The spring and summer 7-on-7 football passing tournaments and leagues were created to help quarterbacks and receivers become more in tune with each other.
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For San Juan Hills senior quarterback Eiler King and senior receiver Luke Frith, a strong connection wasn’t really established until real football was played in August.
“It was a little bit of a battle at first,” Frith said. “It was hard to connect with him. Then when the season started, when the pads came on, everything changed and the real connection started to happen.”
That connection was electric last week. King completed 24 of 29 passes for 473 yards and seven touchdowns — both school records — in a 61-10 win over Los Alamitos in the Alpha League.
Frith caught eight passes for 193 yards and three touchdowns as the Stallions improved to 5-1 overall and 1-0 in league.
King played at San Clemente High last season. He was the starting quarterback there for some early-season games and shared time at the position with Preston Beck before Beck became the full-time starter in the second half of the season.
King’s transfer after the season to San Juan Hills was an amicable one. San Clemente coach Jaime Ortiz said the King family communicated their plan with Ortiz openly, which Ortiz appreciated.
Ortiz said he is happy for King’s success … well, until Oct. 23. That’s when San Clemente and San Juan Hills meet in an Alpha League game at San Juan Hills High.
King had to battle for playing time at San Juan Hills, too. For a few springtime weeks his competition included Nash McElree, a transfer from Texas who also spent some time in the summer playing for Mission Viejo. McElree was in Visalia the last time we looked.
San Juan Hills coach Robert Frith, who is Luke’s father, said King was able to mesh with his new teammates immediately.
“He earned the respect of his teammates from Day 1,” Frith said. “Eiler at first was sharing reps with four or five other quarterbacks here. As camp progressed things worked out for him, and he earned it.”
King said it took some time for him to get familiar with the San Juan Hills receivers.
“The 7-on-7 stuff is always good to get that rhythm going,” King said. “But when the pads came on, that’s when everything started rolling.”
King is third in Orange County for passing yards with 1,459. He has completed 96 of 126 passes (76 percent) with 22 touchdown passes and no interceptions.
Luke Frith, who is committed to Texas State, is the team’s leading receiver with 39 receptions for 640 yards (fifth-most in the county) and 11 touchdowns.
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Luke Frith described King as “a big gunslinger.”
“He can really throw it deep,” Luke Frith said. “He’s gotten very good at anticipating where us receivers are going to be. He throws it out there and he trusts us to be there.”
Transferring from one school to another is not always rewarding. Sometimes, it does not work out. Very often it does.
A few years ago, Parker Awad transferred from Mater Dei, where he was not going to supplant Elijah Brown at quarterback. Awad transferred to Edison, where he became an All-Sunset League player.
King said he had great relationships with players and coaches at San Clemente but is happy he made the move to San Juan Hills.
“I’m so beyond thankful for the opportunity I’ve been given here,” King said. “The coaching staff is amazing and I’m so thankful for the way they’ve embraced me. It’s been such a comfortable and welcoming experience.”
NOTES
• Orange quarterback Star Thomas III is Orange County’s leading passer with 2,227 yards for an average of 371 yards a game. …
• Santa Ana Valley senior running back Fern Dircio is the county’s leading rusher with 1,034 yards. Dircio (5-5, 160) is the county’s first player to surpass 1,000 rushing yards. …
• Savanna junior Issic Alonzo leads Orange County in receiving yards with 1,068. Savanna junior quarterback Nate Eich is second in the county for passing yards with 2,014. …
• No Orange County athletics program has been immune to the fall heat. At San Clemente High, just a couple of miles from the ocean, the football team made schedule changes to lessen the heat’s impact. “We’ve been practicing at night,” said Ortiz, “and last Wednesday morning (Sept. 30) we practiced in pads at 6:15 in the morning.” At JSerra, the cross country program scheduled workouts to avoid the heat as much as possible. “We started working out at 7 a.m.,” said JSerra coach Chase Frazier. “It’s so much better in the morning.” …
• Some important cross country meets are coming up on the schedule ahead of the CIF Southern Section and CIF State competitions, including the Orange County Championships at Oak Canyon Park in Silverado on Oct. 17. There is also the Mt. SAC Invitational on Oct. 24. The CIF Southern Section finals are at Mt. San Antonio College on Nov. 23. …
• Santa Margarita’s girls volleyball team beat then-national No. 1 Mater Dei in four sets in a Trinity League match last week. The most recent rankings from the Massey Ratings System still has Mater Dei (32-1) at No. 1 in the section with Sierra Canyon (26-1) at No. 2. Santa Margarita (17-9), which lost to Sierra Canyon last month, is at No. 6. Los Alamitos (28-6) is No. 4 and Newport Harbor (26-6) is No. 5. The Massey Ratings will be used by the CIF-SS to form the playoff divisions and seedings for the playoffs.
• The JSerra boys water polo team had a 10-9 win over Newport Harbor in a tournament last week that returned the Lions to No. 1 in the Orange Country rankings. Newport Harbor, last week’s top-ranked team, is No. 2 this week. …
• JSerra’s domination in flag football continues. The Lions are No. 1 in the county with a 22-0 record. The flag football playoffs begin Oct. 20.