Orange, the legal name of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.

The sophomore frantically tried to escape, yelling, “No! No!” and “Stop! Stop!” as players took turns sexually assaulting him, “touching, grabbing, pulling and twisting” his genitals while six to eight players held him down, some of his teammates sitting on his shoulders, others holding his legs, players banging on lockers to drown out the sophomore’s cries for help and the other players’ cheering and repeated chants, according to interviews, emails and court filings.

“Get him! Get him! Get him!” the players chanted.

The alleged sexual assault lasted around 15 seconds, during which time the sophomore was able to see the faces of his teammates, illuminated by a skylight, ignoring his pleas and laughing at him.

After finally breaking free and escaping the locker room, still fearing for his safety and in significant pain, the sophomore took his belongings to the restroom and changed for practice. He then tried to make his way to the school’s training room for treatment for the injuries to his shoulder and arm, injuries that would result in the player seeking treatment at an emergency room later that night.

But he was stopped and confronted by a teammate on the way.

The other player asked where he was going, according to two people familiar with the confrontation and a court filing.

The sophomore said he was going to the training room.

The other player “dissuaded the sophomore from seeking assistance,” according to two people familiar with the conversation and a court filing.

“It’s football, you knew what you were signing up for,” the varsity player who had been in the locker room during the alleged assault told the sophomore, according to interviews and the lawsuit.

Later the sophomore sat down next to a teammate in a different part of the school’s football complex while they waited to watch a film. The teammate hadn’t been in the locker room during the alleged sexual assault but noticed the sophomore seemed rattled. The sophomore told the teammate what had allegedly happened to him in the locker room.

“Oh, yeah, that’s what they do,” the teammate said to the sophomore, according to a person with direct knowledge of the conversation.

School principal Cheri Wood, in a series of emails obtained by the Register, admitted that “at least 8” other Eagles players were allegedly assaulted by their teammates in a similar manner.

The alleged sexual assaults were the focus of a more than monthlong investigation by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, according to emails and Sheriff’s Department documents obtained by the Register. Emails also confirm that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange has been aware of the alleged sexual assaults since at least Oct. 1.

“In addition, I believe you should know that in our interviews we did discover that the incidents on Tuesday the 24th in the afternoon during academic period happened to several other students,” Wood wrote in an Oct. 1 email to the sophomore’s mother. “It did not happen only to (the sophomore).”

In an Oct. 7 email to the mother, Wood wrote, “The police are here on campus now and will hopefully finish today and clear us to meet with the students we need to meet with who are responsible for the locker room incident against (the sophomore) and at least 8 others ... God bless.”

Attorneys for the sophomore filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court on Tuesday that alleges the student was “subjected to a violent assault of a sexual nature.”

“These incidents are not isolated events, but rather a product of systemic failures by school leadership,” according to the lawsuit.

The suit accuses the school and the diocese of negligence, negligent failure to warn, train or educate and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

“Our client didn’t ask for this,” Jemma E. Dunn, an attorney for the sophomore, said in an email to the Register. “He was the victim of an unprovoked attack that was the direct result of SMCHS’s toxic environment. Decisions by others — school administration, coaches, and students — have resulted in life changing and undeserved consequences for our client. He deserved better and we are proud of him for having the courage to motivate change.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has completed its investigation of the alleged sexual assaults and has told the sophomore’s family that they have up to a year to press charges, according to three people familiar with the investigation. The Sheriff’s Department “initially” was investigating a possible sexual assault but later determined that the assault was not sexual in nature, according to a person familiar with the department’s investigation.

Sexual battery is defined in California as, “Any person who touches an intimate part of another person, if the touching is against the will of the person touched, and is for the specific purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse, is guilty of misdemeanor sexual battery, punishable by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding six months, or by both that fine and imprisonment.”

A further investigation of the incident by the school is ongoing, according to a Sheriff’s Department spokesperson.

Sheriff’s Department investigators interviewed students on campus over the course of at least two weeks, Wood confirmed in emails.

In an Oct. 1 email to the sophomore’s mother, Wood wrote, “This afternoon we have started to take action on the issue to make changes to the culture of the program.”

Eagles head coach Anthony Rouzier was placed on administrative leave by the school on Oct. 1.

But interviews, emails and court filings obtained by the Register portray an abusive culture and an absence of accountability that extends beyond Rouzier:

The sophomore was groped on campus by three other Santa Margarita Catholic High School athletes after he returned to school following Rouzier being placed on leave, a sexual assault that was later confirmed by Wood, according to two people familiar with the incident and the court filing.

Injured players are pressured to play and practice against doctors’ orders or recommendations even when doing so could result in permanent, life-changing injury. Coaches and members of the school sports medicine staff disregard, dismiss and ridicule doctors’ instructions and even have gone so far as to instruct players not to see doctors not affiliated with the school, or tell the coaches or school sports medicine staff that they’re injured or share doctors’ notes with them.

School coaches are physically abusive to players. When a coach became angry with a player’s footwork during a recent practice, he kicked the player.

Eagles coaches tell sexually explicit jokes and make graphic sexual comments to players on a regular basis.

School President J. Andrew Sulick has yet to respond to requests from the sophomore’s mother to discuss the alleged sexual assaults but found time to speak to the football players and coaches in a special team meeting to address the Sheriff’s Department and school investigations.

“It is time for the Defendants in this case to do more to protect student athletes,” wrote Brian L. Williams, an attorney for the sophomore, in an email to the Register.

Sulick, Wood and a spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange did not respond to email and phone messages requesting comment Tuesday evening. A school spokesperson did not respond to an email requesting comment Tuesday evening.

The Register is not identifying the sophomore player because of his age and because of the news organization’s policy of not revealing the names of victims in alleged sexual abuse cases. He declined to comment for this story.

Wood finally agreed to meet with the player’s mother in an email after she requested the school provide a plan for her son’s safe return “without fear of retaliation or further injury,” according to interviews and the lawsuit.

The sophomore, the lawsuit said, “was temporarily removed from campus while both Orange County Sheriff and SMCHS conducted investigations into the incident. Indeed, SMCHS’s initial response was to ostracize Plaintiff, further singling him out from his peers and punishing him for making the decision to come forward. Plaintiff fell behind in classes, lost contact with friends, and his mental health began to suffer.”

When Wood met with the sophomore’s mother, she sought to assure her that she and the school had the matter under control, according to interviews, emails and court filings.

“We got this,” Wood told the mother, according to a person familiar with the conversation. “Rest assured. Don’t worry. … I do this all day long. In fact, I’ve worked all around the country on cases, on incidents, just like this. I know what I’m doing. You don’t have to worry.”

The sophomore returned to campus on Oct. 7. He had missed two weeks of school and was concerned about falling behind in his classes.

“Staying at home without the regular structure of school caused Plaintiff to constantly relive the trauma of the incident from September 24, 2024, and was negatively affecting his mental health. In addition, the news about the assault was continuing to spread widely, and Plaintiff feared that being absent from his classes would reveal that he was the victim of the assault,” the lawsuit states.

But according to interviews and the lawsuit, he was “again targeted almost immediately upon his return.” As he was walking down a school hallway the morning of his first day back, three athletes approached him from behind and “groped him multiple times,” according to interviews and the lawsuit.

The sophomore did not know the other athletes and had not interacted with them before.

Wood later told the player’s mother that “the incident was in fact visible on the school cameras, but that she independently came to the conclusion that the incidents were not related,” according to the lawsuit and interviews.

Wood, in an email to the mother later that day, blamed the family for the hallway assault. The principal told the mother that she should not have rushed her son back to school because the school was not prepared, saying that she was “saddened” by the family’s decision but “the choice of course was yours.”

The sophomore and his family are now in limbo. He no longer feels safe at the school and is looking to transfer to another in Southern California. He no longer wants to play football.

During his mother’s first meeting with Wood, the principal said, “I guarantee we’re here to protect (the sophomore).”

The mother was taken aback by the comment, according to two people familiar with the conversation.

“Well, to be fair,” the mother told Wood. “We’re past the point of protecting (the sophomore), right?”