High School Football Player of the Week: Bradley Schlom is Corona del Mar’s deep weapon
Most of the attention that Corona del Mar High‘s explosive offense receives is reserved for 6-foot-3 quarterback Ethan Garbers, 6-5 wide receiver John Humphreys and 6-6 tight end Mark Redman, who have the size, skill and intangibles to have realistic shots at playing football on Sundays a few years from now.
If Bradley Schlom’s 6-foot frame stretched another three inches, he might be in that conversation, but he’s certainly no afterthought when it comes to the Sea Kings’ ability to get to the end zone and beat up on quality foes.
The senior receiver, who went into CdM‘s Sunset League opener at Huntington Beach on Thursday leading the team with 42 receptions, is the deep weapon for Garbers, a smart and speedy pass-catcher who runs perfect routes and has a knack for destroying opposing secondaries. He — like Garbers, Humphreys and Redman — was an All-CIF Southern Section Division 4 selection after the Sea Kings last year reached the section title game for the second time in three years and among the reasons they are ranked No. 1 in Division 3 and considered a frontrunner to claim the program’s second CIF State Bowl title.
He’s a tremendous football player, but focusing on that, CdM coach Dan O’Shea says, “would be doing the young man a disservice.”
As important as Schlom, who caught 11 passes for 163 yards and a touchdown in the Sea Kings’ 42-21 romp over previously unbeaten San Clemente on Sept. 26, might be on the field, it’s a small fraction of what he means to the football program and his school.
Ethan Garbers throws for 384 yards and four TDs, three to John Humphreys, as the Sea Kings improve to 5-0 with a 42-21 win on Thursday at Davidson Field.
“Bradley Schlom is one of the young treasures,” O’Shea said. “A young student athlete who just has a phenomenal character about him and is just a magnetic joy to be around. I really mean that. ... He totally gets it.
“We definitely have some different talents on this team — good, bad, ugly, big, fast, small, whatever — but it’s critical to get all 103 guys, so to speak, rowing the boat in the same direction. [It’s about] managing egos. And we want some of our very, very best players to be the most humble guys on the football team. And their job is to make the guys who are sophomores and juniors, to make them feel like they’re the greatest thing on the planet because they’re part of Sea Kings football.”
Schlom plays that role better than anyone else — everyone on the team, O’Shea said, “loves Bradley, they all come up and hug him” — and serves, among several others, as a role model on how to play the game the right way.
“He’s just really a dynamic, fun-loving, always-smiling personality,” O’Shea said. “And in addition to that, what makes him so unique — I’m not kidding when I say this — in 25 years of coaching, he might be the best practice player I’ve ever seen. He’s one of those guys, he does everything at a billion miles an hour. Those guys are hard to find.
“You know, some days a lot of guys just try to waddle through practice and get through it. Bradley is a relentless guy, practice-player wise, and just has this really neat, magnetic personality, and it’s so easy to be around him.”
Schlom, who has received offers from Colorado and Washington State to join their Pac-12 Conference programs as a preferred walk-on player, is just as good when practice is over. He caught 72 passes for 1,138 yards and 10 touchdowns last year despite playing a little more than half the season with a stress fracture in his hip and pelvic bones.
Following offseason surgery and rehab, he’s emerged as a faster, savvier and more complete receiver, a perfect complement to the Stanford-bound Humphreys, one of the nation’s best receivers, the Washington-bound Redman, and unheralded 6-3 receiver Simon Hall, who will play next year in the Ivy League. The Washington-bound Garbers, who went into Thursday leading Orange County in passing with 1,764 yards, has a wealth of options.
“Bradley gives us our speed threat that we sorely lacked years ago,” O’Shea said. “He’s the one who can take the top off the defense. He can run right at safety and run by him and create that underneath space or be able to go over the top in the middle of the field.”
His specialty is route-running, and no one’s better.
“If he puts a foot three inches too far to the left when he’s running a curl route, he’s the hardest on himself,” O’Shea said. “He is such a relentless worker on precise route-running to create maximum separation and, being able to understand the coverage that is being presented, to be able to find space.”
Schlom, asked to describe his game, says he “would say I don’t play with any fear.”
O’Shea says Schlom and Garbers have “telepathy, if you will,” that Schlom “has an incredible instinct with that in regards to the QB.”
He’s caught at least one touchdown in four of the first five games this year, with three each against Downey and Mountain View St. Francis, has amassed triple-digit yards in three games, and he’s scored on punt and kickoff returns this year.
He’ll be vital if CdM (5-0) can match its 2013 team, which went 16-0 and won section and state titles.
“That’s always a goal of ours,” Schlom said. “You don’t want to lose a game, and I think that motivates us, wanting to be the best CdM team that’s ever come through.”
Bradley Schlom
Born: May 14, 2002
Hometown: Long Beach
Height: 6 foot
Weight: 180 pounds
Sport: Football
Year: Senior
Coach: Dan O’Shea
Favorite food: Hot wings
Favorite movie: “Creed II”
Favorite athletic moment: Catching a touchdown pass with 11 seconds left to lift the Sea Kings to a 21-20 triumph at San Clemente last year.
Week in review: Schlom caught 11 passes, matching his season high, for a season-best 163 yards and one touchdown as CdM improved to 5-0 with a 42-21 romp over San Clemente on Sept. 26 at Newport Harbor High.
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