{"id":2008825,"date":"2023-08-23T00:19:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T04:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/just-being-together-hawaii-trip-a-smashing-success-for-villa-park-football\/"},"modified":"2023-08-23T00:25:30","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T04:25:30","slug":"just-being-together-hawaii-trip-a-smashing-success-for-villa-park-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/just-being-together-hawaii-trip-a-smashing-success-for-villa-park-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawaii Trip: Villa Park Football&#8217;s Epic Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjust-being-together-hawaii-trip-a-smashing-success-for-villa-park-football%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2008825&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Villa Park High\u2062 School\u2063 Football Team&#8217;s Unforgettable Season-Opening Trip to Hawaii<\/h2>\n<p>VILLA PARK, Calif.\u2014Cliff jumping, snorkeling, \u200dand remote\u200c living\u200d aren\u2019t typically prerequisites \u2062for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/just-being-together-hawaii-trip-a-smashing-success-for-villa-park-football\/\" title=\"Hawaii Trip: Villa Park Football's Epic Success\">playing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-ends-negotiations-with-nancy-pelosi-on-coronavirus-relief\/\" title=\"Donald Trump Ends Negotiations with Nancy Pelosi on Coronavirus Relief\">high<\/a> school football<\/a>, but they were for Villa \u200bPark on its season-opening trip to Hawaii.<\/p>\n<p>The Spartans will face Orange in their Aug. 24 home opener at El Modena High carrying a 1\u20130 record after having spent\u2064 nearly a week \u2062on Oahu earlier this \u200cmonth. Villa Park returned to California with a 37\u201313 victory over Damien of Honolulu on \u2062Aug. 11 and \u2063so much \u2063more \u200cin terms\u2063 of \u2064experiences and memories.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like \u200dthe\u200b trip overall was really \u200dgood for us,\u201d senior wide receiver Spencer Jarrell told \u2064The Epoch Times.\u200c \u201cOne\u200c of the nights, we had everyone come\u2063 up and say \u2064something to the\u2063 team. We would just give a\u200d speech, talk about bonding, talk about\u2064 our experience in Hawaii. That probably brought us together the most because we had \u2062people\u200b give like five-minute-long speeches about how \u2062much this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-first-homeless-world-cup-hosted-in-us-kicks-off-in-sacramento\/\" title=\"US hosts first Homeless World Cup in Sacramento.\">team means<\/a> \u2063to\u2063 them.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Related Stories<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/edison-high-assistant-football-<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nfl-browns-close-facility-delay-flight-after-positive-covid-19-test\/\" title=\"NFL-Browns close facility, delay flight after positive COVID-19 test\">coach<\/a>-leads-maui-relief-effort-5473892&#8243;>Edison High Assistant Football Coach\u2062 Leads\u2064 Maui Relief Effort<\/a> (8\/17\/2023)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/california-high-schools-scheduled-football-games-fall-victim-to-maui-fires-5458375\">California\u2062 High School\u2064 Sports Impacted by Maui Fires<\/a> (8\/10\/2023)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Opening\u200d the season in Hawaii was the\u200c brainchild of Coach Dusan Ancich, who pulled \u200coff the dream road trip for\u2064 a\u2062 second time \u200din his 15 seasons leading the Spartans. He and nine assistant coaches led a contingent of 78 \u200cplayers\u2014no parents, \u200dno fans, no cheerleaders, no band, only \u201cthe guys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Unlike Edison-Huntington Beach, which had its scheduled two-game trip to Maui canceled because of wildfires that ravaged that island,\u2063 Villa Park was fortunate \u200bto be on Oahu, where there \u2062was no impact from the fires.<\/p>\n<p>The Spartans stayed\u2014as many as 16 players and one coach in a room\u2014at Camp Erdman, a YMCA-run \u200doutpost outside Honolulu that is well-known among Hawaiian\u200d students. Other \u2063than a few workers, food preparers, and\u2064 so forth, there was no one else.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>Villa \u2062Park\u200c High School football\u200b team at practice during its season-opening trip\u200c in Oahu,\u200b Hawaii, on Aug. 9,\u2062 2023. (Courtesy of Dusan Ancich via\u2062 Instagram\/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s on the North Shore, very secluded,\u201d Mr. Ancich \u200dtold The Epoch Times. \u201cYou have \u200dto\u2063 walk a little \u2064over a\u2063 mile\u200b to see anybody else. Every day we had a practice and an excursion, and then we\u2062 had kind\u2062 of our evening activities, which were \u200cteam-bonding things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Villa Park\u2019s\u2062 booster club dealt with the financial aspects \u200bof the trip, Mr. Ancich\u200b planned the itinerary, right down\u2064 to the minute. He also shouldered the ultimate responsibility for everyone\u2019s safety, which was no small feat.<\/p>\n<p>Outings included\u200c hiking, bridge jumping, paddle-boarding, and kayaking, while \u2064things such as skits, trivia contests, and memorization of\u200c facts about teammates filled the later hours.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>Villa Park \u200dHigh\u200c School \u2063football team&#8217;s tailback and outside linebacker Carter Christie\u200b (12) poses for a\u200d group photo\u2063 with \u2062fellow running backs during a season-opening trip in Oahu, Hawaii, on Aug. 11, 2023. (Courtesy of Dusan Ancich via Instagram\/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cMy favorite excursion was probably the cliff jumping,\u201d senior tailback and outside linebacker Carter \u200dChristie told The Epoch Times. \u201cWhen you\u2019re walking up\u200b to the rocks, it doesn\u2019t look that high. But then when you get up there, it\u2019s \u2062like,\u2064 \u2018Oh my gosh.\u2019 You\u2019re way \u200bup\u2064 there. Once you get\u200b to the top, you can\u2019t back down at that point.\u2063 All your coaches and\u2064 teammates are cheering you on\u2014you gotta jump then.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>Villa Park High School football team&#8217;s Spencer Jarrell (6) poses \u2064for a group\u2063 photo \u200bwith fellow wide receivers\u2063 during a season-opening\u200b trip in Oahu, Hawaii, on \u200bAug. 11,\u2064 2023. (Courtesy of\u2064 Dusan Ancich\u2063 via Instagram\/Screenshot\u200d via The Epoch Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Unlike under ordinary\u200c circumstances\u2064 at\u2062 home,\u200d there\u2064 was \u2062no going home to Mom and \u200bDad, no hanging out with\u2062 non-football friends, but rather the constant proximity of teammates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust being together,\u201d Christie said. \u201cEvery day we\u2019re together at \u200cpractice, but that\u2019s different than living together for a week. You get to\u2062 know the guys better. \u2026 I\u2062 got to know\u2062 a lot more of the coaches \u200da\u2064 lot better\u200d than I did before. And now \u200dI feel closer to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Assistant coach Todd Lyght, a former Notre Dame and NFL cornerback who won a \u200cSuper Bowl championship with \u2064the 1999 St. \u200cLouis Rams, wowed Jarrell and everyone else with an impressive \u201cfront flip off the rocks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps\u200b remarkably, the players didn\u2019t even balk at what Mr. Ancich called \u201cthe highlight \u200cof the \u2062trip,\u201d a rule forbidding cell phones \u2064for all but a couple of brief periods during visits \u2064to a nearby town.<\/p>\n<p>The point of\u2063 the exercise, one Mr. Ancich highly recommends, was to increase communication and \u201cpresence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m on my\u2064 phone \u2063a lot. I feel like most of us are,\u201d Jarrell said. \u201cThe first day, it was kind of \u2062weird, but we had something going on pretty much every minute. I honestly stopped\u2062 thinking about it. I mean, it\u2019s Hawaii. It was scenic, and the excursions we did were incredible. I think once everyone kind of settled \u200dinto it, there wasn\u2019t any\u200d problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>Villa Park High School football teammates kayaking and paddle-boarding during its season-opening trip\u200c in Oahu,\u200d Hawaii,\u200b on Aug. 10, 2023. \u200b(Courtesy of Dusan \u2064Ancich via \u200dInstagram\/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Spartans also managed to strike a delicate balance\u200d between having fun\u200d and getting ready to play their game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s kind of the trick of it,\u2062 because you want the kids \u2062to have the\u2062 best time half the day, and then you want them \u200cto be locked in and focused the \u2062other half,\u201d Mr. Ancich said. \u201cOur whole goal was to \u200cwin \u200bthe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-football-analogy-to-explain-democrats-election-cheating\/\" title=\"A Football Analogy to Explain Democrats' Election Cheating\">football game<\/a>, and our other goal was to give everyone the opportunity to play at \u2062least one play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Except for\u2064 one\u2062 backup kicker, Villa Park\u200b accomplished the latter objective. And after pocketing the victory, \u200cthe Spartans joined with their opponents to share a Hawaiian meal prepared by Damien\u2019s parents and \u2062booster-club members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe food was\u2063 incredible,\u201d \u200bJarrell said. \u2064\u201cThey were really hospitable, the players themselves. I didn\u2019t expect them \u200dto be as nice as they were.\u200b \u2026 \u2064They\u2063 genuinely \u200cseemed just happy to have us.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>Villa \u200cPark High School \u2062football \u200dteam&#8217;s Spencer Jarrell \u200c(6) poses for \u200ca group photo with \u2063fellow wide receivers during a season-opening trip in\u2064 Oahu, Hawaii, on Aug. 11, 2023. (Courtesy of Dusan Ancich via\u200d Instagram\/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The goal now, Mr.\u200b Ancich \u200bsaid, will be \u200dto repeat such a trip often enough that every player who spends four years \u200bin Villa Park\u2019s program will have an opportunity to participate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had kids that had been to Hawaii 10 times, and we had kids\u2063 that \u2063had never been on a plane,\u201d he \u2062said. \u201cSome of them had never been in the ocean.\u200d Some of them had never snorkeled. I would say 90 percent had never snorkeled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Villa Park, Calif. &#8211; Villa Park High School football team had an unconventional start to their season. They went to Hawaii for a week, enjoying activities like cliff jumping and snorkeling. Now, with a 1-0 record, they are ready to face Orange in their home opener on Aug. 24 at El Modena High.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":2008826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2008825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2008825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2008826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2008825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2008825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2008825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}