Difference Maker

New RB Mohamed running hard

After the Brawley Union High School football team’s loss to Santa Fe Christian two weeks ago, head coach John Bishop decided to shake up his backfield.

He decided it was time to install backup quarterback Dylan Mohamed as running back and give the 16-year-old junior a shot at carrying some of the offensive load.

Dividends paid off in a hurry and on Friday, Mohamed scored two touchdowns on the ground, including the game-winner with 35 seconds left to play as Brawley beat Imperial Valley League rival Palo Verde Valley 28-22.

“Dylan, and the entire Mohamed family have always been hard workers who don’t say much,” Bishop said. “They bring it every single game. They’re all hard-nosed. That’s just what Dylan is.

“He’s an integral part of our game,” Bishop said. “If someone goes down he can play quarterback, he’s been the backup quarterback, but he’s our running back until further notice.”

Off the field Mohamed is hard-nosed in the classroom, as he carries a 4.3 grade-point average.

Mohamed’s ability to change a game and produce in the classroom have earned him this week’s “Difference Maker” honors.

Having seen time at quarterback Mohamed said he wasn’t nervous about being given the opportunity to play running back. And because the Brawley offense calls for the quarterback to run the ball often, he said he was “kind of used to it.”

“Yeah, it is a lot different, but it just feels a lot better,” he said. “I get to see the field more and it’s a lot easier.

“When you’re playing quarterback you get hit on every play,” he said. “But at running back, you get to go out and hit some people. It’s definitely a lot more fun.”

Ming learning quickly

Even as a freshman last year, 15-year-old Ethan Ming was called upon to lend his services to the Holtville High School varsity football team playing three games at quarterback.

He played only three games, but the experience was enough to carry over to this, his sophomore year.

One of the players who “works hard, has a good attitude and gives 100 percent,” head coach C.J. Johnston said, Ming has continued to contribute to the Vikings’ cause this season.

This season Ming has seen time at an outside linebacker/defensive end position on the defensive side of the ball and has been converted to a running back, even while playing through a nagging hamstring pull.

Ming finished the past school year with a 3.88 grade-point average and said he currently has all A’s and one B this year. He’s also involved in Campus Life, with his church youth group, on the wrestling and baseball teams and participates in the Interact Club, which helps beautify the community and raises money for worthy causes.

Ming’s work on and off the field have earned him this week’s “Difference Maker” honor.

While he’s impressed his coaches and teammates on the field, Ming shied away from talking about himself.

“The team’s working hard right now and everyone’s getting experience,” he said of the young Vikings team. “Things have been going pretty good, but I’ve been able to learn a lot from some of the other guys on the team.

“Everyone’s playing hard right now,” he said, “and I know that if we work it’s going to work out for us later.”

Heredia always helping

Most of the action on the gridiron Southwest High senior Jose Heredia has seen this season has come during practice on scout teams.

Head football coach Dave Drury said the 5-foot-7, 165-pound senior plays just about anywhere the team needs him to give the first team a good look at what the opposition may be running.

“Sometimes he’s at receiver, running back, on the offensive line. On defense he’s playing safety, linebacker or the defensive line,” Drury said. “He’s just one of those kids that has a great attitude and is always trying to help teammates out on how to run a play.”

On the field Heredia is trying to help out teammates, and off it the helping doesn’t stop.

At only 17 years old Heredia has had responsibility thrust upon him even before he’s legally considered an adult.

While many teammates and friends or just any other teenagers are out partying and enjoying their high school years Heredia is at home helping his 97-year-old grandmother Rosa Heredia.

“It may seem like a burden, but it builds responsibility and accountability,” the younger Heredia said.

After the football season instead of continuing to participate in athletics Heredia has a plan to try to get a part-time job so he can earn a few extra bucks in hopes of saving up for his own car.

Post-high school Heredia wants to attend junior college and then eventually break into a career in law enforcement.

He’s already thinking of his future, helping his grandma and helping his teammates, all the while maintaining a 3.8 grade-point average.

Heredia’s dedication to his family, his grades and his team have earned him this week’s “Difference Maker” honor.

Having started playing football when he was a sophomore in high school, Heredia played junior varsity his first year then split time on the J.V. and varsity last year and is now a full-time member of the varsity.

With a little more than a month remaining in the season and fresh off the team’s first win, Heredia will continue to do what he’s been doing all season long and focus on giving it his all on the scout teams.

“When I’m out there I just try to make the practices as close as possible to a real game,” he said. “If I can’t do that then they can’t get a good look.

“For me, at practice, I’m just trying to help my teammates as best as I can,” he said.

Quiet Lopez plays loudly

He’s the quiet leader of Imperial High’s football team, one who doesn’t need to get in a teammate’s face to get his attention.

For Imperial senior quarterback Chris Lopez, that’s just not who he is. On a team that features standout running backs Caleb Hogue and Preston Blincoe, Lopez sometimes is an afterthought.

But on Friday he proved to be the difference for Imperial as he threw two touchdowns — a four-yard pass to Blincoe and a 65-yard pass to Hogue — that put the game out of reach as the Tigers beat Calexico 16-13.

Not only has Lopez impressed on the field, but he has straight A’s and carries a 4.5 grade-point average, which has him in the running to be his class’ valedictorian. Lopez is also in the school’s Spanish club, is part of the California Scholarship Federation and is his school’s associated student body president.

Lopez’s performance on the field and in the classroom has earned him this week’s “Difference Maker” honor.

While Imperial has been enjoying success this season, sitting at 3-1 overall, the games carry significantly more meaning for Lopez.

Before his junior year of high school, and following a season pitching for the school’s baseball team, he learned he had two torn ligaments in his shoulder. It required surgery and it required him to miss an entire football season.

“Sitting out, that was real tough,” said the 6-foot-2, 200-pounder, “especially when you feel you can make a difference.”

He missed the season, but his shoulder has since healed and now he’s under center for the Tigers and is one of the leaders on the team.

“It feels great,” he said. “Just being with the team, that feeling you get just by being on the football field ... It’s good to be back out here.”

Burgun has right attitude

At 5-foot-6, 175 pounds Southwest High senior Brian Burgun might have been playing out of position on the team’s offensive line.

But there he was, suited up next to guys that had as much as 100 pounds on him, lined up across defensive linemen who had five or six inches on him.

Southwest head football coach Dave Drury said not once has Burgan complained, even as losses have piled up this season.

“He never complains,” Drury said. “He’s one of those kind of guys you wish you can put their heart in everyone else you’ve got.

“I just can’t say enough about the character of the young man,” Drury said.

Last week Drury decided to mix up the offense and put Burgun in the backfield as one of his running backs.

“He gave us a little hope the last game,” Drury said. “We were a different team with him at running back.”

Burgun’s ability to “always keep a positive outlook,” continually play hard, carry above a 3.0 grade-point average and keep teammates motivated has earned him this week’s “Difference Maker” award.

Despite Southwest’s 0-4 start to the season, Burgun said he hasn’t let the difficult start get the best of him.

“One of the things I’ve learned is that you can’t get down on yourself,” Burgun said. “You can’t keep your head down because you never know if this is going to be the last year you ever play football.”

It’s that mindset that Burgun said helps motivate him.

“To me, it’s still fun,” he said. “I love it. I just love playing football. I love being out here.”

Retana returns from injury

Central Union High’s Francisco Retana said he remembers last year physically being at school, but mentally being somewhere else.

He was recovering from a broken left ankle suffered during the football season and was stuck moving his 6-foot-2, 285-pound frame on a pair of crutches.

“I got kind of depressed,” said the 17-year-old senior. “I was feeling really sad at school. I don’t know, I was thinking about being able to just run around again.”

Doctors said it would be about a full year before Retana’s lower leg would be at full strength and Central head coach Kevin Bird figured it would be five or six weeks before he’d have his starting center return to practice.

But as the season kicked off at the start of this month there was Retana, dressed out, ready to put the past nine months behind him.

“I had some doubts because even at practice I was behind some people,” he said. “But I was always thinking that I was going to play.”

Retana concedes he does still have pain in his lower leg and ankle — which required two surgeries, one for correction and one following a post-surgical infection — but he still continues to play through it.

Retana’s determination and his ability to continue to carry a 3.94 grade-point average, along with his versatility off the football field as section leader and tenor saxophone player in the Great Spartan Band, have earned him this week’s “Difference Maker” honors.

Along with being a leader on the field, Retana is also taking advanced placement classes at Central.

For two weeks following his injury, suffered last November, Retana said he was stuck in bed, waiting for the swelling in his leg to go down. His break required steel plates and pins to be inserted into his bones and it was those insertions that eventually led to infections and a second surgery.

Now, nearly recovered, Retana said he can focus “on football and band.”

He’s been able to play three games as the team’s starting center, but to him, it was the first — a 24-14 victory over Yucca Valley on Sept. 5 — that stood out.

“That first game, it was great,” he said. “My leg wasn’t hurting … I think it was just the rush of being back out there on the field.”

Wong a true leader

It might’ve been enough that Calexico High senior running back Matt Wong carried the ball 10 times for 130 yards in the Bulldogs’ 29-27 win over Desert Mirage on Friday.

But there’s more to the player his coach, Alfie Silva, turned to Friday night to help secure the victory.

“He’s a good kid. He’s a leader not only on the field, but in school and with his younger brother and sister,” Silva said.

Wong also maintains a 4.09 grade-point average and is enrolled in advanced-placement classes at Calexico High.

Down by five points Friday, Wong carried the ball three times within four plays for 35 yards rushing and converted a fourth-and-15 play for a first down that extended the Bulldogs’ go-ahead scoring drive.

Wong’s work on the field and in the classroom has earned him “Difference Maker” honors this week.

“He’s a very responsible young man who listens to advice every chance he gets,” Silva said. “He’s someone who upholds his name in this community and is someone who has very high standards.”

Arreola is a small guy with big heart

Adam Arreola may be the prototypical “Rudy” football player.

He’s “5-foot-nothin’, a hundred and nothin’,” but he is still a member of the Central Union High football team and according to head varsity football coach Kevin Bird, Arreola may be the most inspirational.

“His energy and hard work ethic; he goes hard every day in practice,” Bird said. “He inspires the coaches and kids to work harder.”

Having played junior varsity his junior year of high school, Arreola played at the lower level to get playing experience to prepare for this, his senior year as a Spartan.

Beset by injuries, Central looked to Arreola to step in and start at strong safety last week on its way to a 24-14 victory over Yucca Valley on Friday.

Arreola’s hard work, determination and ability to inspire those around him have earned him this week’s “Difference Maker” honors.

Standing at 5-foot-4, 155 pounds Arreola concedes he’s far from the biggest player on the Central team and “definitely not” the fastest.

But there may be no player who is more motivated.

“I love being out here. I love the game of football,” he said. “I’ve been playing since I was in fourth grade and I’ve always been the smallest guy out there.

“For me, I just knew that I’d have to step it up one day and do what I needed to to help the team,” he said. “So, I’ve done what I can to get myself better to help make the team better.”

What is the "Difference Maker"?

It started as a simple phone call from El Centro native and former NFL linebacker Glenn Cadrez. It's now become what we're calling the "Difference Maker."

Locally, on the high school football field, there are players who are on teams who don't always get noticed during a game when friends and family are around. Oftentimes these players are the ones running the scout teams for the first teams and are the ones holding the blocking bags and playing backup positions.

Because not everyone can make it to practice - certainly not the hundreds, even thousands who attend games - it's hard to see and know what these players are doing and how they're contributing to their teams.

It's those players, who aren't necessarily the stars of their teams, but do the small things, work hard during practice, work even harder in the classroom, give their time for community service and make differences on and off the field that will be rewarded as our "Difference Maker."

In a joint effort with Rogers & Rogers Toyota, the California Police Youth Charities and Q-96, the Imperial Valley Press will publish Wednesdays our selection for our "Difference Maker."

That student-athlete, nominated by coaches, will be taken to a San Diego Chargers home game, free of charge, tailgate prior to the game and enjoy an NFL game first hand.

DIFFERENCE MAKER: Arreola is a small guy with big heart

Adam Arreola may be the prototypical “Rudy” football player.

He’s “5-foot-nothin’, a hundred and nothin’,” but he is still a member of the Central Union High football team and according to head varsity football coach Kevin Bird, Arreola may be the most inspirational.

“His energy and hard work ethic; he goes hard every day in practice,” Bird said. “He inspires the coaches and kids to work harder.”

Having played junior varsity his junior year of high school, Arreola played at the lower level to get playing experience to prepare for this, his senior year as a Spartan.

Beset by injuries, Central looked to Arreola to step in and start at strong safety last week on its way to a 24-14 victory over Yucca Valley on Friday.

Arreola’s hard work, determination and ability to inspire those around him have earned him this week’s “Difference Maker” honors.

Standing at 5-foot-4, 155 pounds Arreola concedes he’s far from the biggest player on the Central team and “definitely not” the fastest.

But there may be no player who is more motivated.

“I love being out here. I love the game of football,” he said. “I’ve been playing since I was in fourth grade and I’ve always been the smallest guy out there.

“For me, I just knew that I’d have to step it up one day and do what I needed to to help the team,” he said. “So, I’ve done what I can to get myself better to help make the team better.”

Editor’s Note: The “Difference Maker” feature, presented by Rogers & Rogers Toyota and sponsored by the Imperial Valley Press, Q-96 and the California Police Youth Charities, focuses on high school football players nominated by coaches based on academic achievement, community service, hard work and the ability to make a difference on and off the field. Players selected will be rewarded with a trip to a San Diego Chargers home game.