The high school and college football seasons are starting to become ridiculously long.
Consider this:
The San Diego Section championship finals took place Dec. 1-2 at Southwestern College. The state championship bowl games ended Dec. 16.
Yet more than two months later, preps and collegians were still throwing touchdown passes and kicking field goals.
Football, it seems, has become a year-round sport.
The Americas Bowl all-star game involving local prep products, for instance, took place Jan. 20 in Mexico City.
The glut of out-of-season all-star games does provide players with one valuable tool: a good showing can reel in a college scholarship.
Many area student-athletes signed college scholarship offers on National Signing Day on Wednesday. Locally, a special ceremony took place at Petco Park.
The Feb. 7 version of National Letter of Intent signing day follows on the heels of the November companion day.
Wednesday’s event featured signings in football, boys and girls soccer and boys water polo and those who missed the November signing event.
Sweetwater High School senior Marty Sesma took part in the Mexico City game.
Among other South County preps named to the San Diego Stars & Stripes team were Jeremiah Rivera and Gus Ferreira from Hilltop High School, Navy-bound Nick Dell’Acqua from Mater Dei Catholic High School as well as several players from Mesa League champion Otay Ranch High School.
The Mexican U19 national team won 40-6.
“They’ve gotten a lot better,” noted Sesma, a first team all-league South Bay League selection in 2017 who also earned team MVP honors. “Football has gotten a lot better in Mexico.”
But the trip wasn’t just about wins and losses but was a once in a lifetime event, according to Sesma, who led the Red Devils with 1,266 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns during the 2017 high school season.
“We got to visit the pyramids at Teotihuacan — we got to tour the city,” Sesma said. “We got to experience a different culture.”
The trip had the aura of a college football game, as players flew to Mexico City and stayed in a hotel with meals provided.
Sesma said he had received recruiting interest from several schools but had not made a commitment ahead of Wednesday’s national signing day.
The 2017-18 college season finally wound down on Jan. 27 with the Reece’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.
San Diego State University’s record-breaking rusher Rashaad Penny racked up 152 all-purpose yards and scored one touchdown as the South defeated the North 45-16.
Penny earned recognition as the co-most outstanding player for the South team. He finished the game with 64 rushing yards on nine carries, a 73-yard TD catch (from Virginia Cavaliers QB Kurt Benkert) and a 15-yard kick return.
Penny’s TD reception came in the second quarter to help push the South to an early 18-3 lead.
Penny played in four postseason bowl games with SDSU: 2014 Poinsettia Bowl, 2015 Hawaii Bowl, 2016 Las Vegas Bowl and the 2017 Armed Forces Bowl.
He finished fifth in the final voting for the 2017 Heisman Trophy award after leading the nation with 2,027 rushing yards.
SDSU finished 2017 with a 10-3 record, its school-record third consecutive year with at least 10 victories. The Aztecs are scheduled to return seven starters on offense and seven on defense, along with their kicker and punter.
SDSU kicks off the 2018 pigskin campaign Aug. 31 at Stanford.
The Aztecs’ spring game, ahem, is just a few weeks away.
