CARSON - The 2013 Sacred Heart Prep football team huddled for the last time on Saturday afternoon, under partly cloudy skies at the StubHub Center.
It wasn't the jubilant moment the Gators had hoped for after earning a trip to Carson with its remarkable 35-point victory against El Cerrito. Plagued by a horrid start and four turnovers, SHP fell to Corona del Mar 27-15 in the CIF-State Division III bowl game.
Afterward it was left for Gator coach Pete Lavorato to put the game and season in perspective, and as usual he didn't disappoint.
"Of course this hurts," Lavorato told his crestfallen players. "You guys put so much time and effort in this. The coaches have too. It hurts big-time. But once the hurt goes away, you'll think back at what a tremendous season you had. You did not lose to a bad football team. This is a great life experience. A lot of kids don't get this chance."
No they don't. Not Bellarmine Prep, nor Archbishop Mitty, nor Terra Nova, nor Serra - not any of the other Central Coast Section teams that routinely grab headlines. Instead it was little old Sacred Heart Prep making its way to Carson, despite having less than 10 seniors returning this season and boasting fewer boys in its entire school than Bellarmine probably has in its freshman class.
Asked what he'll remember about this season, Lavorato said: "Just how tremendous our kids and our coaching staff was. Nobody would have given us much of a chance to get here at the start of the season. We lost 21 seniors from last year's team and we only have 300 boys. When you lose 21 seniors, that's a lot."
But it had seniors like Noah Kawasaki, Chris Lee, Ricky Grau, Andrew Segre, Alex Castro, Paul Westcott, Patrick Finnigan, Nic Collazo and Will Reilly. It also had a never-say-die mentality and more character than any team has right to.
Down 21-0 after one quarter, SHP rallied to within 21-15 by halftime and may have won the game had it not been for three lost second-half fumbles. One was by star running back Andrew Segre - playing with a dislocated shoulder -- whose arm popped out of its socket just as he was going to take a handoff from quarterback Mason Randall mid-way through the third quarter. The ball wound up on the turf with Sea King lineman Justin Hess greedily gobbling it up.
"He's had a dislocated shoulder he's been playing with all season," Lavorato said. "He came off the field after one series and he puts his shoulder back in and then he goes back out there and we're driving and he goes to take a handoff and his shoulder fell out and he didn't have an arm there. It was like 'Are you kidding me?' But what a warrior he is, playing like that all year."
What warriors all the Gators were, marching to 13 victories in their first 14 games including the mind-boggling upset win against El Cerrito which was teeming with Division I talent. The triumph in the CIF-State NorCal Regional game put SHP on the cusp of the unthinkable, a state bowl title -- completely unchartered waters for a school that didn't have boys until the 1970s, nor a football team until 15 years ago.
Corona del Mar knew what it was up against and didn't count SHP out even with a 21-0 lead.
"They're a championship team," Sea King coach Scott Meyer said. "We weren't ever comfortable up 21-0. We knew they had the potential to come back and score a lot of points and we knew they had the fight in them. They're a class program and a great group of coaches and kids."
Chief among them was junior running back/linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven, who had 16 tackles, rushed for 77 yards and scored one of SHP's two touchdowns on an amazing, weaving 48-yard touchdown. He drew raves from not only the Sea King coach but more than one Southern California sports writer who had previously not seen him play.
As tremendous a performance as it was for Burr-Kirven, it was no more stellar than the effort put forth in recent years by Lavorato. The former Canadian Football League star has stayed behind to live part-time in California to build this remarkable small-school program while his wife lives in their eventual dream home in the Pacific Northwest.
"He's an amazing man," Burr-Kirven said. "He never gets mad at us. He just tells us to keep fighting no matter what. I wanted to get him that ring - he deserves it. He's put so much into this program. His wife lives up in Oregon and he stays down in California to coach us. He's one of the most amazing men I've ever met."