By Joe Torosian
“Feels great, we’re gonna make history.”
--- Cesar Chavez
--- Cesar Chavez
Sumler’s Enchanted Evening
I wish I knew how many times over the last seven years we’ve used the last name Sumler in a witty headline; Things like; “The Sumler of All Fears”, “Sumler Breeze Makes Panthers Feel Fine”, to name a few and of course “Sumler’s Finals”.
All the attention deserves to be on the Rosemead team as a whole, and we’ll get there, but as Friday’s semifinal rolled into the fourth quarter I started adding up how much time we really had left with the Sumler family.
I don’t know them real well, haven’t had turkey at their pad, or exchanged Christmas cards, but Desean, Deon, and Tra have really made our job at the Mid Valley News much easier.
In the last ten years we’ve been covering sports we’ve seen brothers come through and make an imprint.
Temple City had Herman and Antonio Wagner in 2000 and 2001. There’s also high expectations for the Copping twins in the next few years.
Gus and Jonathan Mendoza at South El Monte, we caught the tail end of the Ziska run at Arcadia, and we saw a little bit of the Paytons at South Hills.
However, three brothers progressively getting better each season, we have never seen that.
Desean Sumler was a playmaker who told me in the summer of 2002 that I was going to be writing about him, and I did that season and the next (See “Mid Valley News Remembers: Rosemead-Monrovia 2003).
Deon Sumler broke out in 2003 and got better each season before culminating it in 2005 by helping to lead Rosemead to a perfect regular season record of 10-0 with awesome offensive performance.
Tra Sumler last season was the Mid Valley News Most Valuable Player and last night he might have been between 7:30 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. Pacific Standard Time the best high school football player on the planet.
Stats: 289-yards rushing on 40-carries, two touchdowns, a blocked punt, and a madman on defense.
“He did what he had to do, and handled himself,” Desean said of his younger brother. “I’m at a loss for words, I’m so proud.”
“It’s unbelievable,” said an emotional Tra before breaking down. “It feels like a fairy tale, I dreamed about this.”
Of course the fairy tale and the dream were about the Panthers getting back to the CIF finals for the first time in over a quarter of a century.
They got back to the semifinals for the first time since 2001 and also snapped a six year streak of losing in the first round.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Panther defensive end/tight end Luis Diaz. “I was little bit nervous but we took care of it. I’m so proud of them (team).”
“It’s greater than I thought it would be,” said Panther defensive back Alex Chang. “We ran out the clock and sealed the deal. We’re a family.”
The always respectful to the media Cesar Chavez spoke plainly. “Yes sir, we stopped them. Give props to the defense.”
“It was the players,” said Rosemead defensive coordinator Marc Paramo. “They work really hard. I have 6:A.M. meetings during the week and they are there. Give them the credit, I get to come out here and direct them, but they do a great job.”
Props to M-Town
Ryan Maddox and his team performed better this season than anybody would have thought.
Leading that charge was former Monrovia head coach Steve Garrison. “They’ve done a fantastic job this first year. Fantastic.”
One More Time
The good news for M-Town defensive back Dujawn Jones is that he is only a junior and will have a chance to erase the memory a sure interception off of Angel Alejandre and even surer return for six-points that went through his hands in the first quarter.
Looking Good
Don’t let anyone walk away from the 2008 season and say, or think, that the Wildcats don’t have a gem at quarterback in Nick Bueno. That dude is a playmaker and only a sophomore. Expect Bueno to do a lot Good in the future.
Monrovia defensive end Darwin Winfrey played very well in his final prep game as did Kendall Boggs.
Eerily Reminiscent
Bueno had a pair of snaps in the shotgun formation sail over his head that brought back memories of a pair of bad low snaps David Potts got in the 2006 game against Temple City.
It also raised to mind the often mentioned, but long forgotten, M-Town punter Ricky Romero (who remembers punters?) who preserved a tie against TC in 2000 with a heroic leap and one handed grab of a bad snap.
Last Word on Brother Garrison
“That kid hits the hole, and doesn’t mess around,” he said of Sumler. “I’m tired of looking at that family,” he laughed. “His brother got me for 200 hundred yards.”
When I mentioned that Deon got him 282-yards and three touchdowns in 2005 and Desean for 114-yards and score in 2003 he just looked at me. “You enjoy bringing up all these good memories?”
Garrison says that he is happy and has completed most of his “Honey-Do” list and was ready for football after spending his first fall away from the game since he was a child.
“The fires are still burning,” he said.
I wish I knew how many times over the last seven years we’ve used the last name Sumler in a witty headline; Things like; “The Sumler of All Fears”, “Sumler Breeze Makes Panthers Feel Fine”, to name a few and of course “Sumler’s Finals”.
All the attention deserves to be on the Rosemead team as a whole, and we’ll get there, but as Friday’s semifinal rolled into the fourth quarter I started adding up how much time we really had left with the Sumler family.
I don’t know them real well, haven’t had turkey at their pad, or exchanged Christmas cards, but Desean, Deon, and Tra have really made our job at the Mid Valley News much easier.
In the last ten years we’ve been covering sports we’ve seen brothers come through and make an imprint.
Temple City had Herman and Antonio Wagner in 2000 and 2001. There’s also high expectations for the Copping twins in the next few years.
Gus and Jonathan Mendoza at South El Monte, we caught the tail end of the Ziska run at Arcadia, and we saw a little bit of the Paytons at South Hills.
However, three brothers progressively getting better each season, we have never seen that.
Desean Sumler was a playmaker who told me in the summer of 2002 that I was going to be writing about him, and I did that season and the next (See “Mid Valley News Remembers: Rosemead-Monrovia 2003).
Deon Sumler broke out in 2003 and got better each season before culminating it in 2005 by helping to lead Rosemead to a perfect regular season record of 10-0 with awesome offensive performance.
Tra Sumler last season was the Mid Valley News Most Valuable Player and last night he might have been between 7:30 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. Pacific Standard Time the best high school football player on the planet.
Stats: 289-yards rushing on 40-carries, two touchdowns, a blocked punt, and a madman on defense.
“He did what he had to do, and handled himself,” Desean said of his younger brother. “I’m at a loss for words, I’m so proud.”
“It’s unbelievable,” said an emotional Tra before breaking down. “It feels like a fairy tale, I dreamed about this.”
Of course the fairy tale and the dream were about the Panthers getting back to the CIF finals for the first time in over a quarter of a century.
They got back to the semifinals for the first time since 2001 and also snapped a six year streak of losing in the first round.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Panther defensive end/tight end Luis Diaz. “I was little bit nervous but we took care of it. I’m so proud of them (team).”
“It’s greater than I thought it would be,” said Panther defensive back Alex Chang. “We ran out the clock and sealed the deal. We’re a family.”
The always respectful to the media Cesar Chavez spoke plainly. “Yes sir, we stopped them. Give props to the defense.”
“It was the players,” said Rosemead defensive coordinator Marc Paramo. “They work really hard. I have 6:A.M. meetings during the week and they are there. Give them the credit, I get to come out here and direct them, but they do a great job.”
Props to M-Town
Ryan Maddox and his team performed better this season than anybody would have thought.
Leading that charge was former Monrovia head coach Steve Garrison. “They’ve done a fantastic job this first year. Fantastic.”
One More Time
The good news for M-Town defensive back Dujawn Jones is that he is only a junior and will have a chance to erase the memory a sure interception off of Angel Alejandre and even surer return for six-points that went through his hands in the first quarter.
Looking Good
Don’t let anyone walk away from the 2008 season and say, or think, that the Wildcats don’t have a gem at quarterback in Nick Bueno. That dude is a playmaker and only a sophomore. Expect Bueno to do a lot Good in the future.
Monrovia defensive end Darwin Winfrey played very well in his final prep game as did Kendall Boggs.
Eerily Reminiscent
Bueno had a pair of snaps in the shotgun formation sail over his head that brought back memories of a pair of bad low snaps David Potts got in the 2006 game against Temple City.
It also raised to mind the often mentioned, but long forgotten, M-Town punter Ricky Romero (who remembers punters?) who preserved a tie against TC in 2000 with a heroic leap and one handed grab of a bad snap.
Last Word on Brother Garrison
“That kid hits the hole, and doesn’t mess around,” he said of Sumler. “I’m tired of looking at that family,” he laughed. “His brother got me for 200 hundred yards.”
When I mentioned that Deon got him 282-yards and three touchdowns in 2005 and Desean for 114-yards and score in 2003 he just looked at me. “You enjoy bringing up all these good memories?”
Garrison says that he is happy and has completed most of his “Honey-Do” list and was ready for football after spending his first fall away from the game since he was a child.
“The fires are still burning,” he said.
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