There are a couple of football items that seem timely.
With Notre Dame playing tonight in the Hawaii Bowl, it should be noted that former St. Mary’s player John Leonis has been involved with the Fighting Irish program for three years. Leonis, a cornerback, plays on the scout, or “show,” team and gives the starters a look in practice at what they’ll see from their next opponent. There’s little glory, of course, but Leonis is glad he tried out at the behest of a friend on the team. That friend saw him in intramurals and encouraged him to try out.
Read about John Leonis here. It was sent to me by St. Mary’s coach Rick Jackson.
On another front, I talked with South coach Bill Singler this morning about the 6A all-state team, to which his son, Mitch, and nephew, E.J., were selected. While E.J. is headed to Oregon to play basketball, Mitch continues to sort out his college options. There’s a process, said Bill Singler, with college coaches dividing recruits into several tiers and sorting through them accordingly. Mitch is drawing interest from Oregon State, Nevada and Portland State, among others.
His dad went through it after being an all-state receiver in 1970. Bill was on Stanford’s recruit list, but he wasn’t No. 1. The Cardinal thought they landed Pat McInally, meaning Singler was out of luck. But McInally — who would go on to play for the Bengals in the NFL — shifted gears and opted to attend Harvard. Stanford then called on Singler, and he wound up having a solid career there.
