Two images bookend Santa Margarita Catholic High School’s improbable journey from 2024’s scandal-ridden 5-7 season to a spot in the CIF State Open Division championship showdown with De La Salle on Saturday night and a game that has attracted national attention.
One is after Santa Margarita’s 42-7 victory against Centennial in the CIF Southern Section Division I title game, first-year head coach Carson Palmer, the former Eagles standout, USC Heisman Trophy winner, NFL All-Pro quarterback, kneeling beside his players at the center of the Rose Bowl, leading the team in the “Our Father.”
The second is the portrait revealed in court documents, police reports, interviews and emails of a 15-year-old, sophomore Santa Margarita football player allegedly being held down against his will by Eagles teammates in September 2024, while he was sexually assaulted by other players.
Santa Margarita principal Cheri Wood later admitted in a series of emails obtained by the Orange County Register that “at least 8” other Eagles players were allegedly assaulted by their teammates in a similar manner.
A week after the alleged sexual assaults, Wood wrote to a parent that the school was taking steps to make “changes to the culture of the program.”
Santa Margarita coaches, administrators, players and fans insist that the Eagles’ unlikely run to the pinnacle of California prep football is proof of culture change under Palmer, the teenage hero turned savior returning to his alma mater to resurrect the Eagles program after more than a decade buried on the wrong end of the Trinity League standings.
“The whole culture has changed,” said James Smith, father of sophomore All-Trinity League running back Jaion “Duce” Johnson-Smith. “No, I didn’t expect we’d be here. I thought we’d be a good competitive team. But (Palmer) has been a blessing. Year 1, he’s changed the whole program. Year 1.
“Now we’re in the biggest game in the country.”
Santa Margarita’s first state championship game appearance in 14 years comes a year and a day after Palmer was hired in the wake of the hazing scandal. Saturday’s game also falls on the 28th anniversary of what is widely regarded as one of the greatest prep football games in state history — the Eagles’ 55-42 victory against Tustin in the 1997 CIF Southern Section Division 5 final in Fullerton. Palmer threw for five touchdowns and 413 yards. Tustin running back DeShaun Foster, the future UCLA standout and Bruins head coach, rushed for 378 yards and six TDs. The two teams combined for 1,089 yards in total offense.
“His football pedigree is unmatched,” Santa Margarita president J. Andrew Sulick said of Palmer at the time of his hiring at the Diocese of Orange school last December. “As an alum, he understands the culture.”
Saturday’s game at Saddleback College also comes 94 days after documents were filed in Orange County Superior Court signaling that the Diocese of Orange had agreed to settle a lawsuit filed against the diocese and Santa Margarita by the former player who was allegedly sexually assaulted by his Eagles teammates in September 2024.
“The number of student athletes apparently impacted by the toxic culture within the Santa Margarita football program is truly alarming,” Brian Williams, an attorney for the former player, told the Register at the time the suit was filed in 2024. “These are not isolated incidents involving teenage boys, but rather a product of the environment shaped by the coaching staff and administration. The leadership failures are many and have caused irreparable harm to my client.”
In a move that is typically indicative of an out-of-court settlement, the case was dismissed on Sept. 10 after an attorney for the former player asked the court to dismiss “with prejudice” their client’s suit against Santa Margarita and the diocese, according to a court filing.
“Regarding your request for comment on the settlement agreement, we decline to comment,” Jarryd Gonzales, head of communications for the Diocese, said in an email this week.
Diocese, Santa Margarita administrators and coaches have taken a similar approach to questions about how or if the culture within the Eagles football program has changed. Throughout the season, school administrators, coaches and players have repeatedly credited culture change under Palmer as the primary reason for Santa Margarita’s turnaround.
Palmer was hired, a school representative said this week, “to bring back old Eagles culture.”
But school officials have refused to talk about specifics regarding the program’s cultural overhaul.
Sulick and Wood did not respond to multiple requests for comment this week.
A school representative said earlier this week that Palmer and Eagles players would be available to be interviewed for this article. A day later, the representative said Palmer and players would not be available after all, and referred questions about culture change to the Diocese of Orange.
When asked about culture change, Gonzales, the diocese spokesman, emailed a statement to the Register. “The Diocese of Orange and Santa Margarita Catholic High School remain committed to maintaining a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for all students, staff and coaches.”
But Gonzales and the diocese refused to respond to direct questions about what specific steps the diocese has taken to create a to ensure a “safe, respectful and inclusive environment for all students, staff and coaches,” what does the diocese or school administration see as evidence of culture change within the football program both on and off the field, or how would the diocese respond to those who question whether the school’s culture could change with Sulick, Wood and athletic trainer Mike Burns still at the school?
“We are not making any further comments,” Gonzales said.
In the Santa Margarita case, the diocese is following its familiar playbook.
The diocese and Mater Dei High School in January 2023 refused to release the results of a more than year-long investigation into the school’s athletic culture, despite two different school presidents previously saying they would make those findings available to the public and media.
The investigation, authorized by then-Mater Dei president Father Walter Jenkins in November 2021, was prompted by a series of reports by the Register detailing allegations of assaults, hazing, sexual harassment, racial slurs, and vandalism by Mater Dei athletes. The Register also reported that then-Monarchs head football coach Bruce Rollinson, principal Frances Clare and other Mater Dei coaches, officials and employees were aware of inappropriate behavior by athletes but either ignored it or failed to take effective action.
The announcement of the decision not to release what a Mater Dei spokesperson described as a “climate assessment” was made after the diocese and school reached an out-of-court settlement with a former Mater Dei player in a lawsuit that raised questions about the culture of the school’s football and sports programs and whether coaches, school administrators and Diocese of Orange officials place athletic success and image over student safety.
Trinity League rivals and their fans have raised similar questions about Santa Margarita.
In addition to the alleged sexual assaults of players by their teammates, a Register investigation based on court filings, police reports, emails from school administrators and employees and interviews also revealed:
• Injured players were pressured to play and practice against doctor’s orders or recommendations, even when doing so could result in permanent, life-changing injury. Coaches and members of the school sports medicine staff disregarded, dismissed and ridiculed doctors’ instructions and even went so far as to instruct players not to see doctors not affiliated with the school, or tell the coaches or Santa Margarita sports medicine staff that they’re injured or share doctors’ notes with them.
• Santa Margarita coaches were physically abusive to players. When a coach became angry with a player’s footwork during a practice, he kicked the player.
Sulick, a member of Santa Margarita’s charter class and later a football and golf coach at the school, has been criticized for not responding to repeated requests from the then-sophomore player’s mother to discuss the alleged sexual assaults, but found time to speak to the football players and coaches in a special team meeting to address the Orange County Sheriff Department and school investigations. Sulick has been the school’s president since 2014.
Wood said the family’s “choice” contributed to the sophomore being assaulted by three Santa Margarita athletes after returning to in-person classes at Santa Margarita on Oct. 7, 2024, according to emails obtained by the Register, interviews and court filings. He had missed two weeks of school after the alleged sexual assault by his Eagles football teammates and was concerned about falling behind in his classes.
According to interviews and the court filing, he was “again targeted almost immediately upon his return.” As he was walking down a school hallway the morning of his first day back at Santa Margarita, three athletes approached him from behind and “groped him multiple times,” according to interviews and the lawsuit.
Wood, named Santa Margarita principal in 2019, later told the player’s mother that “the incident was in fact visible on the school cameras, but that she independently came to the conclusion that the incidents were not related,” according to the lawsuit and interviews.
Wood, in an email to the mother later that day, blamed the family for the hallway assault. The principal told the mother that she should not have rushed her son back to school because the school was not prepared, saying that she was “saddened” by the family’s decision, but “the choice of course was yours.”
Burns was verbally abusive to the sophomore after he presented Santa Margarita coaching and training staff with a note from his physician advising that he take a week or two weeks off from contact practices after he reaggravated a pre-existing back injury, a recurrence from a childhood injury, according to two people familiar with the situation and a court filing.
Instead of taking the doctor’s recommendation seriously, Santa Margarita coaches and sports medicine staff “became irritated and dismissive. They ridiculed (the sophomore) for his injury, calling him weak and scared,” according to the lawsuit. “The coaches berated (the sophomore) for consulting anyone other than the coaches or the football trainer for his injury and told (him) that he should not see outside physicians, claiming outside physicians do not have (his) best interests in mind.”
“Don’t ever, don’t ever go see a physician again,” a coach told the sophomore after pulling him into a room, closing the door and then standing over the player after the coach told him to sit down, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
Then-Eagles head coach Anthony Rouzier looked at the note, then flipped it back at the sophomore and told him to show it to all the other coaches and the school’s trainer, Burns, according to a person familiar with the interaction. Rouzier was placed on administrative leave on Oct. 1, 2024. His contract was not renewed after the season.
“What is this weak-ass note?” Burns told the sophomore, according to a person familiar with the conversation. “Don’t ever bring me this (expletive) again.”
Burns did not respond to a request for comment.
The most evident change at Santa Margarita under Palmer has been in the win-loss column and on the roster.
The Eagles went 9-3 in 2012, a year after Santa Margarita won the State Division I title. But the program went 60-66 over the next 12 seasons, posting only five winning campaigns, before hiring Palmer.
“They brought in coaches and players and saw an immediate dividend off of their investment in football,” Orange Lutheran head coach Rod Sherman said.
Palmer brought in Lenny Vandermade, a teammate at USC and member of the Trojans’ 2003 national championship team, as his offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Vandermade had previously served as a tight end coach at USC and, most recently, as head coach at St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco.
The Eagles’ new quarterback coach is Doug Johnson, a former Florida quarterback and NFL teammate of Palmer’s. T.J. Houshmandzadeh, an All-Pro receiver and another former teammate of Palmer’s at Cincinnati, is the new receivers coach. At least seven Santa Margarita coaches have NFL experience ranging from training camp rosters to Super Bowl rings, as is the case with Eagles running backs coach Mike Karney, a Super Bowl winner with New Orleans.
There have also been significant changes on the Santa Margarita roster.
The Eagles’ defensive line features three starters who are new transfers — Isaia Vandermade, Lenny Vandermade’s son, Manoah Faupusa, another St. Ignatius transfer, and Simote Katoanga, a USC commit who was previously at JSerra. Vandermade, a junior, posted eight total tackles, three for loss, and three sacks against Centennial in the CIF Southern Section championship game.
On the offensive line, Arizona State commit Niniva Nicholson (JSerra) and Raymond Jacobs (Rancho Cucamonga) are also new transfers, as is quarterback Trace Johnson, Doug Johnson’s son.
Johnson, a Tulane commit, led Gainesville’s Buchholz High to the Florida 6A state semifinals as a sophomore and junior, and was named by On3.com as the No. 2 high school transfer likely to have “big impact nationally” this season. He completed 16 of 25 passes for 386 yards and four touchdowns in the CIF Southern Section Division I final win over Centennial.
The influence of transfers on the Eagles’ season, however, goes beyond this year’s newcomers.
Linebacker Dash Fifita, the Trinity League’s defensive MVP, is a transfer from Mater Dei, as are Jayden Crowder, an All-Trinity League defensive back, and another defensive back, Siua Holani and his brother Leki, a linebacker. Ivrick Carrigan, a linebacker, transferred from Los Alamitos.
Fifita had 12 tackles, 3.5 for loss, two sacks and one forced fumble in the CIF Southern Section final. Siua Holani had nine tackles, a sack and forced a fumble in the game.
But perhaps the most conspicuous Santa Margarita transfer is the former player with whom the diocese and school recently reached an out-of-court settlement. He left Santa Margarita in the fall of 2024 because of his family’s concern about his safety at the school.
During his mother’s first meeting with Wood, the principal said, “I guarantee we’re here to protect (the sophomore).”
The mother was taken aback by the comment, according to two people familiar with the conversation.
“Well, to be fair,” the mother told Wood. “We’re past the point of protecting (the player), right?”
“Our client didn’t ask for this,” Jemma E. Dunn, an attorney for the former player, said in an email to the Register shortly after the alleged sexual assault. “He was the victim of an unprovoked attack that was the direct result of SMCHS’s toxic environment. Decisions by others — school administration, coaches, and students — have resulted in life changing and undeserved consequences for our client. He deserved better and we are proud of him for having the courage to motivate change.”
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