Happy holidays and let’s play football: Pleasant Grove finds different path to games
To understand the workings within the mind of Matt Costa is to appreciate him all the more.
Or tolerate him, his players may insist amid laughter.
Costa is Pleasant Grove High School’s spirited, if not refreshingly different football coach. He’s big on team bonding, on “getting the mind right” and making a violent sport equal parts learning accountability and good fun.
Who brings a Christmas tree to the equipment shed, with bulbs and all the trappings of holiday cheer, on the first day gear can be handed out? Costa does and did. It surprised none of his players Thursday when the Elk Grove Unified School District formally informed its nine member schools that spring football was a sure thing, and Costa started handing out helmets, girdles, pants and more.
“Our coach is a rock star,” said senior safety/receiver Logan Ellner. “He’s also into music, like me, and all musicians are a little nutty, so it works here.”
What also happens here is an abundance of optimism. Eagles players credited their coach for keeping hope alive as the months dragged, leading many to wonder if football would happen this academic year. Costa kept players engaged in Zoom meetings. They moved the weights outside on the blacktop since indoor usage was not allowed, one of too many inconveniences of COVID-19.
Ellner is one of a handful of Pleasant Grove players who grew up together, playing ball, looking forward to a senior season to return to the playoffs. There will be no postseason in California, but Costa is more Santa than Grinch, and he said a little spring ball is better than nothing.
“It’s unbelievable,” Costa said of the excitement in general. “All this time without football was one of the worst experiences, hard on kids, hard on all of us. We were all tired of the speculation. I’ve been saying that if we even get one game, it’ll be a victory. I still believe that.”
And that tree? How handy, coach.
“The guys thought, ‘Damn! Coach really put a tree there?’” Costa said. “I’m a different kind of dude.”
So is his versatile junior quarterback, Devin Hall, who has “all the tools, is smart, crafty, a 3.8 GPA, a Division I scholarship kid for sure.,” Costa said.
Other top Eagles players include receiver Kasson Kimbrough, whom the coach says has “Jedi speed, great hands, is super smart.” Running back Chris Weinberg and lineback Karson Wheeler are also impact players. And the coach’s assessment on Ellner, the silly sort who loves to hit?
“Great athlete, rangy, hard worker, vocal leader, a screw loose somewhere between the ears,” Costa said. “Kid’s from Mars, I think.”
Takes a goof to know one. Happy holidays.
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.