Posted by bambi2godzilla on 8/28/2007, 12:51 pm Jim Seimas Garner, a linebacker and tight end, is back for his senior season. And unlike last season, when he earned multiple postseason accolades despite playing injured, he now has a full tank of gas. "We're just seeing him start to play his game," said Jesse Trumbull, a longtime Cardinals assistant who is beginning his first season as head coach. "The sky is the limit for him" Garner has never let injuries keep him off the field, but they did hinder him from performing at capacity. He tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee as a sophomore. Last season he wore a restrictive knee brace to help the knee, but got banged up in other ways. After the season, he had shoulder surgery to repair a right, torn labrum sustained in the Cardinals' stunning, 7-6 win over Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League co-champion San Lorenzo Valley in Felton. He played with the injury the final three games as the Cardinals finished 3-6 overall. "This is the first offseason he had to be fully conditioned and lift, and not have to rehab an injury," Trumbull said. "He'll be at a strength he should have been the last couple of years. He's always been less than what he should have been. Now he's 100 percent" And that's not good for other teams in the SCCAL, who even while he was injured made it a priority to always know where No. 11 — the Diesel — was on the field. Despite his health issues, Garner left an impression last season. The heavily scouted 6-foot-3, 230-pound tight end and linebacker was named Junior of the Year by SCCAL coaches and was chosen to the Sentinel's All-Santa Cruz County football team as well. With Garner's size, mobility and mentality, he is projected to play linebacker or defensive end in college. Trumbull said Garner will be a can't miss NCAA Division I player. "I'll probably play defense in college," Garner said. "That's probably because I like defense more than offense. It's more reactionary. Every play, pass or run, you can make a play. I love the viciousness of everything going on around you" With the help of a highlight video tape compiled by Garner and former head coach Bassel Faltas, Garner was invited to four one-day junior camps with Pacific 10 schools over the summer. He worked at linebacker for Cal and Washington, defensive end for USC, and tight end for UCLA. Because there was a conflict with the UCLA and USC camp, Garner attended the USC workout with prospective Trojan linemen and ran a solid 40 time. He's not sure what it is, but he knows it was pretty good. "Coach [Pete] Carroll told me after the camp that it was the fastest of the linemen," Garner said smiling. San Jose State and San Diego State are also tracking the Cardinals' star. Garner comes from a basketball lineage. His father Duane played at Kalamazoo from 1973-'76 and later coach UC Santa Cruz's men's team. His mom, Irene, played at Eastern New Mexico University. Garner plays basketball, and baseball, too. But it was football that stole his heart. "My first introduction was watching it on TV," Garner said. "I was too big to play Pop Warner. So it was more of a hunger because I never got to play. I came out my freshman year and fell in love with it. It was everything I thought it would be" Late last year, Garner made the transition from outside linebacker to middle linebacker. Now some of his teammates aren't always happy when they hear an interior run call in practice. "Man, our linebacker corps is fast," said running back Alvaro Flores. "Sometimes, I run outside. Quinn gets over there every time. I know he's going to be there. I expect it" After games, when the team reviews film, Garner usually leads the team in "ooohs and ahhhs," Trumbull said. "His reads are exceptional," Trumbull said. "Almost everything he does is coming forward. We don't want our mike backer frozen or moving side to side. He's moving the right direction every time" And this year the Diesel is doing it healthy, and with a lot more horsepower.
63.249.102.18
2007 SCCAL football: Quinn Garner, aka 'Diesel,' revved up for big season with Cardinals
Santa Cruz Sentinel
August 27, 2007
Santa Cruz High football coaches and teammates call two-way standout Quinn Garner "Diesel" — as in the monstrous-sized engine that powers a big rig.
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