CHULA VISTA – At first glance, the office of Chula Vista High football coach Judd Rachow appears jumbled.
EARNIE GRAFTON / Union-Tribune
Victor Perez, junior quarterback for Chula Vista High, has completed 108 of 190 passes for 1,826 yards and 13 touchdowns for the playoff-bound Spartans (7-3).
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Dusty trophies are piled on file cabinets. Old photos line every square inch of wall space. Tables are littered with paper.
Mementos chronicle more than 60 years of Spartans history, including alumni greats like NFL linebacker Donnie Edwards of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Each week, Chula Vista quarterback Victor Perez stops by the office to borrow game tapes. Perez hopes his studying and preparation will help him find a place on those walls, too.
“I'm trying to see what I did wrong and trying to improve,” Perez said. “I don't want to make the same mistakes again.”
As the season has progressed, Perez's mistakes have become less frequent. Rachow praised his quarterback's ability to manage a game and to avoid turnovers that could put the Spartans in bad situations.
“It's not so much what he's done, it's what he hasn't done,” Rachow said. “He's had a turnover here or a turnover there, but in the big picture he's done a really good job of being consistent.”
Perez, a 6-foot-5, 217-pound junior, is the tallest player listed on the team's roster. He has completed 108 of 190 passes for 1,826 yards and 13 touchdowns for the Spartans (7-3), who are preparing to play Nov. 28 in the San Diego Section Division I quarterfinals.
“We've been able to create an offensive balance and do stuff from a throwing standpoint,” Rachow said. “Having the ability to throw, not just because you have to but because you can, really helps out.”
Perez credits his football career to his brother Oscar, an All-Mesa League offensive lineman as a senior last season. If it weren't for Oscar's playing days with the Spartans, Victor said might still be a soccer player.
“I was pretty good (at soccer) and I played a lot of all-star tournaments,” Victor said. “But I saw my brother play (football) and he was really good and I wanted to be like him.”
When Victor was brought up to the varsity toward the end of last season, the big brother he tried to emulate ended up blocking for him on several plays.
Victor remembered telling Oscar at home before games, “You better block for me.”
Big brother has graduated, but his legacy remains on the walls of the football office as a member of the Chula Vista team that won a memorable playoff game last year against Vista.
Victor is hoping the Spartans can accomplish even more this postseason.
“In a few years, when I'm older, I want to come back and say, 'Oh yea, I was a part of that team,' ” Perez said. “I was a part of that championship.' ”
