Colm Barrett, a junior at Ojai Valley School, had never played a down of football in a Spuds Uniform. As a new addition to the school’s team, he wasn’t slated in the starting lineup, but he would soon make his impact during last Saturday’s contest against Dunn.

Barrett wearing #7, reminiscent of the former Ojai great Hunter Helman, scored Ojai’s second touchdown of the game, a post pattern on a pass from QB Gunnar Helman to put OVS in the lead 15-14.

After a first half chock full of drama and lead changes, Ojai Valley School’s varsity football squad found itself  trailing at halftime by 2 touchdowns.

After the pep talk from the coaches, Colm decided to make another impact on the team. We as a team got in a circle and listened to our newest addition explain the “Tibetan Power Release.”

See, Colm is from San Francisco so part of me expected a stunt like this. He described that after the deep breathing, the objective was to unleash 3 powerful pelvic thrusts. As a captain, I found it both amusing and useful. In the heat of battle, it helps to stay loose. After the dismissal of “The Wrangle” (another famous warmup) we needed that.

The second half proved to be no surprise as Barrett started our drive with a return to put us in great field position. His day ended with 2 touchdowns, many good runs back, several tackles, and endless labeling as a “Beast” from the fans in attendance.

Not bad for a rookie and needless to say, he kicked butt in his first football game as a Spud. It seems like Colm Barrett is here to stay, and just in the nick of time. Our next game is against Thacher this Friday.