Edison opens summer football season in the air

The Edison High football program once again starts its summer season at the 2012 Nike Air Strike passing tournament at Dana Hills High.

The Chargers are one of 12 teams in the single-day event Saturday. The teams will be split into four pools. Pool A: Chaminade, Dana Hills, Oaks Christian, Tesoro; Pool B: Alemany, Mater Dei, Mission Viejo, Upland; Pool C: Capistrano Valley, Long Beach Poly, Narbonne, San Clemente: Pool D: Edison, El Toro, Loyola, Santa Margarita.

Edison opens pool play at 9 a.m. against El Toro, then has games against Santa Margarita (10:30 a.m.) and Loyola (11:30 a.m.). Last fall, Santa Margarita won the CIF-Southern Section Pac 5 Division title and El Toro was runner-up in the Southwest Division. Both Edison and Loyola were eliminated in a first-round loss in the Pac 5 playoffs.

Edison has won the tournament once, in 2009.

“We have our hands full because we’re in a tough bracket,” Edison Coach Dave White said. “Santa Margarita, Loyola, El Toro, they’re all very good teams and will be big challenges for us. We’re going into this thing with new quarterbacks, new receivers, defensive backs and linebackers.”

Aleksander Torgersen, who will enter his senior year in the fall, quarterbacked the Chargers in last year’s tournament, replacing starter Chase Favreau (broken hand).

“He did a real good job last year,” White said of Torgersen. “But last year, we had a veteran group of receivers and this year, he’ll be throwing to basically a new group.”

White said that several of the teams competing at Dana Hills also will take part in the upcoming Edison passing tournament July 14.

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North-South All-Star Football Game

The 53rd Brea Lions Orange County North-South Prep All-Star Football Game is July 6 at Orange Coast College. Six local senior players are on the South roster. They are: quarterback Chase Favreau, offensive lineman Alex Kircher and defensive lineman Dehvon Brown, each from Edison, receiver/defensive back Sean Myers of Fountain Valley, offensive lineman Jack Rulon of Huntington Beach, and Timmy Robinson of Ocean View.

The South began preparations for the game on Tuesday and Wednesday. The team practices again Thursday at Irvine Stadium, and hold future practice session next Tuesday and Wednesday. The squad’s first practice in full pads is June 22.

Woodbridge’s Rick Gibson will coach the South and Dusan Ancich of Villa Park will coach the North.