Malachi Nelson might be an excellent football coach some day, given his high football IQ.
But why wait?
Nelson, Los Alamitos’ sophomore starting quarterback, was the Griffins’ offensive coordinator for the second half of their 63-14 win over Huntington Beach this past Friday.
He threw seven touchdown passes in the first half. With Los Alamitos holding a 63-0 lead at the end of the half Nelson was not going to play in the second half.
So he put on a headset at the start of the third quarter and was the offensive coordinator for the rest of the game.
“It was a fun experience,” Nelson said. “I had nothing better to do.”
A quarterback of course has a tendency to favor a passing attack. Nelson, with the score in mind, kept it conservative as he called plays from the sidelines, communicating on the headset with the Griffins’ offensive coaches.
“I tried to keep it on the ground,” he said. “We did throw it a couple of times.”
Nelson called for those passes only because he wanted to give second-string quarterback Aidan Chiles the opportunity to show what Chiles can do.
“That was the reason we did throw it a couple of times,” Nelson said. “Aidan’s a solid kid and he deserves it.”
Los Alamitos coach Ray Fenton said Chiles, also a sophomore, would start at most Orange County schools. But Chiles (6-3, 180) happens to be on the same team as Nelson who has scholarship offers from a long list of colleges including Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma and USC.
As for Nelson’s football mental aptitude, Fenton said: “You know how the great running backs have that great vision, how they’re not looking at the guy that just missed tackling them but how they have that next-level vision of what’s coming down field? That’s how Malachi sees the passing game. He’s thinking ahead to the second and third step.”
Nelson (6-3, 185) said he had not kept track of how many touchdown passes he had thrown Friday, and he didn’t realize he’d already set the Los Alamitos record for touchdown passes in a game, nor did he know he was only two touchdown passes from tying the Orange County record of nine set by Whittier Christian’s Quinn Commans in 2016.
“If I had played the third quarter,” Nelson said, “maybe I could have thrown 10.”
Notes
• Bolsa Grande, Northwood and University have canceled their remaining football games because injuries have depleted their rosters. They each had two games remaining. On the final week of the regular season Dana Hills was to play Northwood and University was to play Irvine, so Dana Hills and Irvine arranged to play each other April 16.
• Orange Lutheran coach J.P. Presley said the team is cleared to play its game Saturday at St. John Bosco. The Lancers had to cancel their game last week against Santa Margarita because of a positive COVID-19 test within the Orange Lutheran football program.
• Newport Harbor forfeited its 24-23 season-opening win over Yorba Linda because the Sailors used an ineligible player in that game. Newport Harbor’s adjusted record is 1-3 overall. Yorba Linda is 4-0.
• Mater Dei junior linebacker David Bailey (6-5, 226) had eight unassisted tackles, five tackles for loss, four sacks and forced a fumble in the Monarchs’ 24-17 win over Servite on Saturday.
• Servite junior quarterback Noah Fifita committed to Arizona on Sunday. He was All-Orange County second team last season.
• Edison’s 40-0 win over Fountain Valley on Friday in the “Battle for the Bell” game pushed the Chargers’ lead in the series to 37-14-1. The series began in 1969.
• La Habra takes a 20-game Freeway League winning streak into its game Friday against Troy at Fullerton High. The Highlanders’ most-recent league loss was to Buena Park in 2016.
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