February 5, 2009

Go Mustangs?

High School seniors sign letters of intent

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Wednesday, Feb. 4 was a big day for several high school athletes that reside in Almaden. Three signed letters of intent to attend two universities in California. Two of them will now play for a team with the same name as their former rivals, the Mustangs.

For one of the first times, Amir Tadros signed his letter of intent to attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo prior to Michael Santini. Tadros typically comes after Santini in the alphabet.

At Leland, seniors Michael Santini and Amir Tadros signed letters they intend to study and play football for the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mustangs in a small ceremony at the school library with family, administrators, teachers, team members and head football Coach Mike Carrozzo looking on. The two will receive nearly full scholarships and continue to play football on the same team.

At the same time, Emily Trudeau, also an Almaden resident and a senior at Leigh High School signed a letter of intent to play field hockey at University of the Pacific, also receiving a large scholarship.

Carrozzo told the boys they were receiving these awards through their commitment to play football at the same level. “There are more than one million seniors that play high school football and out of that number only 200 to 300 players receive such honors,” Carrozzo said. He cited their sacrifices as well as their talents that led them to this level.

“We have to be careful, from now on we will cheer on the Cal Poly Mustangs,” Carrozzo said during the signing, after which Santini said “Go Mustangs.”

Both players have been on the Charger varsity team for the past three years and while they are team players, strove to outdo each other, Carrozzo said. “They are both driven players and they were motivated to do their best. They even took issue with the alphabet, because Amir’s name came after Michael’s.”

The coach gave all of the credit to the two boys. “What they achieved was 99 percent them and maybe 1 percent me,” he said. “When you are faced with kids that have great character, it’s an absolute pleasure to go to bat for them.”

Santini started playing football in the fourth grade for Pop Warner. The linebacker has been on Leland’s varsity team for three years. He’s excited about playing on Cal Poly’s Division 1AA team. He plans to study kinesiology.

Leland football head coach Mike Carrozzo stands between two of his favorite football players, Michael Santini on his left and Amir Tadros on his right, as the two get ready to sign their letters of intent to attend and play football for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Tadros started playing football as a freshman at Leland. He’s also been on varsity as a defensive tackle for three years, this year he sacked quarterbacks five-and-a-half times. “I got a call from Coach Cook to come and check the school out and I loved it and decided I wanted to go there,” he told the Times. He has a 3.9 GPA and plans to study biology in hopes of becoming a doctor.

His father Karim Tadros couldn’t stop saying how proud he is of his son. Both he and his wife are “extremely proud of him. He’s made a big commitment, but he knows what he has to do and he does it. He loves football and academics,” he said.

Suzianna and Rafael Santini couldn’t stop smiling “It’s exciting, but it’s been a long process. It’s nice and quite a relief that it’s over,” said Rafael.

Suzianna noted that Michael does nothing halfway. “He tries 100 percent, there are no half measures with him.

Trudeau has been on Leigh’s varsity field hockey team for all four years of her high school career. She also has a 4.0 GPA and will be receiving nearly a full academic/athletic scholarship. During her last two years, she has been named most valuable player in the Blossom Hill Athletic League as well as to the first team all CCS. She’s led CCS scoring throughout her high school career.

“We’re proud of her. Her had work and dedication paid off, said her parents Stephen and Michelle Trudeau.