Garden Grove's season of giving

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. - Kevin Telles died on the opening night of the high school football season, the process of death beginning while he was looking for someone to block.

He lived, breathed and ultimately died football in a community that doesn't have a football factory, where athletes play for school colors instead of a college ride, and where extended families can still be bound by stitched brown leather as much as DNA.

A doctor who tried to save Telles as he lay on the newly installed artificial turf at Westminster High said that Telles could have collapsed in the hospital and the result would have been the same. For some reason, without warning, the 17-year-old had no chance to live another day.

By all descriptions, Telles was a warrior at both fullback and linebacker. He may not have been a blue chip prospect, although he was one of Garden Grove's best players, but he lived for the game that captures so many, played it his hardest, and was committed from head to toe.

His death changed the lives of teammates and galvanized a school thrust into the adult world of funerals, memorials and grief. Many say that football sets the tone for the school year. What was to be taken from such a tragedy?

Victory. Honor. Victory with honor.

Teammates made a commitment to Telles to win a Southern Section championship. Game after game Garden Grove rose to the occasion, believing in one game at a time, one play at a time.

One breath at a time.

Dealt with it their own way
Flowers and cards came from other Garden Grove schools, but also from well outside of Orange County, from schools in Upland and Palm Springs that had no business hearing about the death much less caring. As educators, as competitors, they were all in it together. In the days that followed there were counselors, media, heart-to-heart talks and enough tears to sink a ship.

There was also football, an escape from the pain but also a way to hold on to Telles' memory. Not playing the following week against Irvine Woodbridge was discussed, but they did, with ground rules laid out by first-year coach Joe Hay: “We're not going to take our aggression out against Woodbridge. It's not their fault that Kevin died, so no cheap shots, no huge hits. Play with poise and class within the boundaries of the game.”

They trailed 17-14 midway in the third quarter but scored 21 consecutive points for a 35-24 victory. After all the distractions and continuing grief, that was when they started to believe for real. Maybe Kevin Telles was looking out for them. Maybe it would be all right.

Jesse Lozano, a friend of Telles' since kindergarten, moved from safety into Telles' position at linebacker, and eventually he asked to wear Telles' cleats. Big shoes to fill, but a perfect size 11. 

A photo of Telles hung outside the locker room, and players tapped the photo before and after every practice like Notre Dame taps its “Play Like a Champion Today” sign. Hay received $2,000 total for being named a local television station's coach of the week and coach of the year; he hopes to put that money toward a permanent memorial.

His players were almost always focused, and when they weren't, Hay only had to remind them to look at the sticker on the back of their helmets that honors No. 45.

“They made it look easy for me,” Hay remembered. “They were incredible kids, coachable, they wanted it. After Kevin died, they had something to play for. My heart and thoughts go out to Kevin's family. The kid was so good. God needed and angel and he picked the best one out of that group.”

Because it's football, there were times during the season that an Argo player would get injured and lay on the ground. Hay would look at his team and see a deer caught in the headlights. “It's not going to happen again,” Hay would reassure them, “but you look at them: 'Is he going to die?' It was a hard lesson for them.”

Hay had been on the Fountain Valley staff when sophomore Scotty Lang, 16, collapsed and died at practice just a few days into fall workouts in 1999 because of an abnormal thickening of the heart. When Telles died, for still undetermined causes, resignation flashed through Hay's mind. “It's just human nature to think about throwing in your keys and saying if kids are gonna die while I'm coaching, this isn't something for me.” But in the next moment he realized he couldn't: “If I was to quit, what am I teaching these guys? I'm not teaching them anything.”

He has worn enough hats to fill a closet: “Father, brother, friend, psychologist, psychiatrist, teacher, coach. I feel I've been there for them, and if they ask for anything within reason, I'll try to get it to them.”

Three months to the day after Telles died on Sept. 11, the Argos' on-the-field journey came to an end. Thirteen consecutive victories followed by one defeat. “We've cried, laughed, cheered, been happy and sad,” Hay said of his team's weekly rollercoaster ride. “We've been through it all.
 
“If you knew Kevin, you knew he died doing something he loved and died doing it with the people he loved. I know he loved his family dearly, but he also loved his teammates like family.

“This season was a present to the community, the school, the boosters and the program. We had a lot of things happen, a lot of notoriety that we wouldn't have received if it hadn't happened and there were a lot of positive things that came of it. Things happen for a reason. It's tragic. It was just his time.”

It was an extraordinary journey that bonded black, white, brown and yellow into one, that brought attention to a program that would have otherwise been forgettable, and demonstrated the resiliency of youth even when it hurts.

On Dec. 12, hours after their final game, many players gathered at the school and drove to Kevin Telles' gravesite to say goodbye.

A commitment of brothers
In the weeks following the victory over Woodbridge, the Argos pieced together blowouts and comebacks and they rose steadily in the rankings.

After failing to score an offensive touchdown in a 9-0 opening night victory over Westminster, they scored less than 28 only once the rest of the season. They trailed Santa Ana Valley by a point at halftime, but pulled it out 20-14. They trailed in the third quarter against fourth-seeded Norwalk in the section's Southern Division semifinals, then scored 28 consecutive points for a 35-23 victory.

Then came Garden Grove's first championship game since winning in 1945, and it came against fourth-seeded La Mirada, which was bigger, stronger and more pedigreed.

The first drive was a disaster and just 2½ minutes into the game they were trailing. A punt was blocked and La Mirada quickly scored. But as the game unfolded, you felt Kevin Telles must have been there.

Must have been there with quarterback Sean Young when his 18-yard scramble ignited the Argos on their second possession that led to the game-tying score.

Must have been there with Joaquin Reynoso when he laid out La Mirada receiver Aaryon Bouzos for a one-yard loss to further the momentum shift.

Must have been there with Josh Webb when he turned a 15-yard pass into a 60-yard score by stepping out of Shane Blood's tackle.

Must have been there with tailback Josh Sepulveda, who took the direct snap after Young was injured, dropped the ball then picked it up, ran to the sidelines and tip-toed into the end zone for an eight-yard score that looked to be going nowhere. That made it 21-7 barely into the second quarter.

Young's ribs were injured so badly when he was horse-collared that he left in an ambulance at halftime. Straight up, Garden Grove was going to win. Down a quarterback, they weren't. Football is still a game of reality.

The offense struggled with a sophomore quarterback, the defense wore down, La Mirada scored 42 consecutive points. The Matadores, not the Argonauts, won 49-27.

That explained the tears because Garden Grove's journey wasn't really about winning a championship, it was about keeping a commitment.

“We promised Kevin, we promised K.T.,” said defensive back Christian Trejo, who had a good game and then a good cry. “We were going to get him that ring. It hurts. Everything we worked for – you don't come this far to lose.”

You don't, either, which is why it was good that Robert Telles was on the sidelines. Robert is Kevin Telles' older brother. He graduated last year, is now at Westwood College studying criminal justice, and wants to be a police officer.

Robert consoled a gasping Young through the tears of being unable to finish something he had started. He consoled battered Avery Williams on the sidelines. And after the cold gave way to rain in the final moments of the game, Robert was asked by Coach Hay to address 43 young men who began the season as boys.

Wearing his brother's red jersey, Robert Telles told them to apply the intensity and sacrifice they put into football toward life and college and they will come out with degrees and careers, that this wasn't the end, but the beginning, that his brother would be so proud of them despite the numbers on the scoreboard. “You didn't win this game,” he said, “but you can win in life. Every one of you has that gift.”

A warrior's lesson
Sepulveda's amazing TD run may have been the beginning of the end to the title game's final result, but it wasn't the last hurrah in Garden Grove's remarkable journey. After giving up 14 points following two failed fourth-down attempts deep in their own territory – the Argos were still playing to win though the score seemed hopeless – they put together one final scoring drive that ended with an 18-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Dallas Schuetz to Tyren Anderson with 66 seconds left in the game. They never gave up.

It harkened back to Telles' final words, spoken in the huddle before his last play, which have become almost a mantra at Garden Grove: “Are you guys tired? I'm not tired. Let's do this. Let's finish this.”

Warriors don't always win, buy they never leave anything on the field. The spirit of Kevin Telles never left, only his presence. As Trejo stood at midfield with his teammates to receive a plaque for finishing second, he was asked one final question on the season: What would Kevin Telles have to say right now?

“That we tried our best,” Trejo said. “He'd tell me to stop crying and be a man because we worked our ass for him.”