Monday, April 17, 2006

The Hart Connection


Williams S. Hart High School football is a tradition rich program located in the Santa Clarita Valley just north of Los Angeles. It is known for producing talented all-CIF quarterbacks. Kyle Boller, Matt Moore, Kyle Matter, Sean Norton and Tyler Lyon are the last five and all received Division IA scholarship offers. Boller, Moore, and Matter all went to Pac 10 schools, but only Boller was drafted in the NFL. Lyon is a Pac 10 recruit too, a 2006 Arizona Wildcat signee. Norton is considered by many Hart fans and aficionados the best of the bunch. Yet he was overlooked by all the Pac 10 schools because of his size despite being named CalHi Player of the Year in 2003.

Norton had only three offers: Fresno State, Wyoming, and Portland State. He, along with teammate wide receiver Kevin Ciccone, signed with the Bulldogs in 2004. They joined 2003 recruit OL Chris Piligian, another Hart alum, in Fresno. Joe Bernardi was Norton's center in 2003 as a junior. He was named all-CIF Southern Section that year, but moved to Flagstaff, Arizona in 2004 when his father excepted a job at Northern Arizona. He verbally committed to Fresno State before the start of his senior year.

Norton still has a chance to be the starting quarterback this year. Ciccone will be the 3rd, 4th or 5th WR in a deep receiving corps and Piligian will be a part of a very deep offensive line rotation. Bernardi will probably redshirt, only because there is experienced depth ahead of him, and the nation's best center, Kyle Young, is the starter.

Another former Hart Indian, wide receiver/cornerback Evan Surratt, may walk on this fall. He sat out of football in 2005, and will be classified as a freshman in 2006. He was a first team all-CIF DII Southern Section WR in 2003 while sharing the load with Ciccone. In 2004 he shared the load with WR Ryan Wolfe but still had 46 receptions for 852 yards and 7 touchdowns in a down year for the 7-5 Indians. He will more than likely play cornerback at Fresno State since the receiver position is loaded. He has good size, about 6'2 180, but his speed is a questionable and has been out of football since 2004. Hart players do not lack one important thing, that being heart, no pun intended.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

first youre an idiot, brandstater is borderline garbage, if the central valley wants to have any watchable football games next year, you better let the best quarterback play, not the best valley qb. Where the hell do get off with that bs lack of heart comment, you must be from the valley

BarkBoard.com said...

WTF? Read the fucking last line again! Maybe I should reword it, but it does not say lack of heart. It says Hart players do NOT lack Heart.

Obviously, you have not read the other posts of the blog because I have been a Sean Norton guy from the beginning. I thought he had the better Spring Game, but has not done enough per se, to sway the coaches.

BarkBoard.com said...

and I am from the Valley, but that does not hinder my view from analyzing the Dogs. Does being from Alhambra make you a better expert on the Fresno State QB situation?