Segerstrom football team starts preparing soon for season opener at San Pasqual

Segerstrom quarterback Jesse Lopez (left) congratulates Noah Tagaloa after a TD last season. (Photo courtesy Mark Bausman).

Segerstrom High School’s football team will face a tough pre-season schedule which Coach Joseph Tagaloa hopes will prepare the Jaguars for Big 4 League play.

The team will take the first two weeks of June off for the CIF dead period and begin summer workouts on Monday, June 19, Tagaloa said. The team’s first game is Friday, Aug. 18 at San Pascual.

“This year’s schedule is going to be challenging as always,” Tagaloa said. “We picked up San Pasqual in Escondido for week zero so we are planning a little travel experience as we will take some college tours and team bonding activities over the weekend.

“We kept Santa Ana Valley, California, El Modena, and Kaiser in the pre-season and added Troy High School and St. Bernard’s from Eureka. This should prepare us for our Big 4 League games vs Katella, Garden Grove and Marina.”

Segerstrom has players returning on both offense and defense, “which is going to be exciting to watch,” Tagaloa said.

“Damien Orejel, Noble Acosta, Isaiah Valdivia, and Mokey Leuma will be returning for their senior season as three year starters. We also get back our center Diego Hernandez, quarterback Jesse Lopez, running back Noah Tagaloa, wide receiver Nick Cervantes, and defensive end Gilbert Peralta as returning starters as juniors.

“The team will be balanced between seniors and underclassmen. We have a couple underclassmen looking to make some noise this season like defensive tackle/offensive guard Vicente Rivera, strong safety Andrew Diaz and free safety Ayden Morales and some seniors who we anticipate having solid seasons like defensive back/wide receiver Jonathan Acevedo, defensive back Christian Garcia, offensive tackle Connor Alvarez, guard/linebacker Isaiah Curran, defensive tackle/tackle Angel Rocha, tight end Ignacio Melchor, guard/defensive end Sebastian Orozco, and guard/defensive tackle Sonny Naiuli.”

The Jaguars’ goals remain the same during the summer.

“At the end of the day our goal is to use summer to fine tune our technique, strengthen our minds and bodies, all while installing our schemes for offense, defense, and special teams,” Tagaloa said. “This is definitely not an easy task, but the leadership and commitment from our senior class is exactly what the team needs.”

Segerstrom was 3-8 overall and 2-1 in the Big 4 League last season.

2023 Schedule

Friday, Aug. 18, at San Pasqual

Friday, Aug, 25 at Santa Ana Valley

Friday, Sept. 1, (H) vs. California 

Friday, Sept. 8 (H) vs. El Modena 

Thursday, Sept. 14, at Kaiser

Friday, Sept. 22 (H) vs. Troy

Friday, Oct. 6 (H) vs. St Bernard’s 

Friday, Oct. 13, at Katella

Friday, Oct. 20, at Garden Grove

Friday, Oct. 27, (H) vs. Marina

—-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com