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Cranking Up To 11, Scholar-Athlete McCaffery Hopes To Make A Smooth Transition In College
It would be hard to find a more deserving winner than Stephen McCaffery.
The senior at Laguna Blanca High School in Santa Barbara, Calif., was presented the Scholar-Athlete Award by the San Fernando Valley Chapter of the National Football Foundation (led by chapter president James Lofdahl) on March 30, and the exceptional young man fit the criteria perfectly.
As impressive as he was on the football field this past season, leading Laguna Blanca to the state quarterfinals in 8-man football, McCaffery may be an even better student, sporting an impressive GPA of 4.42.
“It’s a great honor,” said McCaffery, primarily a quarterback who passed for 1,838 yards and 25 touchdowns this past season, while also rushing for 1,308 yards and 22 TDs. “I feel just very happy that my coach and all the teachers and the administrators at the school think highly of me, so I’m honored to win the award.”
McCaffery will be heading off to play at Washington & Lee University, a Division III school in Lexington, Va., next year, where his older brother Andrew is currently a sophomore and from which his father John graduated.
As much as he always knew he wanted to play football in college, McCaffery also understood that he had to perform as well in the classroom as he did on the field to get there.
“I’ve always felt that’s the number one priority,” McCaffery said of maintaining good grades. “Playing football, going to Division III in an academic setting, it’s a huge point of interest. I wanted to go to a great school and play football, and I knew that having better grades makes it easier for the coaches at the colleges to kind of persuade Admissions to let you in and it just makes it an easier process for everybody. That’s why I tried to get (good grades).”
His coach at Laguna Blanca, Shane Lopes, nominated McCaffery for the award and wasn’t at all surprised that he won it.
“He has other honors that he has received, so it’s more than just academics and athletics,” Lopes said. “He’s also being honored as an Eagle Scout. I’m going to be speaking in a couple of weeks in honor of his Eagle Scout achievement. He’s also a very, very good musician, he plays bass guitar. He excels at just about anything he does.”
As for his leadership, McCaffery served as a team captain for the third straight season, and often was the primary voice helping to motivate his team that lost several key offensive weapons to graduation following his junior year.
“I think it helps that I was captain before my senior year,” McCaffery said. “You just learn from your mistakes a little more and you can lead more efficiently and just be a better leader if you have some experience with it. This year, it was like I was more of the whole team leader, and I was happy to do it, and felt like I excelled at that type of role. The guys just respect the captains and I just enjoyed leading that group of guys, it was a very rewarding experience.”
Lopes reported that McCaffery would frequently remind the other players about certain points of emphasis before Lopes could even mention it, he was almost like another assistant coach.
“He took on the attitude and the philosophy that our staff were trying to instill in the rest of the players,” Lopes said. “He was truly an extension of our staff as a captain. It really helped us out a lot, because he could serve between the players and the coaches when certain issues came up.”
At college next year, McCaffery will face several challenges on the football field. One is the adjustment from playing 8-man football to the regular 11-man version, with more sophisticated defenses on a larger field (the 8-man field is just 80 yards long by 40 wide), but he believes he’s ready for it.
“When I train with the quarterback coach, we always train with an 11-man emphasis,” McCaffery said. “It’s a lot easier to go from training for 11-man and bring it down to 8-man, so I don’t know how big of a difference it really will make. Obviously, the throws are a little bit longer. I don’t see that as a problem. The field is a little bit wider, it’s a little more of a spread-out game, but I think the high school to college transition is probably significant for anybody, I don’t think the 8-man to 11-man will affect me that much.”
The other big test awaiting him next year will be the competition for Washington and Lee’s freshman quarterback job, with pretty high stakes. If he doesn’t claim it, he will be moved to defense, where he played some linebacker and safety at times the past few seasons.
“They took three freshmen as quarterback/athletes, so if I don’t win the competition at the beginning between the three of us, they’ll keep one of the freshmen as a quarterback and they’ll convert the other two,” McCaffery explained. “My main goal is to win that freshman quarterback competition and hopefully go on to win the main quarterback competition. If that weren’t to happen, I would most likely play the linebacker position.”
Lopes, of course, doesn’t believe either will be much of an issue.
“He’s definitely a student of the game, so when he reports to summer ball, I’m sure it’ll definitely be a transition for him, but he will adjust,” Lopes said. “Fortunately for him, we passed more than other teams, so we saw more 11-man defensive secondary-type schemes than most other teams, so he got a taste of it. He saw more defenders in defensive pass coverage than other teams in our division would because we passed the ball more and had a spread offense. It will definitely be a transition for him, but he’ll adapt to it, it won’t take him much time.”
Back
The senior at Laguna Blanca High School in Santa Barbara, Calif., was presented the Scholar-Athlete Award by the San Fernando Valley Chapter of the National Football Foundation (led by chapter president James Lofdahl) on March 30, and the exceptional young man fit the criteria perfectly.
As impressive as he was on the football field this past season, leading Laguna Blanca to the state quarterfinals in 8-man football, McCaffery may be an even better student, sporting an impressive GPA of 4.42.
“It’s a great honor,” said McCaffery, primarily a quarterback who passed for 1,838 yards and 25 touchdowns this past season, while also rushing for 1,308 yards and 22 TDs. “I feel just very happy that my coach and all the teachers and the administrators at the school think highly of me, so I’m honored to win the award.”
McCaffery will be heading off to play at Washington & Lee University, a Division III school in Lexington, Va., next year, where his older brother Andrew is currently a sophomore and from which his father John graduated.
As much as he always knew he wanted to play football in college, McCaffery also understood that he had to perform as well in the classroom as he did on the field to get there.
“I’ve always felt that’s the number one priority,” McCaffery said of maintaining good grades. “Playing football, going to Division III in an academic setting, it’s a huge point of interest. I wanted to go to a great school and play football, and I knew that having better grades makes it easier for the coaches at the colleges to kind of persuade Admissions to let you in and it just makes it an easier process for everybody. That’s why I tried to get (good grades).”
His coach at Laguna Blanca, Shane Lopes, nominated McCaffery for the award and wasn’t at all surprised that he won it.
“He has other honors that he has received, so it’s more than just academics and athletics,” Lopes said. “He’s also being honored as an Eagle Scout. I’m going to be speaking in a couple of weeks in honor of his Eagle Scout achievement. He’s also a very, very good musician, he plays bass guitar. He excels at just about anything he does.”
As for his leadership, McCaffery served as a team captain for the third straight season, and often was the primary voice helping to motivate his team that lost several key offensive weapons to graduation following his junior year.
“I think it helps that I was captain before my senior year,” McCaffery said. “You just learn from your mistakes a little more and you can lead more efficiently and just be a better leader if you have some experience with it. This year, it was like I was more of the whole team leader, and I was happy to do it, and felt like I excelled at that type of role. The guys just respect the captains and I just enjoyed leading that group of guys, it was a very rewarding experience.”
Lopes reported that McCaffery would frequently remind the other players about certain points of emphasis before Lopes could even mention it, he was almost like another assistant coach.
“He took on the attitude and the philosophy that our staff were trying to instill in the rest of the players,” Lopes said. “He was truly an extension of our staff as a captain. It really helped us out a lot, because he could serve between the players and the coaches when certain issues came up.”
At college next year, McCaffery will face several challenges on the football field. One is the adjustment from playing 8-man football to the regular 11-man version, with more sophisticated defenses on a larger field (the 8-man field is just 80 yards long by 40 wide), but he believes he’s ready for it.
“When I train with the quarterback coach, we always train with an 11-man emphasis,” McCaffery said. “It’s a lot easier to go from training for 11-man and bring it down to 8-man, so I don’t know how big of a difference it really will make. Obviously, the throws are a little bit longer. I don’t see that as a problem. The field is a little bit wider, it’s a little more of a spread-out game, but I think the high school to college transition is probably significant for anybody, I don’t think the 8-man to 11-man will affect me that much.”
The other big test awaiting him next year will be the competition for Washington and Lee’s freshman quarterback job, with pretty high stakes. If he doesn’t claim it, he will be moved to defense, where he played some linebacker and safety at times the past few seasons.
“They took three freshmen as quarterback/athletes, so if I don’t win the competition at the beginning between the three of us, they’ll keep one of the freshmen as a quarterback and they’ll convert the other two,” McCaffery explained. “My main goal is to win that freshman quarterback competition and hopefully go on to win the main quarterback competition. If that weren’t to happen, I would most likely play the linebacker position.”
Lopes, of course, doesn’t believe either will be much of an issue.
“He’s definitely a student of the game, so when he reports to summer ball, I’m sure it’ll definitely be a transition for him, but he will adjust,” Lopes said. “Fortunately for him, we passed more than other teams, so we saw more 11-man defensive secondary-type schemes than most other teams, so he got a taste of it. He saw more defenders in defensive pass coverage than other teams in our division would because we passed the ball more and had a spread offense. It will definitely be a transition for him, but he’ll adapt to it, it won’t take him much time.”
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Laguna Blanca is Santa Barbara’s premier private, co-educational, college preparatory day school for students in Early Kindergarten through Grade 12.