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August 12, 2025
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
JOHN GLENN EAGLES
1-8 overall last season, 0-3 in the 605 League, fourth place
12-27 overall last five seasons
Head coach: Dwon Drummer (first season)
Lost five seniors out of 21 players from 2024 opening day roster
Last made the playoffs: 2019
Division 14 last season
2025 schedule
Aug. 22 @ Mountain View (1-9 overall last season, Division 14)
Aug. 29 Savanna (2-8, D. 14)
Sept. 5 California Military Institute (3-7, D. 14)
Sept. 12 Compton Early College (0-10, D. 14)
Sept. 19 @ La Quinta (8-4, D. 14)
Sept. 26 @ University (4-6, D. 13)
Oct. 3 Arroyo (5-6, D. 14)
Oct. 10 BYE
Oct. 16 Pioneer (10-6, D. 14)
Oct. 23 @ Artesia (9-3, D. 13)
Oct. 30 @ Cerritos (8-3, D. 9)
Over the better part of the past 25 seasons, the John Glenn High football program has seen more downs than ups. Sure, the Eagles have played in the CIF-Southern Section divisional playoffs in the 2002, 2018 and 2019 seasons, losing in the first round all three times. But only three times in the past 25 seasons has the program finished with a winning record and has reached a 5-5 mark two other times. On top of that, the program has gone through 12 head coaches since 1998 including the latest one, Dwon Drummer.
This will be Drummer’s first head coaching job anywhere. Last season, he was on the Long Beach Cabrillo High staff as an associate head coach and the offensive coordinator. Before that, Drummer had been at East Los Angeles City College for eight years.
“The experience has been great,” said Drummer of his short time at Glenn. “It’s an opportunity to run your own program; an opportunity to guide young men in a way that I’ve learned over the years, whether as an assistant coach or as a player.”
The biggest difference people will see in Drummer is that he is on campus all day, which makes it easier for the players and everyone else involved in the program. He was hired just six months ago but had knowledge of the Glenn program as a recruiter at the junior college level. In fact, he recruited previous Glenn players, most of whom went to Fullerton College or Cerritos College. This was his area of expertise while at ELAC.
“I would recruit this area; I would recruit [players from] Pioneer High School, Norwalk High School [and Glenn],” he added. “So, this was kind of my recruiting area at that time. My knowledge of Glenn was just from that; recruiting kids from the area.”
Last season, the Eagles had anywhere from 18 to 21 players eligible to play. For their last home game, the Eagles had eight juniors, five seniors, five sophomores and three freshmen on the roster. But in 2025, that won’t be the case. When Drummer first arrived at Glenn, there were close to 50 kids in the program, and when summer arrived, that number dipped because the potential players weren’t thrilled about practicing four days a week for four hours each day. Now, the numbers are between 35-40, vastly different from last season.
OFFENSE
Last season was one of the worst the program has seen. The Eagles played nine games because their annual Mayor’s Cup game with city rival Norwalk was cancelled. The future of that rivalry is currently up in the air. Glenn scored 50 points all season long, was shutout three times, and had to forfeit its last game of the regular season against Pioneer due to lack of personnel. The previous week against Cerritos High, the game was played entirely under running clock conditions as a mutual agreement was made earlier that week. The lone win came in the first game of the season, a 12-8 decision over Bassett High.
Senior Luis Vergara is slated to be the team’s number one quarterback but will be competing with sophomore Ryder Perez. Drummer says he has seen Vergara showcase ‘a really good arm talent’ with ‘natural leadership qualities’. However, he is coming off an injury from playing soccer as a sophomore and did not play quarterback last season.
Returning as the team’s top running back is senior Okoro Lee whom Drummer says is a great athlete who ran track this past spring and because of that, got a little faster and a little stronger. Drummer added that Lee embraced the weight room a lot more in the offseason. Joining Lee in the backfield will be senior Bundana Adams, who will be moved around the field on both sides of the ball, junior Matthew Vasquez and sophomore Damian Hernandez.
Catching passes from Vergara will be senior tight end Josiah Alcala, senior wide receivers Christian Afonin, a transfer from La Serna High, Jonah Mason, Evan Perez and Adams. Another all-around athlete that can play multiple positions is junior Andre Romo.
Of the eight touchdowns Glenn scored last season, Mason is the only returning player who fits that category, hauling in a 43-yard pass in the fourth quarter against Grace High on Oct. 4.
Protecting them will be senior left tackle Oscar Sanchez, senior left guard Emmanuel Lopez, sophomore Jayden Chavarin, seniors Alex Fajardo, Martin Lopez or sophomore Daniel Carrillo at right guard and Martin Lopez at right tackle if he’s not at right guard.
“The potential for this group to be really good…I don’t think they understand how good they could be,” said Drummer. “We are a very talented skilled team; we have a lot of multi-sport guys, but they have a lot of skill, so they can catch, and they can run. They have speed and they have good balance. Where we’re going to struggle is just up front because we have some inexperience up front. Once they get aggressiveness and they get a couple of games under their belt, I think the O-line will be able to match the skills.”
DEFENSE
Glenn allowed over 30 points in six of the eight games played, including the five straight before the forfeit to Pioneer, but surrendered less than 10 points in the other two. Senior Aydan Salinas, sophomore Ryan Silva, Carrillo, Chavarin, Fajardo and Emmanuel Lopez will vie for the defensive line spots with junior Cody Smith, Alcala, Lee, Hernandez and Romo in the mix as one of the linebackers.
“Those set of guys, I won’t have a problem with being aggressive,” said Drummer of his linebackers. “They have it. Where we are inexperienced on the D-line, our linebackers make up for it with experience.”
The rest of the defense rounds out with senior Juan Navarro and Adams as the cornerbacks, and Afonin and Mason at the safety spot.
SCHEDULE
The schedule seems to be favorable for Glenn as it will face seven schools who were in Division 14 last season with California Military Institute (361) and Mountain View High (364) below the Eagles in terms of rankings. Glenn was ranked 355th last season and the last team in Division 14 was ranked 373rd out of all CIF-SS schools that fielded a football team.
Of the non-league opponents, only Arroyo High and La Quinta High advanced to the playoffs, neither getting to the semifinals, and of the non-league foes on the 2025 docket, Glenn has faced La Quinta the most, holding a 5-2 record against the Aztecs since 2004.
The Eagles have split the last two games with University High out of Irvine, falling 38-0 last season, and with Savanna High, defeating the Rebels 54-20 in 2019. Glenn has not faced Mountain View since a 35-18 setback in 2018 but will face Compton Early College for the first time.
After going 5-1 in the first two seasons of the 605 League (2018-2019), the Eagles have lost 12 of the last 14 games in the circuit with the lone victories coming against Pioneer in 2021 (31-26) and again in 2023 (28-17). The Titans defeated San Gabriel High 13-6 to capture the Division 14 championship game, meaning Glenn is the lone 605 League team to have yet to play in a divisional championship game.
“I would say I picked a great time to come into the league,” said Drummer. “All the college teams are kind of doing well and then the coaches are doing a great job. You just look at their records; a 10-win team, a nine-win team and an eight-win team. I take my hats off to all those programs because I was a junior college coach. I remember trying to get kids from those programs to come to the junior college level to play for me. “I understand what those programs are doing and the strides they are taking over the years to put themselves in the position to be winning,” he continued. “My hope is by the time we get into league, we’ll hit our stride, and we’ll be injury-free because that will be the deciding factor on how successful we are.”
HOMECOMING
For the fifth time since 1999, the Eagles will host a non-league opponent for their homecoming game. California Military Institute, which hails from Perris, was established as a school in 2003 but did not have a football program until 2006. That season, the Rough Riders were an eight-man squad that was in freelance status. CMI fielded an 11-man team for the first time in 2009 and has made the playoffs eight times but never posting a postseason victory.
It wasn’t until 2010 that CMI had its first winning season, which continued for three more consecutive seasons, and again from 2016-2018. In 2019, the Rough Riders went 5-6, the last time the program had at least five wins.
Last season, Glenn fell to Grace on homecoming night and since 1999, the program has seven victories in such games, the last coming in 2023 when the Eagles soared past Godinez High 31-10.
FINAL OUTLOOK
“I feel like the student body, the alumni, the administration…I think everyone here wants this place to be successful, and they are super supportive,” said Drummer. “I’ve not had anything but support from everyone on campus, alumni, and even the kids who have chosen to stay and work and be a part of the team. I just think it’s being able to handle those first set of adversities that we’ll run into, whether it be an injury or whether it be a loss. If we can deal with that first level of adversity and get past it, I think we have a chance to be a good team.”
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