Daily Journal Boys’ Athlete of the Year: Serra’s Dylan Joudieh

As a sophomore, he took his soccer leg and added football to his resume, emerging in the wake of the most prolific kicker in Serra history, Damon Lewis, who graduated in 2020. Then as a senior, Joudieh lettered as a bona fide three-sport varsity athlete in football, soccer and track.

Joudieh is being honored as the Daily Journal Boys’ Athlete of the Year for his impact in all three sports. He was a key piece for each the football and track teams — reaching the CIF state championships in each — and while the Serra soccer team had a down year his senior season, as a junior he was the starting midfielder for the first team in program history to qualify for the Central Coast Section Open Division boys’ soccer playoffs.

“He’s the consummate team guy,” Serra head football coach Patrick Walsh said. “He loved his school and was a huge impact player for us in the special-teams guys.”

That impact included Joudieh converting the most important field goal in Serra history, as the Padres traveled to De La Salle for the second game of the 2022 season. The Padres trailed to the mighty Spartans 21-7 heading into the fourth quarter, but a gutsy comeback push saw Serra tie it with under two minutes to play.

Joudieh nailed all three point-after tries to that point — he’d go on to convert a perfect 32 of 32 PAT attempts in the regular season — but his immortal kick was yet to come, set up by a stunning interception in the red zone by junior cornerback Marley Alapate, a transfer from De La Salle, to boot a game-winning field goal from 24 yards out on the final play.

“If he misses that kick at De La Salle, then everyone is talking about him in a different way,” Walsh said. “Since it did happen that way, it goes down as the biggest kick in the history of our school.”

Joudieh went on to convert 4 of 6 field goals on the season, while hitting 46 of 47 PATs — ranking 10th all-time in Serra single-season history — his only miss coming in the CCS Division I championship game, a night when he converted 5 of 6 attempts in Serra’s 41-14 victory, punching the team’s ticket to the CIF Open Division State Championship Bowl for the second straight year.

What Serra football fans seldom saw from Joudieh was his dynamic footspeed, something he worked on every day at practice. Listing as a wide receiver, the senior totaled just three catches on the year, getting few opportunities because of a deep roster of talent at the skill position.

“With that said, he probably would have started for most other teams at wide receiver … because he’s so fast and electric with the ball,” Walsh said. “But [not playing a lot at wide receiver] never stopped him from his commitment to the team.”

It took just four days after the end of football season for Joudieh to demonstrate that footspeed at Serra’s home of Freitas Field. The Padres’ 45-0 loss to St. John Bosco in the CIF state championship football game came on a Saturday night. Serra soccer had already played two games at that point, and for the next one, that following Wednesday, Joudieh was in uniform and making an impact.

Serra battled to a 2-2 draw with Burlingame that Wednesday, Dec. 14 day, with Joudieh accounting for one of the Padres’ goals on a long free kick — from approximately the same distance as his epic game-winner against De La Salle.

Still, Joudieh admittedly had to get into soccer shape, demonstrated by his technique on the free kick against Burlingame. He joked about his approach of taking two steps back and three steps over as he would during field-goal attempts on the gridiron. He said he’d constantly remind himself during free kicks he didn’t have to do this.

“The skill doesn’t go away but the technique, I would say, takes a second to get going.” Joudieh said.

With the addition of junior striker Nate Coughlin, who led Serra with nine goals on the season, Joudieh and fellow senior midfielder Whitaker Tollman tied for second on the team with seven goals apiece. Serra failed to qualify for the postseason, finishing fifth in the West Catholic Athletic League.

Because Joudieh opted to play a third sport, however, he discovered he had another postseason push in him after all.

Joudieh said he never imagined running track when he arrived at Serra. Football? Sure. He was a San Francisco 49ers fan growing up, and always liked the sport. Running, though, was never on his radar. The only glimpse of his future in the spring sport was more of a joke than an ambition, as he was something of a hyper kid during early childhood.

“My family was always making jokes: ‘This kid’s going to be a track star, he’s always running all over the place,’” Joudieh said.

Joudieh quickly found his niche with the 4x400 relay team.

Just as with the quick turnaround from football to soccer season, Joudieh was competing in his first track meet Feb. 25, just nine days after Serra soccer’s 2-2 draw with Sacred Heart Cathedral to close the season. In his varsity track debut, Joudieh opened with a subpar performance in the 100 meters. From there, he pivoted to middle-distance events, and before long debuted with the 4x400 relay team at a March 7 dual meet against Mitty. Teaming with Jaxon Igtanioc, Kyon Loud and Nicholas Meade, Joudieh won his first varsity relay in 3 minutes, 39.24 seconds.

The 4x400 relay personnel changed as the season progressed, with Parker Harrison and Jaden Green settling into the lineup with Igtanioc and Joudieh, in time for a breakout performance at the prestigious Arcadia Invitational.

“That was a fun race,” Joudieh said. “I just remember getting to Arcadia … looking inside, the amount of people was something I never saw before. It was crazy.”

Joudieh was accustomed to competing before big crowds though, going back to not only the capacity crowd at Saddleback College for Serra football’s state championship game against St. John Bosco, but another wild sellout earlier in the year at De La Salle, for a game featured on national television by ESPNU.

Serra’s track foursome rose to the occasion, finishing the Arcadia 4x400 in 3:21.64, reaching the podium with a third-place time, but enjoying the thrill of hitting the tape by taking first place in their heat.

Joudieh would man the second leg of the relay for most of the season, which proved critical in the Central Coast Section championships. The relay team was in fine form May 5 at the WCAL Championships, winning the 4x400 title with a smooth time of 3:26.70. But it was the last time Green would compete with the team as an injury forced sophomore Jermaine Barrett into the lineup.

“The reason [Joudieh] was our second leg for the majority of the year, he had the guts to keep us in a race,” Serra head track coach Jim Marheineke said. “Dylan was kind of that missing piece where he kept us in the race and kept up what Jaxon started.”

At the CCS finals, it was Joudieh’s second leg that sent Serra surging to a third-place finish and a berth in the CIF State Track & Field Championships.

Serra was in fifth place when Joudieh took the baton. By the time he rounded the first turn, he had a pack of three runners in his sights and showed off his explosive 100-meter speed by passing all three on the straightaway, leaving him in second place heading into the final curve.

“I just remember: ‘I’ve got to turn on the jets. Don’t think about it too much and just go,’” Joudieh said. “When I got to the curve, I was in second place.”

Serra went on to finish in 3:21.53, a season-best in the 4x400 and the third-best mark in CCS on the year.

The Padres suffered another injury at the CIF State Championships, with their anchor Harrison unable to compete. While the Serra 4x400 didn’t qualify for the finals, placing a disappointing 22nd at the May 26 trials, Joudieh rose to the occasion once again, jumping at the chance to finish his high school career running the anchor leg.

“That’s pretty impressive for a first-year guy to step up and say: ‘I want to be the one to bring the team home,’” Marheineke said.

That’s why Joudieh’s three-sport legacy transcends the array of big stages on which he played, including a field goal against De La Salle that Serra should really consider building a statue of someday.

“Obviously his impact off the field means as much on the field,” Walsh said. “His commitment to spirituality of the game, commitment to his spirit of the brotherhood, all meant as much as him kicking field goals all year long.”