South City’s Townsend develops into DI talent SMDJ Terry Bernal Reporting

South San Francisco, CA  February 13, 2015  Re-broadcast SMDJ Terry Bernal

Daily Journal Sports File
Terrell Townsend anchored both the offensive and defensive lines for South City this season.

South City defensive end Terrell Townsend became one of 27 athletes to sign with the San Jose State football team during Wednesday’s national signing day.

The team captain on both the offensive and defensive lines for the Warriors in 2014, Townsend helped the Warriors to a 4-6 overall record and a 3-2 league record for a second-place finish in the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division, a product of South City’s strong finish in winning four of its last five games.

Townsend signed his National Letter of Intent Wednesday afternoon at a ceremony in the South City Gymnasium. His teammates, coaches, friends and family were among those of the upwards of 200 people in attendance. Of the many smiles seen during the hour-long ceremony, none beamed with more pride than that of his mother, Shania.

“My mom was ecstatic,” Townsend said. “She was extremely excited and proud. Everybody was full of congratulations and happy for me. All my friends were there. It was nice.”

Townsend’s mother is the reason he played at South City. A resident of Hayward, Townsend received an inter-district transfer due to the fact his mother works in South San Francisco. She drives him to school every day, where he arrives like clockwork at 7:45 a.m. Townsend is working on acquiring his driver’s license. At present he has a learner’s permit. So, as of signing day, he still makes the commute with his mother.

“Just like anything else, he’s accustomed to it,” South City head coach Jay Oca said. “He’s just learning now, he’s getting these work habits, these habits of being there early and leaving late. And, at first, he was forced to be put in that position. Now he’s accustomed to it. So, it has definitely benefitted him.”

In attending San Jose State, Townsend will actually be closer to his Hayward home than at South City. But he will live on campus his first year there, as all freshmen are required. He will be attending the university on a full athletic scholarship. He is one of three football players to go directly from South City into a Division I program since the start of Oca’s coaching career in 2002, joining the Eliapo brothers.

South City defensive lineman Kenape Eliapo was recruited to play at University of Utah after the 2004-05 season by then Utes head coach Urban Meyer. According to Oca, Eliapo was referred to Meyer by then USC head coach Pete Carroll. Oca said Carroll was on the South City campus while recruiting a South City linebacker, who identified Eliapo as a prospect and referred him to Meyer.

The following season, Ailao Eliapo was recruited by San Jose State.

Of San Jose State’s 27 recruits this season, 26 of them are from California. Townsend said he has only ever played against one person currently on the Spartans roster — offensive tackle Nate Velichko — who played at the King’s Academy.

“Looking at our recruiting class, I understand there’s going to be a lot of competition … in summer camp in July,” Townsend said. “Position-wise, they’re going to have me at outside weak end, which is my natural position. Time will tell. I’ll see what goes on. But for the team, we should be very good for the next couple of years. We have a decent squad.”

In his three years as a varsity lineman, Townsend developed into a one-of-a-kind athlete among the South City ranks. At 6-4, 225 pounds, No. 76 was a natural defensive lineman. He eventually took to playing the offensive line as well. According to Oca, however, Townsend didn’t arrive as the standout gridiron giant he will be graduating as.

“He came in a freshman as kind of this tall and goofy kid that was out of shape and not very coordinated,” Oca said. “He progressed as a football player … understanding the game, understanding what it takes to work hard and he did that. He engulfed himself in the sport and the program and it benefitted him.”

During Townsend’s senior season, and Oca’s first year as the varsity head coach, South City got off to an abysmal 0-5 start, including a scuffling offense that scored just 14 points over the first four games.

Then on Oct. 17 against Half Moon Bay, junior running back Eric Kamelamela made his season debut with a 165-yard rushing effort in a 30-27 South City win. The running game turned around the Warriors’ season and much of that was in part to Townsend’s dominance on the offensive line.

“It’s huge,” Oca said. “If you’re not blocking the right guys, if you’re not making the right adjustments on the line of scrimmage, Eric can’t go anywhere. Even though Eric has that great breakaway speed, he still has to get past defensive linemen and linebackers. And that’s what offensive linemen are for, to get in there and move those guys around. And [Townsend] was able to do that. His leadership on the offensive line, he sparked our offense and really got it going.”

It is Townsend’s skill as a defensive end that cemented his legacy as one of the South City all-time greats.

“His senior season, he was impeccable,” Oca said. “He was the prototype defensive end — a run stopper … disrupting pass lanes and sacking quarterbacks. He’s explosive, he’s fast, he’s strong, he’s quick, he can get off the football. He did everything he was supposed to do and he had great games. He played great games and he played well at the right time.”

Also signing National Letters of Intent with Division I programs Wednesday were Serra’s Jack Dreyer (Stanford), Sacred Heart Prep’s Ben Burr-Kirven (Washington) and Aragon’s Curran Brandt (Air Force).

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Thank you to SSFHS Aaron Boyd for bringing this to our attention and asking we share along with this video of Terrell. CLICK HERE which was done by SSFHS students. They continue to make our whole community proud.