Bush a leader for CdM football

Corona del Mar High head football coach Dan O’Shea calls Peter Bush the single-best leader on the team.

Last season, Bush was the starting quarterback before suffering an ankle injury in the Pacific Coast League opener against Irvine. When he came back, sophomore Chase Garbers had emerged as the signal-caller, so Bush selflessly shifted to tight end.

Bush, who will be a senior in the fall, is now competing with junior-to-be Garbers for the starting quarterback position for the 2015 Sea Kings. They switched off at the position on Thursday evening, when CdM played its annual “Blue & White” intrasquad spring football scrimmage.

On the last play, though, it was Bush at receiver. And it was Garbers who found him on a touchdown pass to complete the 90-minute, non-contact scrimmage that wrapped up spring ball and featured both varsity and junior varsity offensive and defensive units.

“Our guys do not use the terms ‘me,’ ‘mine’ or ‘I,’” O’Shea said. “Everything is collective, ‘We,’ ‘us,’ ‘ours,’ and Peter displays that better than anybody as a leader for this football team. I imagine if we asked him to punt and kick, he would do that too.

“We think [Garbers and Bush] are both college football players. We’re going to let them keep competing and see where it lands. It’s early, for sure.”

O’Shea served as CdM’s defensive coordinator for four years before he was hired in as head coach in April, after Scott Meyer left for Servite in February. The challenge of finding a starting quarterback isn’t a question, as he believes in both players.

O’Shea knows some will question the defense, which will graduate all 11 starters off a team that won its third straight Pacific Coast League title and advanced to the CIF Southern Section Southwest Division quarterfinals. But he said in the Blue & White game, he was impressed with the defense’s team speed as a unit.

Taylor Damron, Sutty Barbato, Brian Chelf and Jack Denning all had interceptions for the defense.

“All of the main guys on this defense have been together, too, for the same amount of time,” said Barbato, whose older brother Barrett is one of the starters lost to graduation. “We’ve learned a lot from the class above us. We’ve got a good class to back up, but I think we can do it if we keep working.”

It was Damron, a free safety who will be a senior, who had a game-clinching interception on the final play to help CdM win the San Juan Hills seven-on-seven passing tournament on May 30. It was the first time that CdM had won a passing tournament, O’Shea said.

“Collectively they played with good spirit, and they played fast,” O’Shea said of the defensive effort in Thursday’s game. “We played faster than I thought, and basic fundamental football [with our] alignment, assignment and technique. That’s what we pride ourselves on, alignment, assignment and technique. They hear it every day, and we did that really well.”

The offense is led by O’Shea’s right-hand man, offensive coordinator Kevin Hettig, who also has stayed on following Meyer’s four-year run where CdM went 50-6, won three CIF Southern Section Southern Division titles and a CIF State Division III title.

Thomas Walker played running back and didn’t get many plays called for him in the format, though he did unleash a couple of big runs. The receivers are led by Bush and senior-to-be Jack Blower on the outside, and there is speed in the slot with Dylan Tucker, Reese Perez and Cameron Kourmos. Perez is a transfer from Villa Park who was ineligible and sat out last year.

Overall, there appear to be plenty of weapons no matter who is under center. O’Shea said he believes it could be the best offensive unit in his five years at CdM.

“The team chemistry this year is just out of this world,” Bush said. “I think the players really get a sense for each other, and I think they really respect our coaches. We kind of rose up after Coach Meyer left, and said we’ve got to kind of get this together on the players’ part of it. Our offense, defense, everything is under control.”

Returning kicker Jason Neiger was perfect on his three field-goal attempts, and O’Shea said he’s excited about the size up front, though returning first-team all-league and Daily Pilot Dream Team tackle Mitch Dean is currently out with a torn labrum in his shoulder.

Dean’s absence has given more run to sophomores-to-be Connor Reid and Kyle Petrucci as varsity linemen this spring, O’Shea said.

CdM will compete in the Marina passing tournament on Saturday.