The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
The Lakewood football team’s most golden era in its proud history was the tenure of coach Thadd MacNeal, a man who led them to a Moore League championship and a landmark win over Long Beach Poly in 2009, as well as back-to-back CIF Southern Section Division 1 semifinals in 2008 and 2009. “Coach Mac” was a casualty of financial collapse-era layoffs in the Long Beach Unified School District, and departed the league for his hometown of Carlsbad, where he’s built a perennial San Diego Section Open Division championship contender.
His departure is often talked about by Lakewood football fans, since MacNeal had built a contender to last at Lakewood. Those fans will get a chance to see their old coach prowling the sidelines at John Ford Stadium once again as MacNeal is bringing his Carlsbad team up to Lakewood to open the season on August 23.
It’s going to be a special night for the Lakewood football community, as well as one of his best players, Justin Utupo, who’s returned home to coach the Lancers after a football career at Notre Dame and coaching at Millikan.
“I’m excited to welcome coach Mac back to Lakewood,” said Utupo. “When I was at Millikan I scheduled Carlsbad for a two-year contract and then ended up leaving before getting a chance to play them–he was upset with me, he was like, ‘Really?’ We were able to make it happen this year.”
Utupo said that Lakewood had been in talks with another program to fill the final hole in their schedule, but that Mac persuaded him.
“He said cancel that now, you guys are playing us and we’ll come to you,” Utupo said with a laugh. “So I stopped the discussion and here we are getting ready to host coach Mac and his Carlsbad team, who have been really good.”
The blockbuster storylines don’t end there, as Lakewood has put together one of the most intriguing nonleague schedules in the area. They’ll visit St. Anthony at Clark Field a few miles down the road for their second game, then host Edison on September 6, in the two teams’ first meeting since the Chargers defeated the Lancers in the semifinals in 2009 to end the MacNeal era. They’ll also renew their rivalry with Mayfair, a game played for the Milk Bucket trophy, before opening up league play. The Lancers have finished third place the last few years in league, looking solidly better than most of the league but also taking decisive losses to Poly and Millikan.
“We want to take that next step,” said Utupo. “Our first goal is always to win league. If we’re going to have a chance to compete with Long Beach Poly and now Millikan then we need to better prepare for that. I think the schedule we’ve put together does that. Poly was in Division 2 last year and we scheduled a D2 playoff team in Edison. We’ll see everything we need to see.”
The Lancers have been stuck in a cycle the last couple years, with frustrating nonleagues leading to shifted coaching responsibilities, and then a fired-up Lancers team finding their footing and identity during league play. Utupo is hoping that a change to their offseason will help that development happen earlier in 2024.
“The past few years we gave players and coaches some time away from team activities, we’d start in March or April,” he said. “We got going in December this year, all our players are on the same 7-on-7 team instead of playing on different teams. Our players are going to build that chemistry leading up to Spring and Summer ball. That’s the difference to start fast and find our identity early.”
The Lancers return almost their entire starting lineup, including 22 sophomores that played last year, and Utupo is excited for the future.
“We trust our players to put a schedule like this together,” he said. “I think that’s obvious. We have a lot of room to grow this year.”
Lakewood Football 2024 Schedule
August 23 vs. Carlsbad
August 30 at St. Anthony (Clark Field)
September 6 vs. Edison
September 13 at Mayfair
September 20 vs. Compton
September 27 at Long Beach Poly
October 4 at Cabrillo
October 11 vs. Jordan
October 18 vs. Millikan
October 25 BYE
November 1 at Wilson
