The big powers in California high school football like De La Salle-Concord, Centennial-Corona and St. John Bosco-Bellflower regularly put on lots of miles to play teams from the opposite end of the state, or outside California as well. Quite often they also host teams that travel long distances.
The reality is the school that both visits and hosts teams from farther away than anyone in California is the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, a CIF North Coast Section Division V school with a co-ed enrollment of 120 students.
The Eagles are currently 8-1 after returning from Jackson, Mississippi where they throttled the host Mississippi School for the Deaf in a 40-0 victory. Two weeks ago they went down to Riverside for their annual matchup with their Southern California counterpart and handed the California School for the Deaf from SoCal a 58-8 loss.
Earlier this season they hosted the Indiana School for the Deaf from Indianapolis and suffered their only defeat in a 16-12 final.
“Year in and year out no one plays a national schedule the way they do,” said Prep2Prep Senior Contributor Nate Smith who has followed and covered CSD football for many years. “The past few years they’ve played at least one big out of state game every year, and usually host another out-of-state opponent as well.”
Last season the Eagles traveled to the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin and hosted the Florida School for the Deaf, but unfortunately for Eagles’ faithful lost both games. Two years ago they traveled to Gallaudet University for the Deaf and hard of hearing in Washington D.C. and came away with a 27-0 victory over local Parkside.
The Eagles aren’t one of the top NCS D5 teams as the playoffs approach, but they are in the mix according to Smith’s most recent playoff projections.
The playoffs are all fine and dandy, but the big news around the Fremont campus is ESPN2 is coming to town on Thursday to show their game with visiting Woodland Christian-Woodland live as part of the ESPN2 High School Showcase series.
According to California School for the Deaf Coach and Athletic Director Warren Keller: “This started when ESPN covered us for E:60 Silent Night Lights two years ago and wanted to do a live game as a follow up. An extended version of that silent night lights documentary will also be shown next week.”
The Eagles are led by quarterback Jax Pedersen. The 5-10, 170-pound senior was the starting running back as a freshman and ran for 1,038 yards and 10 touchdowns. As a sophomore, and with his older brother Zane Pederson at quarterback, he rushed for 1,397 yards and 12 TDs, and CSD was on E:60 Silent Night Lights and won the deaf national championship, but lost 15-14 at Berean Christian-Walnut Creek in the NCS playoffs in a game Jax tore his ACL. As a junior he returned only to tear the ACL again in the second game of the season.
Now, in his final year, Keller has moved Jax to quarterback and he’s poised to set school single season records held by his brother. He currently has 1,518 yards passing with 24 TDs and is completing 75.9-percent of his passes. In 2014 his brother had 1,716 yards and 27 TDs with a 71.2 completion percentage.
“Jax is the heart and soul of the team and his comeback this year has helped us significantly,” Keller remarked.
Other players that have been big contributors this season are junior Spezio Harmount, seniors Brandon Duran, Cameron Baer and Esau Zornoza, and freshman Calel Aramboles.
The loss to the team from Indianapolis could cost CSD another deaf national title but Keller can only look ahead at this point.
“Yes, we lost to Indiana but we had a rough week in general. We installed five new starting offensive linemen, a new running back in Jax’s place, and Jax being new at quarterback. Indiana is a great team and deserves all the credit but I felt like we weren’t ready,” Keller said. “A couple of weeks ago we’ve really started to roll and now we’re not going to look back. Jax is so excited about the game because he’s been in many big ones but being live with a nationwide audience means a lot to the school.”
The Eagles may be rolling into the playoffs but on Thursday evening at 5 p.m. with ESPN2 in town its lights, action, roll-em.
QB Jax Pederson | Courtesy CSD |
