Sea Hawks Absorbed A Few Hits This Summer

Redondo Beach Patch: It's been a pretty rough summer in terms of injuries. How has that impacted what you've been able to do getting ready for the season?

Gene Simon: We are always at the whim of fate and in sports sometimes people get hurt we're somewhat guardedly prepare for things like this. And just your mentality as a player and a coach you have to be able to get through things like this. It's definitely impacted us this summer and without our quote unquote more experienced season players and we've done fairly well and we're proud of what we did without some of the guys that we should've normally had. So it hasn't been a downer, it's tough though to realize that you might be playing the season with some of the guys. In just about every case except for Brandon Boyd we thing we're going to have our players back, so we're optimistic in one word.  

Redondo Beach Patch: Is this the worst it's been for you in an off-season, in terms of the number of injuries?

Gene Simon: Definitely we've had bad luck, you've coached long enough sometimes you're going to have a streak of bad luck in terms of things like this, but we're going to get through it. 

Redondo Beach Patch: What is quarterback Nick Pope's status at this point?

Gene Simon: He needs a brace to play. He doesn't have to have surgery according to his doctor. It doesn't mean he's completely well though. He has a slight tear in his ACL. He's been rehabbing it with our trainer and therapist, so he's going to play with a brace on, so that's going to help him get through the season. So we're optimistic about that we're thinking that's going to work.

Redondo Beach Patch: When do you expect to have him back?

Gene Simon: He's coming back he actually worked out with us for the first time all summer. So things are starting to happen and that was great and that was an uplifting thing to see him come back.

Redondo Beach Patch: How much experience does backup quarterback Drew Wright have?

Gene Simon: He's got a lot of experience he's played QB for three years and he doesn't have much varsity experience but he has a lot of experience from the lower levels and he led the JV team for two years to an eight wins season so he's a winner.

Redondo Beach Patch: What are (Wright's) strengths as a quarterback?

Gene Simon: It's not only experience but the guy plays well in games and he helps wins games. We like Drew, we think he's a versatile player and if he's not a quarterback, he'll be doing something else for us.

Redondo Beach Patch: What do you need him to work on this next month?

Gene Simon: Drew has to work on staying composed having a quiet mind in a tumult of a violent sporting event with all these people running around and not being the largest guy on the field by any stretch. And Drew's just got to have confidence in his ability and in his players and just relax. And that's what everybody has got to work on anyway, all the way up to the NFL and back.

Redondo Beach Patch: Brandon Boyd suffered a pretty bad injury. Missing his senior season has to be tough. Have you talked to him much, tried to keep his spirits up?

Gene Simon: I've seen him a lot, and we don't say a whole lot to each other, we kind of have this nod and a wink type thing where you know we believe in miracles we believe in hope. And hopefully he'll be putting on a uniform this year, we don't know when and we don't know if that's really realistic yet, but he's going through the evaluation process and he's going to another doctor to reevaluate his knee and apparently they think it's pretty good, they don't think it's half as bad as the previously thought, but that doesn't mean he's going to be running anytime soon.

Redondo Beach Patch: How do you overcome his loss?

Gene Simon: Everybody is going to overcome it. We're all going to pitch in and work harder as individuals both at practice and in the games and you can't completely overcome losing him. He's just a dynamic factor who a guy like that if you don't have him in a line up you feel it, but it doesn't mean necessarily we're going to have problems during the game. If every guy just picks up the pieces as best he can in each position, we might even be a better team, who knows.   

Redondo Beach Patch: Obviously, you have some younger or less experienced players who are going to have to step into some major roles. Who are you counting on there?

Gene Simon: Seniors John Miller, Adam Ammentorp, Jason Baytosh, Matt Ulizio and Kem Richards are only a few to name with one to two year varsity experience. We are also looking at some incoming juniors such as Ryan Spiwak who has been on varsity for two years, Nick Pope who also has been on varsity for two years, and Drew Williams from junior varsity.

Redondo Beach Patch: Your second game this season is against Gardena Serra. Do you use that game as a measuring stick for the Redondo program?

Gene Simon: Absolutely and you know it's sort of like measuring the SAT scores you get to the people who score a 2400, you're talking about one of the best programs in the United States right now and definitely the best in California, and so you can lose that game 14 to 20 points and people can say you're a loser but in reality you scored 2200 on the SAT. it's not 2400 obviously, but  you measure yourself and you say I really stepped up and played well. So the chances are, we can win that game, but there's going to have to be some tremendous effort and some luck involved with that. The odds are that we won't win that game just based on the facts but we definitely measure ourselves in that game and a loss doesn't mean a fail.