High schools, Pop Warner unite

Jeremy Osso has seen too many would-be Costa Mesa High football players leave the community to play for a different team.

The Mustangs football coach doesn’t fault them for leaving, but still wonders what could be had they stayed. Kapono Asuega, who played at Orange Lutheran, and his younger brother Keanu, who’s at Fountain Valley, didn’t follow in their eldest brother’s footsteps and play at Costa Mesa like Keola did.

Matt Viles, who’s the starting quarterback at Edison, actually lives in Costa Mesa, Osso claimed.

But there’s a way the community is trying to keep the young players competing for their hometown school. And youth football is coming as a strong source of help.

Costa Mesa Pop Warner has started a mentoring program, a buddy system, that involves players from Costa Mesa and Estancia teaching the little guys.

“Now you give [Pop Warner players] a reason to cheer for Costa Mesa and Estancia,” said Osso, who’s also an assistant for the flag football team his 5-year-old son, JJ, is on. “Now they’re like, ‘Let’s go watch them play because our mentor is there.’ Now the parents of the kids can also go watch their kids’ mentors rather than go watch a different team. Hopefully, they’ll see something they like and keep their kids local.”

Estancia also stands to benefit. Costa Mesa Pop Warner, which had long been known as the Mustangs, changed their name to the Eagles when they moved their home games to Jim Scott Stadium last year. The Pop Warner program wanted to symbolize the school they played at, and Estancia chose to give back by sending its high school players to teach the children.

“I think it’s awesome,” Estancia Coach Mike Bargas said of the mentoring program. “It’s beneficial for both programs, the high schools and Pop Warner. Plus it’s a situation where the shoe goes on the other foot and the high school players now know what a coach goes through. A lot of schools are going through mentoring programs. I think it’s ideal for sports, too.”

There are about 25 players total from Costa Mesa and Estancia involved in the mentor program, which began Aug. 1, said Steve Mensinger, the Costa Mesa Pop Warner president.

He said the high school players’ objective is to inspire the Pop Warner kids.