High School Football Player of the Week: Atencio is Edison’s go-to-guy

David Atencio says he no longer thinks about his right knee, the one he tore the summer going into his junior year. The style in which Atencio gets up off the football field after going down is a dead giveaway to how confident he feels as a senior about his reconstructed knee.

Atencio likes to do a kick-up move, especially after making a big play as a wide receiver for Edison High. With his back to the ground, Atencio explodes off it and lands back on his feet.

A little more than 16 months have passed since Atencio underwent the LARS (Ligament Augmentation and Reconstruction System) procedure on his anterior cruciate ligament in Austria, and Atencio says he feels stronger than ever. The surgery saved his junior year of playing sports, as he’s also a guard on the Edison boys’ basketball team.

A normal ACL surgery would have kept Atencio out for nine to 12 months. Twelve weeks are how many it took Atencio to recover, just in time for the Chargers’ Sunset League football opener last year.

Atencio went on to play in the final 10 games that season. He contributed in a major way to Edison’s league and CIF Southern Section Division 3 title runs, but this year, Atencio is a different player. He’s better.

Atencio has been a dynamic playmaker on both sides of the ball. With starting running back Jack Carmichael (ankle) and two-way player McCade Barrett (collarbone) going down with injuries, Edison has relied on Atencio often. And he has delivered.

Through nine games, Atencio has 48 receptions for 857 yards and 12 touchdowns, better stats than he had all of last year. And he’s making plays on defense as a free safety, picking off four passes and recovering one fumble.

“We need him on the field,” Edison coach Jeff Grady said, “so he doesn’t come off the field.”

There are times Grady asks Atencio to return a punt in a game.

He got a chance last week in the Battle for the Bell rivalry game against Fountain Valley. His 18-yard punt return set the Chargers up inside the Barons’ 40-yard line, and they went on to score one of their three second-quarter touchdowns to blow the game open.

The Chargers beat the Barons 51-14 in the 50th meeting between the two schools at Orange Coast College, and Atencio wound up with his best game as a receiver. He finished with eight catches for 154 yards and three touchdowns. The big night led to Atencio tying Edison’s career receptions record of 125.

Reaching that mark would not have been possible without Atencio’s overseas surgery in June 2016.

Atencio’s father, who is a chiropractor and also goes by David, found out about LARS through a colleague. He said Tommy Knox put him in touch with other athletes who had undergone the same procedure. One of those was Ryan Rippon, who tore his ACL the summer before his senior football season with Newport Harbor in 2005.

“He was a really good running back at Newport Harbor, and then he came back and had a killer senior season,” Atencio said of Rippon, who rushed for 1,681 yards and 13 touchdowns in 10 games, leading the Sailors to the CIF Southern Section Division VI title. “I was like, ‘OK, if he could play running back and get the ball 20 and 30 times a game, and be perfectly fine, I’m down for [the LARS surgery].’”

The surgery and to get Atencio to Graz, Austria, wasn’t cheap.

Helping raise money for the surgery and trip was Atencio’s aunt, Kelli Colaco. Kari said her sister created a GoFundMe account and it raised almost $10,000. The next $15,000 would come from Atencio’s parents, and to them, it was all worth it.

“They actually give you a synthetic ACL and it’s actually three times stronger than your normal ACL,” said Atencio, who then had to get over the mental hurdle of the surgery and trust that he could perform at a high level. “It was kind of always in the back of your mind, especially at first. Even though [the knee] was good, you just still kind of thought about it. But this year, I don’t think about it at all. I just go out and play, and do my thing.”

Atencio has one more regular-season game, Friday against Marina at Westminster High at 7 p.m., before Edison begins the Division 2 playoffs next week. The Chargers (6-3, 3-1 in the Sunset League) cannot finish better than second in league, but they hope to make another run at a section crown.

The offense has gone through Atencio this year. He has been quarterback Griffin O’Connor’s top target, as 11 of his 17 touchdown passes have gone to Atencio.

There has been one touchdown Atencio hauled in from someone else, Mateo Gallego, but other than that, the O’Connor-to-Atencio connection has been hard to slow down. O’Connor threw touchdowns of 47, 32 and 11 yards to Atencio last week, ensuring Edison defeated Fountain Valley for the 13th straight year.

“He’s just got a knack for getting open and a knack for making the big play,” said Grady, adding that Atencio does many things you cannot coach. “He can and he should be playing at the next level. Something will happen for him. He makes too many plays [not to get to play in college].”

David Atencio

Born: June 16, 1999

Hometown: Fountain Valley

Height: 6 feet 2

Weight: 177 pounds

Sport: Football

Year: Senior

Coach: Jeff Grady

Favorite food: McDonald’s McChicken

Favorite movie: “The Waterboy”

Favorite athletic moment: “Scoring my first touchdown after tearing my ACL [two summers ago]. That [touchdown] was against Marina [on Oct. 21, 2016].”

Week in review: Atencio finished with eight receptions for 154 yards and three touchdowns in Edison’s 51-14 win against rival Fountain Valley in the Battle for the Bell game last week. He also made four tackles and returned a punt 18 yards.

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Twitter: @ByDCP