Q&A with St. Francis Football Coach Jim Bonds

There’s only one week left in the summer dead period for the St. Francis football team – yawn – but that doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t interesting things to discuss as we quickly approach the start of what should be a fascinating season for the Golden Knights.

La Cañada-Flintridge Patch caught up with St. Francis head coach Jim Bonds over the phone Monday to get the low down on the squad. Keep in mind these quotes come before St. Francis’ first practice in pads – the Knights will fully suit up for the first time Aug. 18. Any coach will tell you that it’s tough to judge a team until hitting begins, but Bonds still had a few interesting nuggets on what he’s learned about this year’s group from summer practices.

Bonds on the summer practices:

"I was happy with the way our summer ended. We finished in the semifinals of the Claremont passing tournament. I thought we came together well as a team. We got some good chemistry."

On star wide receiver Travis Talianko:

“Travis Talianko is one of the best receivers in the area in my opinion. We also moved him to free safety this season. … He played there last year the last few games of the year but he was really young at that position. Just watching him his reads were coming a lot easier and just seeing the plays develop from that.”

On the experience of this year’s team (St. Francis boasts five players with three years varsity experience):

"We had five of these seniors came up as sophomores who played varsity for us. They give us a lot of experience because now they’re going on their third year of varsity football. A lot of those guys are three-year starters. … The thing I like about it is there’s just great leadership from the senior class. Stems largely from those five guys (Talianko, Luke Anderson, Ryan McAleenan, Kristion Grbavac and Joe Marrone)."

On new quarterback Jared Lebowitz: 

"One thing about Jared’s transition is he’s a very intelligent kid and he’s really picked up the offense surprisingly quickly for me. He’s an intelligent kid off the field. He has a high football IQ and really grasps what we’re trying to do very quickly."

On Lebowitz’s football IQ: 

“Just our board time that we have together -- going over reads. I’ll give him the green pen and he’ll go up on the white board. He asks the right questions he just has a great feel for what’s going on with the game of football. I can see it transferred onto the field with his reads and progressions.”