The traditional path for North Shore high school football players who are determined to extend their careers is to attend prep school for a year or to go directly to the college of their choice.
However, Salem High's Antonio Reyes didn't want to go down that particular road.
Salem's ferocious inside linebacker, who had a school record of 312 career tackles and caught 25 passes for 492 yards and three touchdowns last season, made an unusual choice for gridiron hopefuls in the area: junior college.
What makes the decision even more peculiar is Reyes' choice to go all the way to the Gold Coast and JUCO football factory Ventura College.
If you're thinking that there has to be a local coaching connection to make all this happen, there is. His name is Tim Hyde. Back in 2009, when Marblehead High won the NEC title for the first time in 38 years and advanced to its first Super Bowl, Hyde was the defensive backs coach under head man Jim Rudloff. Also on the Magicians staff was now Salem assistant Pat Hicks, who knew both Hyde and Reyes and felt it was a win-win situation for the futures of both the 18-year-old from Salem and the defensive coordinator for Ventura College.
"My assistant coach (Hicks) came over from Marblehead and knew the D-coordinator over there (Hyde)," Reyes said. "They coached together in the past, and (Hicks) let me know what they had going on over there. I did my research, we (Reyes and Hyde) got in contact, and everything about it I loved."
Getting connected
Hyde is a recruiting whiz with an extensive California background, being a native of the Land of Milk and Honey. He coached defensive backs at St. A's in 2008 and then moved from California, back to the area with girlfriend and local woman Kelly Harrigan (Reading, Mass.) after the economy started to tank. With a bunch of opportunities from college to high school lined up, it was a spot on one of the least attractive programs in the area, the perennially doomed Marblehead High team, that attracted Hyde the most.
"I did a little homework on all the programs, and I saw (Jim) Rudloff got the job (in Marblehead), and I knew about the Thanksgiving tradition," explained Hyde, who hadn't coached with a high school program in more than 10 years. "I looked at Marblehead — if you get two wins, the city has fireworks for you. It's a great town and a great region. I decided I had been doing Saturdays so long, now it was time to coach high school."
As many remember, the 2009 Magicians made it all the way to Gillette Stadium. With an opportunity back in California, Rudloff and Hyde parted ways, but the impression left by the man from the West Coast was evident.
"Tim was the defensive backfield coach for our Super Bowl team. He was really a calm, steady guy who did a great job for us," Rudloff said.
"He's also a guy who can pick pockets," added Rudloff, referring to Hyde's ability to recruit. "What's impressive is that he remembers the names and remembers the kids who played around here a couple of years ago. Tim started calling me and other coaches, and he would ask us questions like, 'How good is Antonio (Reyes)?' Tim has a very good track record of sending (JUCO) players to the Big 10 and other (major conferences). He's really good at getting kids into his school and then converting them into Division 1 players."
When he became the defensive coordinator for the Ventura College Pirates in 2010, Hyde was open-minded. California is neck-deep in high school football talent, but Hyde also liked the college potential of North Shore and eastern Massachusetts players he saw in 2009. In California, most football players are single-sport athletes, but in the Bay State, most elite pigskinners play two or three sports, and usually at a very high level. Unlike California, the players around here know their opponents and converse with them, opening up endless networking possibilities. Any good recruiter would jump at that kind of opportunity.
"I know people think it's just Massachusetts, you have some real good football players. In California, it's one athlete, one sport, but in Mass., kids play three sports, so you've got so many guys who know each other and talk," Hyde said. "Reyes is a big-time athlete who plays multiple sports. He knows people."
After Reyes decided to go the JUCO route, things seemed to fall into place with other recruits from the area. From Reyes came Malden's Frankie Dunn, and the both of them were friendly with Lynn English's Tyllor McDonald. Reyes also knew McDonald's teammate Melvin Tavares from the basketball court, and soon enough all four, along with Everett's Shaquille Taylor and Jean Bourdeau and Brockton's William Carruthers, decided to commit to Ventura. Swampscott's Phil Larkin is expected to be on the Pirates sidelines, as well, come the fall.
"Ventura's a long way away, and it's hard to get them (recruits) out here, you need a connection," Hyde said. "Having some Boston connections, I could talk to the guys. I've been down the same streets, been up and down 93 and 95, been to Fenway and to all those high school stadiums. It all started by going to Marblehead and getting that ball rolling."
Proof is in the pudding
As nice of a guy as Hyde may be and as alluring as the beaches of Southern California may seem, without a track record for making the most of young potential, Ventura College would have been a hard sell. But when your program sends 16 players to Division 1 and 1AA colleges in one offseason, all with scholarships, that program tends to speak for itself. Head coach Steve Mooshagian has coached at the high school, college, junior college and professional levels and even worked under 2010 NFL Hall of Famer Dick Lebeau. No stranger to elite talents, Mooshagian coached Chad (Johnson) Ochocinco, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Darnay Scott, Carl Pickens and Peter Warrick.
"Cali JUCO is big-time, we send kids to D1 schools left and right. Last year, our QB went Pac 10, our defensive end is at East Carolina, and we had two linemen get rides, one to Colorado and one to Wyoming," said Hyde, who also said he would still be at Marblehead if the opportunity to coach under Mooshagian had not arisen.
So it's no surprise that Reyes, who has every tool in the hardware store, was champing at the bit to get out to California. Reyes even missed the Agganis Football Classic because his flight was the day before the game, while McDonald and Larkin stuck around.
Reyes was originally supposed to play linebacker on Hyde's defense, but since he has the hands of a wideout and the size and speed of a backer, Mooshagian decided he'd rather use Reyes as a weapon on offense at tight end.
"They recruited me as a linebacker, but a few weeks ago I got a call and they said they want me to play as a tight end. That's great. I love catching the ball," Reyes said.
Reyes' former head coach Scott Connolly believes that for his former captain, the sky is the limit.
"It's a great fit out there for Antonio if he does what he needs to do academically and gets after it he could be playing on Saturdays at a big-time school. That school (Ventura) is a pipeline," said Connolly, who further explained the attributes he thinks define Reyes. "He is the most instinctual athlete I've ever coached. He's getting bigger and bigger. I am really looking forward to seeing what he does in the future."
Hyde and Mooshagian are looking forward to Reyes' future, as well, although according to Hyde, he doesn't think it was much of a gamble to bring Reyes all the way out to California, or any of the men from Massachusetts for that matter.
"(Mooshagian) is a West Coast, pro-style guy, and we need a tight end, so we threw him (Reyes) out there at practice. He has great hands, everything you need from that position," Hyde said. "We envision him to be a big-time scholarship player. All of them, they can play. These guys can play at the highest level, no doubt about it. We don't take kids that far away unless we feel they can come out here and do it in the classroom and have that spark to make the next level."
