Snipes dedicates Mesa season to dad
On game day, the Costa Mesa High football team learned of a death affecting a teammate. More was on the Mustangs’ minds than a season opener.
When Coach Glen Fisher told the Mustangs that Elijah Collado went to his grandfather’s funeral on the same day they were supposed to play, Josh Snipes rose from his seat. Snipes walked over to Collado and he gave him a hug.
If there was a player in the team room that knew what Collado was going through it was Snipes. Four months ago, Snipes lost his father, Clarence Johnson, to a heart attack.
Snipes and Collado went into the Mustangs’ first game last week against Northwood at Irvine High with heavy hearts. The starting cornerbacks dedicated the contest to their lost loved ones.
They weren’t the first to break down. Costa Mesa’s defense did, giving up the game’s first touchdown with about four minutes left in the first half.
A couple of minutes later, Snipes helped Costa Mesa even the score. He intercepted a pass and returned it 40 yards, setting up the Mustangs on Northwood’s 20-yard line.
On first down, the ball was in Snipes’ hands again, this time he made a leaping catch as a wide receiver, believing he had scored a touchdown. He went down on one knee and said a prayer for his dad, before jogging off to the sideline.
The Mustangs tied up the game on a one-yard touchdown run on the next play. Snipes figured the run was a two-point conversion attempt. It wasn’t until halftime that Snipes found out that he did not score.
“When we got out of the locker room, [my teammates were] like, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t get that touchdown!’ I was like, ‘What?’” Snipes said.
At the end of the night, Northwood was more stunned than Snipes. Snipes’ team pulled off a 15-10 upset, securing the Mustangs’ first season-opening win in 14 years.
The nonleague victory also marked Costa Mesa’s first against a Pacific Coast League opponent in 11 years. The Mustangs had dropped their last nine contests to Pacific Coast League teams by almost 34 points per game.
“This first game meant everything to me,” said Snipes, who intercepted two passes, broke up two passes and caught five passes for 43 yards. “Everything that I’m going to do this season is going to be for my dad. I just want everyone to know that.”
The two words on Snipes’ left forearm that evening against Northwood said it all. Snipes wrote “Dear Dad” before the game, a note to his father that he’s going to leave it all on the field.
Rose Johnson said Snipes, her son, has come a long way since her husband’s death. There was a time in the spring that Snipes wanted to stop playing football.
When he lost his dad on April 30, Snipes wasn’t sure what to do with his future. Six days earlier, Snipes celebrated his 18th birthday with his father. He couldn’t do the same on his dad’s special day. Clarence Johnson died four days before he turned 58.
Gone was the man who took Snipes in as a foster parent when Snipes was 8. Four years later, he and Rose took legal guardianship of Snipes.
“[My mom] took it hard. I mean, we all took it hard, but I’m trying to step up, trying to be the man of the house,” said Snipes, who has two younger siblings, Terence Johnson, 17, and Kiana Johnson, 7. “My dad prepared me for this. He taught me a lot, so I kind of just stepped into it really easily and just took care of my brother and sister.”
Snipes’ sister regularly attends Costa Mesa’s practices. Kiana mostly watches Snipes.
Snipes isn’t the biggest player, but the 5-foot-6, 148-pound senior said he feels right at home on the field. Football is Snipes’ sanctuary.
Fisher told Snipes that the sport could help him during a difficult time in his life. After taking 2½ weeks off from football, Snipes returned to the Mustangs in late May.
“I feel that I’ve worked … harder since that time [away],” Snipes said. “Working hard is what’s going to make you better.
“I had never lost somebody very close to me, but, you know, in the end, I think it’s made me a stronger person. I definitely have something to make me keep going now, even more than I already was. It’s making me very driven for football.”
The motivation impresses Fisher, not as much as how the players have rallied around each other during his first six months as Costa Mesa’s coach. Snipes losing his father, a former Marine, and then Collado having to lay to rest his grandfather, Michael Evans, on the day of the Mustangs’ season opener touched the team.
“I’ve experienced some tragedy with these kids and I see how they work on that,” said Fisher, who hopes to lead Costa Mesa to its first 2-0 start in 15 years on Friday, when the Mustangs face Santiago (0-1) at Garden Grove High at 7 p.m. “It’s so cool to watch these young men come together in support of [Snipes and Collado]. We talk about family, but these kids show me family every day. All coaches talk about that, but these guys believe it, they’ve bought into it, and they live it.”
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Josh Snipes
Born: April 24, 1997
Hometown: Costa Mesa
Height: 5-foot-6
Weight: 148 pounds
Sport: Football
Year: Senior
Coach: Glen Fisher
Favorite food: Chow mein
Favorite movie: “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith”
Favorite athletic moment: “Hell week because it’s the moment that I realized that … this team is really something special this year.”
Week in review: Snipes intercepted two passes, broke up two passes, and caught five passes for 43 yards in the Mustangs’ 15-10 upset win against Northwood at Irvine High.
