CIF state football championship extras:
Defensive gem
When the Clayton Valley offense has the ball, the team’s defensive coordinator, John Canesa, continues to work. He gathers the players around a flatscreen monitor near the bench and together they point out what needs to be corrected. From a distance, the coach with gray hair looks like a professor. In the state championship game against Aquinas of San Bernardino on Friday, he was an effective professor.
“That’s a good coach,” said cornerback Rayshawn Jackson, who had an interception Friday. “I love him. He’s funny. He yells when he has to. He calls the right plays, and we go out there and execute.”
Facing an opponent that averaged more than 30 points per game, Clayton Valley nearly got a shutout. A late touchdown pass accounted for Aquinas’ only points as Clayton Valley celebrated a 10-7 victory in the Division 2-AA title game.
It took a collective effort to get it done.
“The kids have been playing hard all year,” Canesa said. “The first game of the year against Turlock, we gave up a touchdown on the first drive. We had nine new starters on the defense from last year. When they came off the field, we went by the TV and they just made changes themselves. The character they showed, I said, ‘Boy, this is going to be something special.'”
When the game ended Friday, Canesa was a proud professor.
“We don’t have any superstars,” he said. “They just all run to the football and play team defense.”