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Bravo League – Orange County Register

Tony Ramos — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 18:43:45 +0000

OCVarsity will be previewing every Orange County high school football league and every team before the season begins.

BRAVO LEAGUE PREVIEW

The Bravo League is a six-team league that includes Corona del Mar, Newport Harbor, San Juan Hills, Tesoro, Villa Park and Yorba Linda.

CORONA DEL MAR

Top players: Brady Annett, QB, Sr.; Tucker Murray, WR/DB, Jr.; Judah Snow, OL, Sr.; Dorsett Stecker, RB/WR/DB, Sr.; Damien Zeno-Herrera, Sr., DL.

What to expect: A team needs playmakers to compete in the high-quality Bravo League, and the Sea Kings, who went 4-6 overall and 1-4 in league last year, have a couple of good ones. Dorsett Stecker, the team’s leading receiver last season when he was All-Bravo League second team with 54 catches for 726 yards and nine touchdowns, will be an offensive focal point including lining up in the backfield in some sets. Brady Annett took over as starting quarterback for the second half of the 2024 season and finished with 1,062 passing yards and nine touchdowns. Landon Rucker and Judah Snow will be three-year starters on the offensive line. Corona del Mar’s defense could see improvement, too, with the return of a few key players, including all-league second-team selections Scott Anderson at linebacker, Tucker Murray at cornerback and Damian Zeno-Herrera at defensive line.

Corona del Mar’s quarterback Brady Annett (4) runs for a touchdown in the closing seconds of the first half in a game against Newport Harbor in a Bravo League football game at Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

NEWPORT HARBOR

Top players: Glenn Baranoski, RB/LB, Sr.; Jagger Denoon, OL/DL, Sr.; Christopher Foster, OL/DL, Sr.; Jake Meer, QB, Sr.; Emiliano Torres, OL/DL, Sr.

What to expect: It’s always good to have a returning starting quarterback and the Sailors have one with Jake Meer, who was all-league second team last season. It’s also the second season for Newport Harbor to be in its current offensive scheme, so the Sailors should score more than they did last season — a league-low 20 points a game — when they finished 3-7 overall and 2-3 in league. The offensive line, led by Emiliano Torres, who was All-Bravo League first team last year, and Jagger Denoon will be a strength. Newport Harbor has many new faces on defense, certainly a concern given the high-quality offenses in the Bravo League.

SAN JUAN HILLS

Top players: Elijah Ayala, RB, Sr.; Luke Frith, WR/DB. Jr.; Timmy Herr, QB, Sr.; Cooper Javorsky, OL/DL, Sr.; Dean Kolasinski, WR/DB, Sr.

What to expect: The Stallions went 5-0 in the league last season and look good enough to do so again. They are led by what should be a high-scoring offense. San Juan Hills, 11-2 overall in 2024, brings back some offensive standouts from last season, including senior quarterback Timmy Herr, who was last season’s league MVP after completing 69 percent of his passes for 2,230 yards and 22 touchdowns with only four interceptions and scoring nine rushing touchdowns. Also making this Stallions offense go are All-Bravo League first team selections Elijah Ayala, a senior running back, junior receiver Luke Frith and two-way lineman Cooper Javorsky (6-4, 280) who committed to UCLA as an offensive lineman. Junior receiver Ryan Matheson, all-league second team last year, was second on the team in receptions last year with 44 to Frith’s 46. Kolasinksi will shine as a receiver and safety.

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Football players at San Juan Hills High School in San Juan Capistrano are from left: Timmy Herr, Dean Kolasinski, Cooper Javorsky, Luke Firth, Elijah Ayala, on Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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TESORO

Top players: Nic Brubaker, RB, Sr.; Zach Claton, DB, Sr.; Wyatt Owens, LB, Sr.; Gleb Pozdinakov, DL, Sr.; Braiden Vaca, WR, Sr.

What to expect: If the Titans are to improve on last year’s record (3-7 overall and 0-5 in the Bravo League) they need to develop on the offensive and defensive lines. Gleb Pozdinakov (6-4, 260) has an offer from the University of San Diego. Linebacker Wyatt Owens had a team-high 95 tackles last season. Nic Brubaker, also a track and field sprinter, led the Titans with 527 rushing yards last year. Depth could be an issue, so Tesoro needs to stay healthy to move up in the league standings.

VILLA PARK

Top players: Sean Byrnes, WR/DB, Jr.; Luvie Clark, WR, Sr.; Maverick DeClark, LB, Jr.; Ethan Hedrick, WR/LB, So.; Parker Johns, LB, So.

What to expect: Villa Park will field a team with seven sophomore starters, so the early weeks might be a bit rough for the Spartans who were 7-3 overall and finished third in the Bravo League with a 3-2 league record. They had five players battling for the starting quarterback position during the summer, and Coach Dusan Ancich was still trying to figure it out (and enjoying the challenge) as fall camp opened because all five had played well enough to deserve a shot. The sure thing players include receiver Luvie Clark who was All-Bravo League first team last season when he finished with 32 catches for 624 yards and nine touchdowns. Junior linebacker Maverick DeClark, also a rugby player, will be a defensive leader. A running back to watch is Coy Collins, a transfer from Cypress, whose namesake father was an All-County running back at Loara in the 1990s.

Villa Park wide receiver Luvie Clark, left, beats Yorba Linda’s Bryson French to make the catch on a play for a touchdown in a Bravo League football game in Yorba Linda on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)

YORBA LINDA

Top players: Thomas Knutson, DB, Sr.; Onassis Lim, LB, Sr.; Troy Roberts, WR, Sr.; Vaughn Sharp, RB, Sr.; Blake Thorp, DL, Sr.

What to expect: The Mustangs, who have six returning starters on offense and eight returning starters on defense, will be in contention for the league championship. Among the defensive returnees are senior back Thomas Knutson and senior defensive lineman Blake Thorp, both of whom were All-Bravo League first team last year. Senior linebacker Onassis Lim was All-Bravo second team in 2024. Troy Roberts, the team’s leading receiver last year as a sophomore, had 40 catches and was named All-Bravo League first team in 2024. Yorba Linda had not settled on a starting quarterback as of early August, with juniors Noah Trujillo, last year’s varsity backup, and Colin O’Connor, a transfer from Servite, competing for the role. Mustangs coach Jeff Bailey has hinted that the two might get equal playing time, a rotation system that worked well for Mission Viejo last year.

Yorba Linda’s Troy Roberts (47) tries to get away San Juan Hills’ defenders during a game between San Juan Hills and Yorba Linda in a Bravo League game at Yorba Linda HS on Friday, Oct. 11…..(Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)

O.C. equestrians prep for wildfires without a countywide horse rescue team

Tony Ramos — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:10:58 +0000

Dee Dee Friedrich remembers how haphazard wildfire horse rescues used to be in Orange County before a team formed to cart animals to safety.

In 2008, the Freeway Complex fire ignited in Corona and raged over the hills into Yorba Linda, where she lived.

With a few hours to spare, Friedrich and her husband roped squealing pigs and guided distressed horses into a trailer and hauled them out.

By the time they rescued the last of their neighbors’ horses, the inferno was burning on both sides of the road.

The aftermath of the Freeway Complex fire shows the burned walls of a house in Yorba Linda frame the rolling hills and the region’s equestrian lifestyle in 2008.

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

“Everyone that I knew got their animals out, but it was definitely an eye-opener that we were not super prepared,” said Friedrich, president of Yorba Linda Country Riders. “That prompted a lot of people to think, ‘Holy moly, we don’t have a plan.’”

That year, Orange County equestrians formed a mutual aid Large Animal Rescue Team, based in San Juan Capistrano. For the last 15 years, its trained volunteers — including Friedrich, who joined in 2009 — have evacuated horses and livestock from wildfires all over the county.

But now, citing finite resources and a dwindling roster of members, the group has decided to limit its deployments to within San Juan Capistrano city limits. The move leaves equestrians in a big swath of horse country, from the foothills and canyons of the Santa Ana Mountains to the Chino Hills, on their own once again.

“It’s certainly not unique to Orange County that an animal response team feels it doesn’t have the resources to meet its current efforts,” said William Burke, associate director of planning for the California Veterinary Emergency Team, which works with animal rescue teams statewide. “But this is the first instance that I’m aware of where an organization is actually taking the step of circling the wagons and restricting their services.”

Dee Dee Friedrich with her horse, Wyatt.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

San Juan Capistrano established the program in 2008 with the city’s emergency services manager helping to train volunteers. Training sessions branched beyond San Juan Capistrano to equestrian communities across the county. At its peak, the rescue team boasted a roster of 274 members that the county could tap as a mutual aid resource during wildfires.

But San Juan Capistrano’s decision to scale back now has some horse owners outside of the city concerned.

“The original plan was that when north O.C. was on fire, south county members came to help us and vice versa,” said Friedrich. “Unfortunately, right now, it doesn’t seem like you can rely on anyone else to come help you.”

For generations, Yorba Linda’s foothills have attracted equestrians looking to ride its scenic trails. But as in much of the county, the same chaparral and grassland that makes for picturesque panoramas is extremely flammable during fire season, which, because of climate change, is becoming longer and more explosive.

The geographical spread of the Large Animal Rescue Team, or LART, was critical because volunteers who lived far away from a fire would be available to help those under threat.

Even though the team never signed a formal agreement with the county, it quickly evolved to become part of its overall disaster response.

LART gained accolades early on with volunteers trained on everything from towing a horse trailer to using a Thomas Guide map book when cell service doesn’t work in more remote canyons.

Dr. Julie Ryan Johnson rides her horse, Alainn, which means beautiful in Gaelic, at Shady Maples Equestrian Center in San Juan Capistrano.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Dr. Julie Ryan Johnson, a veterinarian who helped to establish the rescue team and trained volunteers for the past 15 years, said a key lesson was learning the county’s emergency chain of command, and to wait for agency officials’ request for deployment.

“We couldn’t be cowboys out there,” said Johnson, founder and president of the San Juan Capistrano Equestrian Coalition. “We had to respect and understand how we fit into the whole big picture of a disaster response.”

Once rescued, horses have been housed at several locations, including stables at the Orange County fairgrounds and Los Alamitos Race Course.

The UC Davis Center for Equine Health’s Horse Report in 2014 called San Juan Capistrano’s team “very successful” and a model used by cities in Los Angeles County.

But when the Canyon 2 Fire blazed through Anaheim Hills three years later, LART’s response showed some strain.

The county activated the rescue team to help evacuate more than 100 horses from stables, including at Irvine Regional Park in Orange. Miscommunication between LART and its volunteers sometimes sent members to rescue areas that were already ablaze and didn’t have horses.

Horses are spooked by the approaching Bobcat fire in 2022.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

“People were running out of Irvine Park holding two horses and looking for horse trailers,” said Friedrich, who volunteered during the fire. “I ended up with an empty trailer. It was a little disorganized.”

The Orange County Fire Authority’s report after the Canyon 2 Fire noted a “lack of common evacuation terminology” as one factor as to why evacuations were slow, though ultimately successful.

After the fierce 2020 fire season in Orange County, the rescue team received county recognition for its efforts. But key LART leaders still felt that housing its volunteer rescuers under the direction of a county agency, such as OC Animal Care, was the best way forward.

“What would be great is if the county could take over the training so that everybody is being trained the same way,” said Johnson, a former OC Animal Care director. “If you’re trained to the same way, and talking the same language, and understand the chain of command and emergency management system, then you’re going to have a better process.”

Currently, LART reports a roster of just 50 active members, a figure officials say is too small to continue countywide.

In June, city officials alerted the county of its planned Jan. 1 withdrawal and stressed that “an alternative model is imminently necessary” in offering to discuss a transition plan.

By September, San Juan Capistrano city manager Ben Siegel gave his counterparts in other cities an update with a letter stating that “neither the county nor any other agency has expressed interest in assuming responsibility for the LART program.”

Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, whose district encompasses fire-prone canyon areas, expressed disappointment in LART’s decision but is confident in the readiness of the county’s disaster response without the rescue team.

“It’s not like we’re starting from scratch with LART gone,” he said. “We are going to have to make some adjustments, but I’m comfortable enough that those adjustments can and will be made. The county should not run out and say the sky is falling.”

Wagner added that canyon-area equestrians have not sounded an alarm with his office over the issue.

Several LART volunteers have given the city permission to share their contact information with the county to swear them in as disaster service workers in the event of a wildfire.

For now, that’s the extent of the relationship between equestrian volunteers and the county.

“The county’s approach to this issue is the same as it is with respect to fire preparedness in general,” Wagner said. “We’re trying to emphasize preparedness. In an emergency, you’re really going to have to be your own first line of defense.”

Cities such as Yorba Linda have shored up preparedness the best they can.

An equestrian flees with a horse as they evacuate Castle Rock Farms while firefighters battle the Easy fire in Simi Valley in October 2019.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Chris Peña, Yorba Linda’s emergency management coordinator, partnered with Friedrich’s equestrian club for a clinic over the summer that allowed attendees to sign up for AlertOC, the county’s mass notification system, and freshen up on the city’s evacuation maps.

Peña, a horse owner who lives 20 miles south in Trabuco Canyon, is looking to host such clinics every fall before gusty Santa Ana winds whip up dangerous fire conditions.

“Our equestrian community is a dedicated group of neighbors helping neighbors when it comes to emergencies,” he said. “We have established any red flag warnings as our first alert to ensure trailers are being hooked to trucks, supplies are ready [and] gates are unlocked, all in order to be able to get out of the neighborhood early as recommended by the Orange County Fire Authority.”

For Johnson, whatever takes the place of LART needs to be proactive before the embers from the next wildfire come raining down.

“There will always be a need for some rescue to happen, but that shouldn’t be the first line of defense,” she said. “If you’re worried about evacuations when there’s already a fire, that’s a really bad plan.”

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