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By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
ARTESIA PIONEERS
9-3 overall last season, 2-1 in the 605 League, second place, lost to Gahr High 34-7 in the CIF-Southern Section Division 13 quarterfinals.
20-26 overall last five seasons
Head coach: Connor Crook (third season, 17-8)
Lost 17 seniors out of 43 players from 2024 opening day roster
Last missed the playoffs: 2022
2025 schedule
Aug. 22 Long Beach Cabrillo (2-8 overall last season, Division 13)
Aug. 28 @ Maranatha (4-6, D. 13)
Sept. 5 @ Firebaugh (6-4, D. 14)
Sept. 12 Buena Park (4-6, D. 13)
Sept. 19 @ San Gabriel (7-7, D. 14)
Sept. 26 Estancia (9-3, D. 12)
Oct. 3 Rowland (6-4, D. 13)
Oct. 10 BYE
Oct. 16 Cerritos (8-3, D. 9)
Oct. 23 John Glenn (1-8, D. 14)
Oct. 30 @ Pioneer (10-6, D. 14)
Not even the 2018 Artesia High team that ended with a 10-4 record and advanced to the CIF-Southern Section Division 12 championship game did what the Pioneers accomplished in the first half of the 2024 season. Artesia began last season with five straight wins and were tied with Estancia High 21-21 at the half in the sixth game. The Pioneers would lose that contest by nine points and fell two more times, scoring just a touchdown in each of those games.
Still, it was a season that the seniors could be proud of, and something the returners could build from as they enter the 2025 season.
“Last season, I think, was a good season,” said Artesia head coach Connor Crook. “Especially on paper, when you look at 9-3, and then we had a bunch of guys who played well and got recognized with All-League and All-CIF. I think it was a really good year for our guys, and it was a good year for the seniors too, who had a rough first two years and they were able to kind of do really well their junior year and finish it off strong their senior year.”
On top of that, Crook cited a good freshmen class and incoming athletes who saw the 9-3 record and were inspired by that, which could be a sign of things to come for the next several seasons as the Pioneers hope to end the eighth and final season of the original 605 League the same way it began in 2018-a league championship. If that happens, it will be the program’s second league title in over two and a half decades.
The seniors who graduated last season will have a special place in Crook’s heart as some were with him when Crook began his time in the red and black, before he took over the varsity duties in 2023.
“It was really fun because my first year here as an assistant, they were all freshmen,” Crook said. “Basically, my first day was their first day, and to kind of see them…we’re kind of going through it together. But watching them their senior season play really well at times and have a lot of success was really cool to watch.”
OFFENSE
Artesia scored 350 points last season, reaching at least 40 points four times including a 54-point performance against Mark Keppel High in the second game. This season, the offense will look different from the previous seasons, although some components will be similar.
“It’s always tough to replace good players like Charlie [Lopez] and Julius [Padilla] and so on,” said Crook. “But you can kind of use these new players and recognize their strengths and weaknesses and you can go, ‘okay, we’re going to do this instead of that’ and it’s still going to be just as good. It’s just a different way of attacking teams’ defenses.”
There’s competition to replace Lopez at quarterback between senior quarterback Joey Peck, who was five of 15 for 97 yards last season and sophomore Jorge Velazquez. Peck played in key moments, especially the second half against Pioneer High when Lopez got hurt and the Pioneers leading 21-8 at the half. Peck also played against ABC Unified School District rivals Cerritos High and Gahr. So, he does have the experience of playing in big games.
In the backfield will be juniors Izayah Carranza and Fermin Duran and sophomore Justin Pettus, who was on the freshman team last season and was initially listed as a wide receiver for this season. Crook says he’ll still catch some passes, but for now, the Pioneers are banking on those three to be the leading ground gainers.
Senior wide receivers Elijah Johnson (11 receptions, 112 yards, one touchdown) and Christopher Razo (three receptions, 40 yards, one touchdown) are the leading returners at this position and will be joined with junior Ismael Felix (three receptions, 50 yards), sophomore Andrew Quarles and Pettus.
“We actually like our receivers right now,” said Crook. “Since I’ve been the head coach, this is by far the best group of receivers that can catch. I just named five guys who can catch, and usually that’s rare for us to have. We’re excited about that, and all those guys are going to play a lot this year, and I think make big plays for us.”
The offensive line will be held down by sophomore left tackle Le’Yon Brown, junior left guard Giovanny Martinez, senior center Nehemiah Levu, senior right guard Jaell Rueda and junior right tackle Jonathan Foster.
Although the Pioneers graduated a bulk of weapons who put up a lot of yards and touchdowns, Crook is excited about the future of the program with his youth. While he says he’s not looking past this season, Artesia had a solid freshman team in 2024, and a lot of those sophomores are going to get extensive playing time this season.
“I think the improvement from game one to game 10 is going to be great for us to, just because of how many young guys we’re playing,” said Crook.
“We really like our offense,” he later added. “We were really successful running the ball the last couple of years and doing certain things on offense. Now we have a totally new offense for the most part, and maybe a lot the things we were successful at before is not going to be the same success. But we’re going to be able to do a lot more things that maybe we didn’t do with the last group. You just take what you get with each group and add to their strengths and weaknesses. We’re young, but these guys are eager to learn and they’re very coachable.”
DEFENSE
Artesia’s defense was solid for the most part last season, allowing 235 points, but 124 of those came in the last four games. In four other games, the Pioneers did not allow more than a touchdown. However, they will need to fill a huge void left behind by brothers Maximus and Robert Garcia who moved in the offseason. They each had 38 tackles with the former adding four sacks while the latter had three interceptions.
The defensive line figures to be held down by Levu, who had 22 tackles last season, Martinez, Razo and Rueda. Levu was once a linebacker but was moved to the line last season and has not missed a beat.
“He’s such a good football player; if he was 50 pounds lighter, he would probably be our best linebacker,” said Crook. “But he’s a big kid, so he’s an O-line, D-line kid now.”
Speaking of linebackers, that position will be handled by senior Angel Lagunas, who had 28 tackles and two sacks last season and juniors Jonathan Garcia (15 tackles) and Jamorie Mitchell. Also in the mix will be sophomores Antony Amaya and Coy Talkington.
Senior Anthony Sevillano and Pettus will be the main cornerbacks with senior Edward Jones also getting some time while Johnson will be the free safety and at rover, it will be senior Joshua Campos and Velazquez.
“We’re going to be young, but we’ve accepted that, and I think it’s an exciting thing, too because we’re going to give quite a few young guys a chance to improve and grow throughout the season this year,” said Crook.
SCHEDULE
Artesia will have nearly a different non-league schedule as only Long Beach Cabrillo High and Estancia return as opponents. The Pioneers defeated Cabrillo 29-26 in last season’s opener and lost the only two meetings all-time with Estancia. Every opponent this season was either in Division 12, 13 or 14 except for Cerritos, which was a Division 9 squad. Four opponents advanced to the playoffs in 2024 and the one thing on Artesia’s schedule that stands out is the fact that it will travel just four times, however, two of them are long distance road trips. Pioneer and San Gabriel High faced each in the Division 14 championship game.
The Pioneers have not faced the other five non-league opponents in this century and it’s unknown if they have played them ever. Artesia has lost five straight to Cerritos and many figure when the Dons come to Atkins Stadium on Oct. 16 for the league opener, the league title could very well be settled on that night.
“We don’t think about playoff divisions too much when we’re making the schedule,” said Crook. “We don’t take that into account too much. We just try to schedule teams that we think will give us a good chance. I think this schedule this year is probably, compared to our last two schedules is going to be a little tougher, I think. And we told the kids that, too.”
HOMECOMING
Artesia’s fifth straight victory to begin last season was against Mountain View High on homecoming night, a 41-7 thrashing which snapped a three-game losing streak in homecoming games. This season, Rowland High is slated to be the homecoming opponent and while these two teams haven’t faced each other in at least 27 seasons, if ever, the Raiders defeated Pioneer 32-21 last season nearly two weeks before Artesia got past Pioneer 35-27 in the second league contest. Since 2002, the Pioneers are 10-12 in homecoming games.
FINAL COMMENT
“I’m excited,” said Crook. “We’re so young and a lot of guys are going to have to step up in a different spot. Of course, there’s going to be some question marks, but summer has gone really well; spring has gone well and we’re practicing really well. I think this group practices better than maybe the last two teams I’ve coached, which is always good. The harder you practice, the better you play. I think these guys really want to win this year and want to have a good year. So, I think there’s a really good chance we’ll have one.”
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