Bo knows Sacred Heart Prep
Every college football season, Bo St. Geme and his father, Ed St. Geme, make a trip up north to catch a Stanford game. The father and son tend to stay at a family member’s house in Menlo Park, which is a short drive to the stadium on campus.
The family member is Matt Moran, who is Bo’s uncle. Moran also happens to be a former teammate of Bo’s dad. Ed and Moran played football at Stanford from 1981 to 1984 and they are two reasons why Bo is a rabid fan of the Cardinal.
This season, Bo and Ed didn’t make it to a game with Moran at The Farm, where Stanford plays. A couple of months ago, Bo caught up with Moran over the phone. They talked about the Cardinal and getting together for a game later in the season.
Bo and Moran are actually going to see each other during the football season and it will take place prior to Stanford playing in the Rose Bowl. They are meeting Saturday, and of all places, on the field of the final high school football game of Bo’s junior season with Corona del Mar.
Moran won’t be rooting for his nephew, though. The game also marks the last one for Moran’s high school team this year.
Moran is an assistant coach at Atherton Sacred Heart Prep, CdM’s opponent in the CIF State Division III Bowl Game at the StubHub Center in Carson at noon. In the way of the Sea Kings’ attempt at finishing the season a perfect 16-0 is the team of Bo’s uncle.
“I’ll obviously … say hi to him before the game and talk to him a little bit,” Bo says, “but we’re going there to try to win the state championship.”
Moran has the same attitude heading into the state final.
“I’m going to coach as hard as I can to win,” says Moran, who is in charge of the offensive line. “Unfortunately, someone has to lose this game. I hope it’s not us who lose.”
Keep in mind that Moran is the one who introduced Bo’s parents, Ed and Ceci. The two met while at Stanford, where Ceci competed as a star distance runner and Ed as a safety.
The rest is history, Ed and Ceci married in 1986, and they went on to have six children, the only boy being Bo. At that wedding is where Moran finally hit it off with Ceci’s sister, Ellen.
“We had kind of known each other, but she probably didn’t like me at first,” says Moran, who started on the offensive line at Stanford for four years, a couple of those protecting John Elway. “I was a little too cocky.”
Coming out in the wedding helped Moran’s chances with Ellen. The two decided to tie the knot later on.
The family reunion with the St. Gemes comes at an opportune time, right before the holidays. The family ties end once Bo steps in between the lines on the field against Sacred Heart Prep (13-1).
Bo isn’t even sure if the two tight-knit families will sit together during the game. He hasn’t talked to his uncle, leaving it to his parents to discuss the travel plans of the Moran family.
“My mom talked to my aunt,” Bo says, “and their team is planning on going to Disneyland after [the game].”
That kind of news isn’t going to sit well with CdM. The game hasn’t happened and Sacred Heart Prep has arranged to celebrate at Disneyland.
A player on the winning team gets to say, “I’m going to Disneyland!” after a big win. Bo hopes to have a say on which team celebrates its school’s first state football title.
Bo made an impact last week, helping CdM continue its historic season. He finished with nine receptions for 117 yards and one touchdown, as CdM beat Ojai Nordhoff, 24-8, in the CIF State Southern California Regional Division III Bowl Game at Orange Coast College. The best game of his two-year career as a starter pushed the Sea Kings’ school-best winning streak to 25 games.
Five of Bo’s catches went for first downs, three coming on third-down situations. The biggest grab by Bo kept a drive alive shortly after CdM’s defense came away with the second of its three turnovers.
The first-down conversion allowed quarterback Luke Napolitano to hook up with Bo a couple of plays later on a 37-yard touchdown pass. Napolitano’s pump fake toward receiver Cole Collins on a bubble screen on the left duped the cornerback on Bo and the safety playing over the top. They both jumped the screen, as Bo pretended to block, only to sneak past the coverage to give CdM a 17-0 lead midway through the third quarter.
“Our defense probably had [its] best game of the season. We didn’t help [the defense] out much in the first half and [it was] able to get us that [10-0] lead,” Bo says. “We knew we just had to stay patient on offense and eventually we were going to get our shots.”
Bo sees the game playing out much the same way against Sacred Heart Prep, which has a stingy defense that allows just 8.8 points per game.
Bo isn’t the only receiver Moran is familiar with on the CdM team. Moran has met Collins, a junior who leads the Sea Kings with 59 catches for 995 yards and eight touchdowns.
During the summer going into his sophomore year, Bo brought Collins with him on a family vacation. The St. Geme family and Collins stayed at the Moran family’s cabin in Whitefish, Mont.
Moran will get to see a lot more of his nephew up close.
Bo is the CdM receiver that usually lines up closest to the opponent’s sideline. As the team’s most experienced receiver, CdM Coach Scott Meyer says Bo doesn’t need directions from his own sideline. He is more than comfortable with the signs coming in, and they come in a hurry as the Sea Kings run a no-huddle, zone-read offense.
The ball goes in Bo’s direction quite a bit. He has 58 receptions for 733 yards and seven touchdowns. And those numbers don’t surprise his uncle.
“I’ve known Bo since he was a little boy,” Moran says. “He always had a ball in his hands.”
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Bo St. Geme
Born: Dec. 18, 1995
Hometown: Palo Alto
Height: 5-foot-11
Weight: 160 pounds
Sport: Football
Year: Junior
Coach: Scott Meyer
Favorite food: Cheeseburger from In-N-Out Burger
Favorite movie: “Step Brothers”
Favorite athletic moment: “Winning the Battle of the Bay this year.”
Week in review: St. Geme finished with nine catches for 117 yards and a touchdown, helping the Sea Kings beat Ojai Nordhoff, 24-8, in the CIF State Southern California Regional Division III Bowl Game at Orange Coast College.
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The Big Game
Who: Corona del Mar (15-0) vs. Atherton Sacred Heart Prep (13-1)
What: CIF State Football Championship Division III Bowl Game
Where: StubHub Center, Carson
When: Saturday, noon
Info: Tickets for the 2013 CIF State Football Championship Bowl Games Presented by Farmers are available at CdM or at The StubHub Center Box Office or https://www.stubhubcenter.com/events/detail/2013-cif-football-championships. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for high school students (with a valid ASB card), seniors (65+) and children. All tickets are for general admission seating and are valid for all bowl games on a single day. Game can be viewed live on Time Warner Channel SportsNet and https://www.twcsports.net.com.