WCAL Football 2016
Off-field struggles fuel Nunn’s on-field success
By Mitch Stephens
Serra head coach
Patrick Walsh blinked hard several times and bit his lip watching Sanger running back
Jalen Cropper send more than 7,000 fans from Fresno County into delirium with a 57-yard touchdown run to open the scoring Saturday night. “That’s the loudest crowd noise I’ve ever heard at a high school game,” Walsh said. “Maybe any game.”
Walsh looked back to see quarterback Leki Nunn bending at the waist and stretching out his arm, looking as if he was going to enter a yoga class.
“There was absolutely no panic in his face or nothing in his body language that indicated stress,” Walsh said. “He didn’t say a word. He just put out his fist to bump mine as if to say, ‘We got this, coach.’” Yes, they did.
The speedy 5-foot-10, 180-pound senior accounted for 456 yards and six touchdowns in Serra’s wild 49-36 CIF Division 2-A Northern Regional championship win, the 10th straight for the Padres.
On Saturday, the alma mater of
Tom Brady and
Lynn Swann will play for the first state title in school history against Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth at noon at Sacramento State. Nunn said none of that was on his mind Saturday. Blocking out all the noise and an undefeated Sanger team was enough.
“That’s the most hostile setting I’ve ever been a part of, and one of the craziest games,” he said. “People were calling you names. Yelling at our parents. I had to double clap to be heard, and tap the center and guard to communicate. It was ridiculously loud.”
And Nunn was ridiculously good. He skipped, sliced and sprinted through and around defenders on 22 runs for 163 yards and scored from 4, 11, 2 and 5 yards. He made every throw imaginable, including — after hopping around in the pocket for more than five seconds — a perfectly placed 54-yard pass to
Charles Quinn in the end zone. The pass traveled almost 70 yards in the air.
“He’s so freaking calm,” Walsh said. “Calmest demeanor ever. Nobody panics around him.”
Said Nunn: “If I show panic or I get down, that won’t help my teammates. I know they are looking to me.”
On the next possession, the right-handed thrower was flushed out of the pocket, sprinted left and along the Serra sideline had the chance to run for at least 10 yards. But just before reaching the line of scrimmage, he spotted
Isiah Hendrick near the goal line and flung a 55-yard TD pass to him. That came in the middle of a 21-point fourth-quarter spurt that essentially clinched the win. Nunn, who accounted for 398 yards and five touchdowns in a CCS championship win over Mitty, was 13-for-21 for 293 yards against Sanger.
Walsh said Nunn, the 2015 WCAL Player of the Year and 2016 Co-Quarterback of the Year, has had as big an effect on his team as any player he has ever coached. That includes his days as an assistant at
De La Salle, when he helped oversee the development of players such as
Matt Gutierrez,
D.J. Williams,
Maurice Jones-Drew and
Derek Landri.
During his 15-year run at Serra, he has coached
Green Bay Packers lineman
David Bakhtiari, former
University of Minnesota running back
De’Leon Eskridge, Stanford lineman
Jack Dreyer and UCLA defensive lineman
Matt Dickerson & Stanford linebacker Will Powers.
“Physically, of course, no, he’s not as imposing as some of those guys, for sure, but what he does on the football field, his competitive composition and spiritually and magic inside of him, he definitely compares,” Walsh said. “He’s
Steph Curry in cleats. Nothing fazes him.”
There’s a reason.
Nunn said he and his younger brother, junior receiver Patrick, have experienced so much off the field that they treat football simply as what it is: a game. Nunn said his father has been in jail for the past 15 years and the last time he saw him was in 2011. “He writes and calls time to time,” he said. “It’s hard to get updates because we’ve moved so much. … He always says how proud he is of us and that I need to be the man of the family. He said that I’m going to make mistakes and sometimes it’s too late and you can’t go back. He said to try to do the right thing the first time and no matter what, have fun in what you’re doing.”
Nunn said his mother,
Vika Sinipata, was incarcerated just before his freshman year, but was recently released and now attends every game, sporting Nunn’s freshman jersey. “She’s always dancing in the stands,” he said. “I can always hear her.” Nunn wouldn’t get into the specifics of his parents’ crimes, saying, “It’s not important. What’s important is the future.” Nunn’s grandparents, Paul and Anna Sinipata, have been a huge part of Leki’s life and filled in many parental gaps. But the past four years have been particularly trying.
“They’ve had to sell a lot of their most prized possessions just to make ends meet and pay for tuition at Serra,” he said. “We’ve had to move in and out of hotel rooms at a moment’s notice. I feel like I’ve seen the lowest of the low, so nothing really affects me on the football field. I’ve seen a lot worse.
“That’s why bad plays don’t really bother me. They don’t define me. It’s the next play that’s important.”
His uncle,
Ronald Nunn, a former St. Francis, CCSF and USC defensive back, has long been his athletic idol. The football field has served as a sanctuary, his coaches and teammates as a second family.
“I love football and my teammates, and practice and games always brings me back to regular teenage life,” Nunn said. “I always play for them. I owe them so much.”
Carrying a 3.25 GPA, Nunn has offers from San Jose State, Sacramento State and Air Force. His lack of size might prohibit him from being a quarterback, but he doesn’t mind. De La Salle’s
Justin Alumbaugh, who has coached against Nunn three times, said: “He’s unreal, one of the best athletes we’ve coached against. Colleges would be lucky to have him.”
Said Nunn: “Whatever position coaches want me to play in college, I'm fine with. I just want to play and get my education. ... I have an opportunity to change the shape of my life.”
