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Notre Dame's Steven Moretto chases big numbers for bigger goal

Juggler quarterback is also one of Canada’s top baseball players
notre dame moretto football
Steven Moretto is a two-sport talent who plays football for the Notre Dame Jugglers and baseball for the North Shore Twins. Photos Dan Toulgoet

Steven Moretto leads the Notre Dame Jugglers in rushing with 379 yards and five touchdowns after two regular season games, both of them wins in the competitive Western Conference of B.C.’s AAA varsity football league.

Averaging nearly 200 yards a game is impressive, but especially for Moretto because the Grade 12 student is the Jugglers starting quarterback. He’s also put up 161 yards in the air for four more majors in wins over the then-No. 3 New Westminster Hyacks and South Delta Sun Devils.

Notre Dame’s varsity coach Richard Scott believes his QB1 is one of the best athletes in the province. “His best trait isn’t just his athletics, it’s his leadership. He makes guys accountable, they listen to him and they follow him,” said the fifth-year head coach.

Add to his numbers three sacks and one interception for a 40-yard return. That’s right: he plays defence, too.

Notre Dame hosts defending B.C. champion Mt. Douglas Rams at 5 p.m. Oct. 14 at Burnaby Lake Park.

“When you have a horse, you use him when you have to. I’d like to see if we can get the scores up and have him run less, but in our league and in our division, every game is hard. You have to play your best against the other team’s best and he is one of our best,” said Scott. “He’d run it every play if he could. He keeps asking for the ball and we actually have to slow him down.”

To coach an “on-field coach” like Moretto, the strategy is to keep him calm and focused. “He’s got to be the calm leader,” said Scott. “He can still be boisterous and verbal, but you have to keep him on an even keel and not let him think he’s the only one on the field. He’s smart enough to know what we’re doing and how to do it.”

The AAA varsity football season is still young, but Moretto is chasing glory – the kind his father knew when the former B.C. Lion won a championship ring with the Jugglers. “He won in Grade 8, Grade 10 and Grade 12 when he went to Notre Dame,” Moretto said of his father, Rob, a linebacker the Lions drafted in 1987 from the Vanier Cup champion UBC Thunderbirds. “We won in Grade 8, we lost in the final in Grade 10, so I’ve got to match him in Grade 12.”

steven moretto little league baseball hastings
In August 2012, Hastings Little League prepapred to travel to Edmonton for the national championship, which they would win and go on to represent Canada at the World Series. Steven Moretto is second from the right. Photo Dan Toulgoet

Notre Dame has won the B.C. championship football title more than any other high school in the province. Their last win came in the early ’90s and, as the head coach points out, the league has grown considerably and so has the level – and size – of the competition.

“Notre Dame was a dominant program back in the day when there wasn’t a lot of programs,” said Scott. “All the program now are well-coached, they all scout each other very well, the kids are bigger and stronger, and they’re all doing specialised workouts. There is no gimme anymore.”

Even if Moretto, 17, repeats his father’s high school championship success – one not seen at Notre Dame since 1993 – he won’t likely follow in those same footsteps to play football at university. Rather, the two-sport teenage talent will play third-base. At Sacramento State, where he’s already in talks with the baseball program after a season with Canada’s junior national team.

“It’s a tough decision choosing baseball, but I’ve been successful in baseball too and I realize how far that can take me. I can do bigger things with baseball than I can with football,” said Moretto, who was part of the Hastings Little League 2012 national championship team that represented Canada at the World Series. He plays for the North Shore Twins.

notre dame football moretto
Steven Moretto talks with players and coaches during a Notre Dame football practice the day before the Jugglers defeated the South Delta Sun Devils 29-8 on Oct. 8, 2016. Photo Dan Toulgoet

Moretto is quick to name the players around him who have contributed to their two wins so far this season, particularly the offensive line.

“Each game we’re getting better, being more focused,” he said. “Everyone is thinking of the main goal.”

One of the Jugglers linesmen, centre guard Bryan Ly, said it’s his job to protect his quarterback, but he spends almost as much time marvelling at him as the pivot dashes down the sideline. The Grade 12 football also said Moretto gets all the Jugglers to work harder.

“I make sure he doesn’t get hit right away,” said Ly. “When I see him running, first of all I get amazed and then second of all, I’ve got to go down and help him so no one else can touch him because he’s my quarterback.  You see him over there, he’s a happy guy, he’s cheerful and he’s very friendly, but when it comes to game time, he’s locked down. There is no kidding around, no fooling around. We do all we have to do to win, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matter: a big ‘W’ for this Notre Dame team.”

The Notre Dame Jugglers host the defending B.C. champion Mt. Douglas Rams at 5 p.m. Oct. 14 at Burnaby Lake Park.

mstewart@vancourier.com

Twitter: @MHStewart