Prep talk: City Section football coaches need a few good soccer players

Diego Mendez, a soccer player turned kicker, was six for six on extra-point attempts and booted a 40-yard field goal for Cleveland last week.

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Let’s be honest: City Section special teams play has been bad for years. Coaches desperately search campuses for kickers/punters and even long snappers. Narbonne lost the City Section championship game in 2013 when three bad punt snaps resulted in three safeties.

Coaches have started recruiting players of their school’s soccer team, and it’s working. Cleveland found Diego Mendez, and last week he was six for six on extra-point attempts and made a 40-yard field goal.

“Soccer player turned kicker,” coach Mario Guzman said.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Carson was missing too many PATs last season, so coach William Lowe hired former Carson and Arkansas kicker Ish Ordonez to work with the kickers. Now there’s two soccer players on the team who know fútbol but are learning football. Sophomore Monico Flores-Segovia didn’t even know how many points a team gets for a field goal. The other kicker is Manny Padilla, who’s booming balls into the end zone.

It’s a good lesson for City football coaches: Be nice to the soccer coach if you need a kicker.

From the source This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

Eric Sondheimer is the prep sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He has been honored seven times by the California Prep Sportswriters Assn. for best prep sports column.