With dozens of students wanting to play flag football, the Culver City Middle School decided to field its first ever sixth grade team.
More than 30 incoming 6th graders signed up to play seven on seven flag football. An additional 30+ tried out for the 7th/8th grade team.
The sixth graders are coached by Maurice Shaw, who set a single season high school record at El Camino High School, rushing for 1,849 yards and scoring 15 touchdowns. Three times he ran for more than 250 yards in a game, peaking at 281 yards in one game. Coach Shaw not only was voted the Most Valuable Player in his league, he was ranked among the top 15 players in the Western Region. He went on to star at tailback for the University of Washington Huskies.
While battling a back injury, Coach Shaw averaging six yards a carry in his freshman season at Washington. As a sophomore, he led the Huskies with 555 yards rushing and scored six touchdowns.
Teammates voted him the school’s coveted Flaherty Most Inspirational Award in his junior season.
Gametime
The Middle School sixth graders faced their first challenge last Friday, defeating Westside Innovative School House (WISH team No. 1), 25-7.
The Middle School Panthers made a promising start when linebacker Emmanuel Shaw intercepted a WISH pass on the first play of the game and ran it in 35 yards for a touchdown. WISH scored on the next series to take a 7-6 lead
It was all Culver City thereafter. The Panthers were led by Shaw, tailback Royce Williams (two touchdowns,110 yards rushing), and quarterbacks Elijah Adams and William Schultz.
Defensively, cornerback David Lee led the Panthers while ends Alba Navas, Thomas Chee and Getu Whitney provided an exceptional pass rush.
On Thursday afternoon at 4, the Middle School plays the No. 2 WISH team. All Panther games are at home, behind the school, near Ballona Creek.
The 33 members of the Panthers’ flag football team are Abel Abebe, Elijah Adams, Cesar Andrade, Thomas Chee, Emmitt Cunningham-Young, Devansh Sharma, Miro Garrett, Christian Gomez, Braylen Harrell, Jamani Herron, James Hovey, John Kim, David Lee, Rachel Martin, Leo Matsuoka, Mia McKinley, Taylor Morgan, Nate Nakamoto, Alba Navas, Eddie Placido, Ocean Pogorel, Justin Pongos, Nichales Pontes, Jack Rolls, William Schultz, Emmanuel Shaw, Michael Shellin, Robert Tovar-Mercado, Preston Webb, Getu Whitney, Royce Williams, Maya Zee, and Brandon Zeidman.
Mr. Zeidman may be contacted at scott.zeidman@laslots.com