Laguna Hills players excited about returning and on a mission to bring home league title

Laguna Hills coach Mike Maceranka talks to his players last season. (File photo courtesy Jonathan Khamis, Camp Chronicles, For OC Sports Zone)

Laguna Hills High School’s football players were among those in Orange County who started or resumed athletic camps this week under social distancing.

It was a big boost for the players and the coaches, who have been waiting for the camps to return. High school athletics have been on hold since the coronavirus pandemic struck in March. It was the first time since March that the Hawks coaches have been with their players.

“It feels great to be back with the kids,” Laguna Hills Coach Mike Maceranka said in an Email Friday. “They have all been wanting to be back out there for a long time.

“We are treating it as the off-season so we have our freshmen included in our team activities with our upperclassmen for the first three weeks of phase one training. It is our first opportunity to meet them and they are a great group. It was amazing to see the transformation in some of the players’ bodies over the time off. The last time we saw them was in March and five months is a long time in the development of teenagers. We had some pretty impressive body transformations.”

Laguna Hills and other teams in Orange County are hoping to open the season in January under the CIF’s new plan. State and local health officials would have to give approval for the seasons to occur.

Maceranka said the Hawks, especially the seniors, seem determined going into their first season in the new-look Pacific Coast Conference. Laguna Hills is scheduled to open the season on Friday, Jan. 8, 2021 vs. Dominguez.

“Our senior class has been on a mission for four years to leave their mark and win a league championship,” Maceranka said. “After seeing them upon our return I can see their dedication to achieving that goal.

“Senior quarterback Hayden McKenna will be our leader this season and he has put in an impressive amount of time to prepare for this year, he looks strong and crisp in his drills and delivery. Our linebacker/safety crew stood out the most to me Tuesday, Senors Travis Guzman, Caden Connella, Ryan Patterson, Zach Ferranto, Mitch Leigber, Cole Hemenez and Troy Gibson all started for us in the past and they are an impressive group.”

Leigber has commited to play football at Stanford University.

Several other returning starters have also been impressive.

“While we will be quite young, upfront senior returning starters  Charlie Moore and Santi Samano have each put on a significant amount of muscle and will be great leaders for the guys around them,” Maceranka said.

Maceranka said Laguna Hills has a number of other standouts.

“As for underclassmen, Andre Whiteside is our top junior and he was electric returning several kicks for touchdowns as a sophomore and started last season at corner; he has also grown and added mass and he will be hard to contain on the outside at receiver,” Maceranka said.

“Juniors Doug Sandford (DL), Aiden Simoes (DB), Jaden Elwell (RB/LB) and Raymond Pianta (C) all will be key contributors this winter. Our sophomore group includes Troy Leigber, (RB/LB) Cole Richards (RB/CB) and Sam Stark (OL) who all will be competing for starting roles this winter. The underclassmen have grown quite a bit and we are impressed.”

The camp is being conducted under strict safety guidelines.

“During phase one training there is no shared equipment and small groups in socially distanced areas,” Maceranka said. “The check in process of temperature checks and questions is getting smoother and the kids have been great at following the expectations. We will practice twice a week for three weeks to get the players acclimated to being active and begin conditioning and basic body weight strength training with drills mixed in by position groups.

“Once we enter phase two training we will add another day of training and when we get to phase three training we will add another day. Each phase is approximately three weeks so our goal is to be back to normal practices by October, based upon the way things are going in the county at this time.”

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