Player of the Week

Mike Sciacca

Deshai Houston will be the first one to admit that he had a few

butterflies whirling around his stomach just before Ocean View High took

on Twentynine Palms in last Friday’s season opener.

‘I was just anxious to get started,’ he said. ‘But once the game

got underway, I still was really excited. I knew I had to settle down if

I wanted our team to do well.’

After missing his first few passes, Houston did settle down.

In fact, the 6-foot-1, 175 senior quarterback/free safety went on

to have a banner night - the best in his career, as he went on to

complete 17 of 21 passes for 376 yards and six touchdowns in a 48-22

victory at Westminster High.

Needless to say, it was a career best in both yardage and

touchdown passes in a game for Houston, the Independent’s first Player of

the Week for the 1999 season.

What’s impressive about his first outing is that Houston ran up

his numbers in the game’s first 31 minutes.

He exited the contest with nearly five minutes remaining in the

third quarter.

‘After my first four passes, I just started to get into a groove,’

he said. ‘I thought it was very important that we (Ocean View) get the

season off to a great start, because that hasn’t happened too often at

this school. A big win like this has everybody pumped up, and practice

Monday was intense.’

Houston said that topping the 300 yards passing mark in a single

game had always been a goal, but he also said he knew it would take some

talented receivers to help him reach that plateau.

And Friday night, he had a bevy of capable receivers to look to:

first, there was an 18-yard TD pass to Brett Crevda, followed by a

20-yard TD tosses to Brian Campbell (who also made a great ‘acrobatic’

catch in the contest, according to Houston). Crevda also was on the

receiving end of a 41-yard scoring pass. Then it was Luka Levu’s turn as

he snagged a 28-yard touchdown strike, and his final TD pass again went

to Campbell, and this one covered 45 yards.

‘I give those guys a lot of credit,’ Houston said of his receiving

corps. ‘They made some great catches out there, and they’re a big reason

I was able to get the yardage I did.’

A modest and well-mannered young man, Houston says that he has two

more goals before the rest of the season plays out.

‘One of them is for us to make CIF,’ he added. ‘That would be an

awesome accomplishment for this team. And also, I’m going to work hard to

have a good year academically. Those two things will make it a great

senior year for me.’