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Santa Fe Christian football coach Nick Ruscetta is old school. He believes in a firm handshake, looks everyone in the eye and feels his word is as good as a signed contract. His coaching philosophy is equally straightforward. Simply put the ball in the belly of a running back and move the chains over and over until the opponent relents.

“I’m a simple guy and I believe football is about blocking, tackling and going forward with the football,” Ruscetta said. “We want to play the chess match and stay on schedule.”

The Eagles stayed on schedule this season, winning the Coastal League title and making it to the Division V finals where they lost a heartbreaker 31-29 to Christian High. Ruscetta was able to maneuver all the pieces together to earn a “checkmate” virtually the entire season.

“It’s been a heck of a year. It certainly hasn’t been coaching,” said a humble Ruscetta. “The kids have been on a mission and willed us to the finals. They really have done the impossible this season. I am so proud of them and we are in a great place as a program.”

Santa Fe Christian made success possible despite having a number of players decide not to play this season. With a roster of seven seniors, 10 juniors, and 12 sophomores, Ruscetta and his staff preached unity and the results exceeded expectations. “We don’t have a lot of marquee guys, but we learned to lean on each other to get the job done,” he said.

Ruscetta came to SFC a decade ago after a successful run at his alma mater Escondido, where he guided the Cougars to the CIF finals in 1995. However, he was burned out and left football for a year before joining Brian Sipe’s staff, first as an offensive line coach and then as offensive coordinator.

“I had really hit a wall and God directed me to Santa Fe. Brian supplied a lot of leadership and as time went on it was a blend of the three of us (Sipe, Ruscetta and defensive coordinator Dan Egan),” Ruscetta said. “I’m a ball-control type of guy who likes to impose his will with line play.”

Ruscetta, who inherited the job with the Eagles when Sipe went onto San Diego State, has defined his coaching style by his relationships with former Torrey Pines coach Ed Burke and ex-Escondido coach Chick Embrey. Both have had a profound effect on Ruscetta.

“I learned a lot of the Wing-T offense from Ed Burke who I think is one of the best coaches ever,” he said. “I also learned about faith and football from Chick. We make no bones that we are a Christian school and to play football we try to let people know that our kids play hard, play physical and we hold them to a high standard while honoring God.”

That’s a philosophy that remains as simple as a handshake.

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Parents, are you frustrated with your coach?  Coaches, are you frustrated with your parents?  Athletes, are you feeling the kind of pressure that keeps you from enjoying your sport?  If you are, don’t blame each other because there is something wrong on the inside of sports.

Our values are wrong.   In today’s sports culture many coaches want to win at all cost.  Some parents are driven by the athletic scholarship.  There are athletes who play for themselves and not for the team.  In some ways these desires are motivating our behavior on the inside of sports.

Do any of these describe you?  If so, then prepare yourself to ultimately be disappointed with your sports experience.  Playing sports has so much more to offer than just a “W”, a free education or stroking an ego.  Don’t miss the incredible opportunity to learn about life and the importance of teamwork, hard work and commitment.  These are qualities that surface in sports and have value for the rest of your life.

The Bible says, “To walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, making the most of every opportunity…” Eph. 5:15.    Sports is an opportunity.  It’s one way, the best way to sharpen your character as you become the man or woman that God desires you to be.  May you use your sport as a platform to prepare yourself for life.  You won’t be disappointed!!

Donnie Dee has been with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for 19 years and now serves as FCA’s Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. As a Kansas City native, Dee played football and basketball for Oak Park High School and was a four-year letterman in football at the University of Tulsa, graduating from there in 1988 with a business management degree. He was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts and played in the NFL for two years. After his time in the NFL, Dee began his FCA career in Colorado, where he developed a thriving ministry. He then answered a call 12 years ago to move to Southern California, where he grew FCA’s ministry in that region from one volunteer to 30 staffers today. Dee directs the daily ministry of FCA’s Home Office, which serves more than 400 local and regional offices that annually impact more than 2 million people across the country. Dee met his wife, Jackie, while both were athletes at the University of Tulsa. They have two children, Johnny and Jennifer, and reside in San Diego, California.

Every athlete has to find his or her own way of coping with the stress of competition.   You want to be psyched and ready for peak athletic performance, but not overly anxious or tense.  There are many psychological techniques that have been used effectively, including progressive relaxation and breath control, positive and rational thinking, and visual imagery.

For example, move to a quiet corner, close your eyes, and begin to take slow deep breaths, first filling up your stomach and then expanding your chest.  Inhale to a count of 4 and exhale to a count of 8.  Repeat several times until you start to feel more focused and calm.

Now think of a movement or task that you’ll perform during the game.  Start off with skills that you’re particularly good at.  Visualize yourself performing the movement skillfully, easily, fluidly and powerfully.  Think about how it FEELS in your body to do the movement well.  Imagine whatever senses connect you with the feeling of performing confidently and successfully: the sights, sounds and body sensations.  If there are certain challenges that are likely to come up during the game, imagine yourself handling those with ease.  Mentally walk yourself though effortless, powerful, skillful athletic moves.   Perform imagery techniques for 5-10 minutes either 1-2 hours before a game, right before a game or whenever is most helpful during the week.

Some athletes play certain music on their iPods to either help them relax, tune out distractions or get pumped up, whatever is needed.  Work with your coach or a sport psychologist to find what techniques work best for you.

I have a painful swollen area, almost a bump, in the front of my knee.  I play basketball and want to play well this season, but it gets really painful during games.  What is it and what can I do?

A sore and swollen bump in the front of the knee is often caused by Osgood-Schlatter disease.  This is a common problem in young athletes, especially during times of rapid growth.  The spot you’re talking about is where the patellar tendon in the front of the knee attaches to the tibia or shin bone.  During growth spurts, the bone often grows faster than the surrounding soft tissues.  This puts excess tension on the muscles and tendons, especially during sports with lots of jumping and running.  Some athletes will notice this as a loss of flexibility but, in severe cases, there will be pain and swelling at the tendon attachment.

Catherine Robertson, MD, sports medicine orthopedic surgeon at UC San Diego Sports Medicine says, “The key to treating Osgood-Schlatter is stretching, primarily of the quadriceps muscle in the front of the thigh.  Stretching helps to gradually lengthen tight soft tissues in the leg.  The simplest quad stretch is done by bringing your heel to your buttock while extending your back, to bring the stretch across the hip.  Regular stretching is also a great way to avoid problems associated with growth spurts, like Osgood-Schlatter disease.”

Applying ice to the painful area in the front of the knee, especially after exercise, can also be helpful.  If your pain persists, visit a sports medicine specialist.  However, the good news is that, over time, soft tissues do catch up to bone growth and symptoms go away in almost all athletes.

Ask the Jock Doc is brought to you by the sports medicine experts at UC San Diego Health System – Sports Medicine.  Let us help you get back in the game.  Call 858.657.8200.  For answers to your sports injury or performance questions email jockdoc@spotlightsportsmag.com.

Photo by Bill Reilly

Offensive linemen are humble by nature. They dutifully strap on their helmet and lead their teammates down the field. Seemingly, the only time they are noticed is when a penalty is called or they completely destroy some unknowing defensive player.

La Costa Canyon’s Erik Magnuson enjoys such an existence. He relished his role as the mainstay on both the offensive and defensive lines to the point he earned a scholarship to the University of Michigan to play on the offensive line for former SDSU coach Brady Hoke.

“The main reason for my success this season was all the help people gave me. Playing with great players and having the best coaches made this year great,” Magnuson said. “It wasn’t a year of individual awards. I owe a lot of people a lot of thanks and appreciation.”

The 6-foot-6, 280-pounder helped the Mavericks to the Avocado League West championship with an unbeaten record (4-0) and a 9-3 mark overall. Magnuson points out that the lopsided loss to San Clemente (58-7) was a turning point that allowed LCC to mature and begin a climb back into the top 10 in San Diego County.

“Losing to San Clemente was the most memorable because we all realized that we need to work hard and focus and from then on, our practices were so much better,” he said. “Usually a loss isn’t a memorable part of the season, but it was for me because it opened mine and my teammates’ eyes to what we needed to do.”

Magnuson, a four-star recruit by Scouts, Inc., had his eyes wide open when it came to preparing for the season. Besides going to camps and working with his trainer, Brian Killion, Magnuson worked on his quickness by playing with his AAU and high school basketball teams.

Now, Magnuson is ready to concentrate on his football career where he hopes to earn his degree and start on the offensive line for the Wolverines for four years. Yet, his advice points to self-motivation and plain, old hard work.

“Have fun because high school goes by fast,” he said. “But remember what your goals are and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t achieve them.”

Photos by Bill Reilly

While the pressure was swirling all around her in the CIF field hockey Division I finals, Jamie Garcia had a crystal-clear epiphany that took her back to the beginning of the season when she and her Fallbrook High teammates were working on their conditioning and camaraderie to become a solidified unit.

“Our motto was ‘One team, One dream,’ and we all brought that with us to practice every day,” Garcia recalled. “We worked hard, stayed positive, kept focused and persevered. We each played our best to help the team as a whole.”

And no one did as much heavy lifting as Garcia, who scored the winning goal with 1:40 left in overtime, to give Fallbrook a 3-2 win over defending champion Scripps Ranch. It was the Warriors’ first field hockey championship since 1991 and the fourth in school history.

“When we went into overtime, I told myself that this was it,” said Garcia, a four-year varsity player who scored 17 goals and had 14 assists this season. “When I scored, I was overcome with excitement that I probably had just scored the winning goal.”

With Garcia leading the way, Fallbrook was able to achieve the Triple Crown of field hockey: winning the prestigious Serra Tournament, league title and CIF championship. The senior believes the foundation was laid for earning those titles with all the preseason training led by first-year coach Kirstin Mueller, who succeeded legendary coach Kathy Waite.

“We started preparing for this season as soon as last season ended. We started with the basics because a team that is skilled has to know the basics,” Garcia said. “Our coach made us run a lot, so we were in very good shape. Every practice was focused on the fact that we wanted to win. We focused on one game at a time and we prepared accordingly. All of this together allowed us to win CIF.”

Now, Garcia is preparing for the next phase of her career at UC Davis, where she will play field hockey and study exercise biology with a goal of becoming a physical therapist, and she has some advice for future Fallbrook players.

“Even when things get tough, keep your head up and persevere because most likely, it will get better,” she said.

Photos by Kimberly Deutsch

Ryder Roberts has found that pain is temporary, but championships last forever.

The Vista High junior was instrumental in helping the Panthers defeat Carlsbad, 6-5, in overtime for the CIF-San Diego Division I water polo championship.  It was the first championship since 1976 for Vista, which ended Carlsbad’s eight-year stranglehold as the county’s best team.

Roberts, who scored his lone goal in the first 45 seconds of the second overtime period as the Panthers were able to hold on for the victory, played through pain due to a broken bone in his left shooting hand.

In a cast for three weeks from mid-October to early November, not enough time to fully heal, Roberts practiced without the cast for another week, and then returned to action for the playoffs with his wrist and lower hand wrapped up.

“There was never a day where any of us thought of not playing in the finals and who better to take the title from the team that stole it from us last year in Carlsbad,” said Roberts, whose left hand remains in a cast for the next month before a decision will be made on surgery.

“My team and I prepared ourselves by playing all summer against some of the best teams in the nation. We were playing with the best, and it made us that much more ready for high school season.”

Roberts was certainly ready for his junior season after he spent part of the summer with the U.S. Youth National World Water Polo team that competed in Italy. Such an experience made him anxious to improve with a hope of making the squad again and traveling to Australia next summer for the Junior World Championships.

The 6-foot-1 Roberts believes a lot of his success has come from his ability to learn combined that with an incredible work ethic.

“What I mean by being a student of the sport is always be willing to learn at anytime,” he explained. “Be open-minded on other’s opinions and try to understand where they are coming from. Never believe that what you know is enough. Hard work sounds easy enough, but so many people I think forget about this. They too often rely on talent as their backbone of success instead of hard work.”

Photos by Kimberly Deutsch

With an area rich in cross country history over the past 20 years, La Costa Canyon’s Kelly Lawson is the next “It” girl.

It started with Kira Jorgenson (RBV), then to Milena Glusac (Fallbrook), followed by Molly Grabill (Rancho Bernardo) and Alli Billmeyer (Torrey Pines), who all carried the torch of elite cross country runners in San Diego County. Now, it is Lawson, who is just a junior, to take her place among the best.

Lawson won the CIF-San Diego Section Division II title to go along with the Avocado League West championship. At the state meet in Fresno, she finished fifth in Division II. As a team, the Mavericks won the county championship and took second in the state behind perennial power Saugus.

“The most memorable part of the season for me was the CIF meet,” Lawson said. “It was the first time I won this meet as an individual, but also the girls on my team ran incredibly well. We came in 1-2-3-4-6 with a total team score of 16 points.

This is the best we have ever done as a team, and we won CIF for the second time in a row, this year in Division II.”

Lawson saw first-hand how Grabill and Billmeyer handled the pressure of being an elite runner, so when it came time for her to go to the forefront, she knew what was expected and what to do. And for Lawson, it begins and ends with her teammates and coaches.

“Our top five girls run together a lot and they are always pushing me and encouraging me and I definitely became a better runner this season because of them,” she said. “My coaches also helped me and gave me good workouts to get me to peak at the right time.

“Emma (Abrahamson) was with me every race, pushing me along and encouraging me to stay with her. I couldn’t have had the results I did without her there right with me.”

Lawson, who has earned nine varsity letters in a little over two years, doesn’t have much time to rest with track on the horizon.

“I want to work with my team so we can have another successful season. I have the track season to look forward to and train for in the spring,” she said.

Photos by Deb Hellman