Sacred Heart Prep’s Andrew Daschbach named MaxPreps Small Schools first-team All-American

Daschbach was one of just two players from California two receive the Small Schools first-team honor, and the only player from Northern California. San Marino quarterback J.P. Shohfi was the other California-based player to earn the nod.

The 6-3, 210-pound Daschbach made his mark by setting the Sacred Heart Prep single-season receiving record with 1,286 yards this season. With the Gators notoriously a run-first offense, Daschbach’s mark was even more impressive. Add to that he served the team exclusively as a tight end this season — not a wide receiver — it makes for an astounding feat.

A three-sport athlete, Daschbach is verbally committed to play baseball at Stanford. He will be a second-generation Cardinal as his father Mark graduated from Stanford in 1984. While Mark wasn’t a collegiate athlete, he was the roommate as part of the same Theta Delta Ki fraternity with former Stanford tight end Chris Dressel.

In addition to playing for four years with quarterback John Elway at Stanford, Dressel went on to play in the NFL for 10 seasons, including a stint in 1987 with the 49ers under head coach Bill Walsh. And while Dressel has gone on to raise a volleyball brood of four daughters, his legacy as a pro tight end impacted Daschbach from a young age.

“Anytime you know someone who played in the NFL, as an athlete I immediately started to look up to him,” Daschbach said. “He was always a figure that I idolized. When that position opened up at Sacred Heart … it definitely inspired me to work hard at it and learn the art.”

Never having played organized tackle football before arriving at SHP, Daschbach started his gridiron career as a linebacker with the junior-varsity squad as a freshman. As a sophomore, however, he quickly jumped at the chance to play tight end when the varsity position became available.

Daschbach had some serious mentors to help groom him at tight end. Not only was Dressel a help with his receiving technique, Daschbach also deferred to the family of teammate JH Tevis — whose father Mike, playing on the same teams with Dressel and Elway, was the starting center at Stanford — for blocking pointers.

Dressel said all the components were there immediately for Daschbach to excel at tight end.

“One, he’s a smart kid,” Dressel said. “So he’s always using the right technique and running the right route. … But to me it always goes back to being the athlete.”

Daschbach’s smarts certainly paid dividends throughout his sensational senior year. While SHP has long been renowned as a run-first offensive team, the Gators grew their passing playbook to compliment the star trio of their aerial attack throughout 2015.

“As the year went on, we had plays that were for ‘Dasch,’” Gators head coach Pete Lavorato said. “But what we did, we created more pass plays out of our basic offense.”

Daschbach was one of two Gators to surpass the previous single-season record, set by Pat Bruni in 2011 with 896 yards. Paced by senior quarterback Mason Randall’s single-season program passing record 2,894 yards — including an adept 65.1-percent completion percentage — Daschbach broke the record Nov. 20 in a 42-21 win over Live Oak in the Central Coast Section playoff opener.

Two weeks later in a 35-28 win over Riordan in the CCS title game — in which Daschbach had the game-winning catch inside the game’s final minute — he became the first SHP player ever to surpass the 1,000-receiving yards plateau. Also in that game, senior wide receiver Nick O’Donnell moved past Bruni for second all-time in single-season receiving yards. O’Donnell finished the year with 1,010 receiving yards.

“The evolution of the playbook was a big key to our success, because in the past we’ve been so run oriented,” Daschbach said. “It really helped.”

Working with third-year assistant coach Kevin Dos Remedios — who Lavorato refers to as his right-hand man — and first-year assistant coach Mark Grieb, formerly the head coach at Menlo College, Daschbach was one of many offensive-minded Gators who helped shape the playbook that helped the team reach the CIF Division III-A state championship game.

Daschbach recalled seeing a effective play from a Stanford game this year based on a screen pattern to Cardinal tight end Austin Hooper. Daschbach brought a clip of the play to show his coaches, and the staff quickly incorporated it into the SHP playbook.

“Within the week, that was put into our offensive playbook,” Daschbach said. “… A lot of that is testament to Coach Lavorato’s football mind. I picture him up late at night under a spotlight writing up football plays. He’s just kind of a mad scientist when it comes to football.”

While Daschbach is slated to play baseball exclusively at Stanford, he hasn’t ruled out the notion of following in the footsteps of former Heisman Trophy finalist Toby Gerhart as a two-sport athlete. Gerhart also played baseball at Stanford.

“I think he would do exceptionally well,” Dressel said. “His height might be give him a bit of a problem … but I think he would perform really well.”

Prior to the start of the 2015 season, Lavorato said he suspected football is Daschbach’s favorite sport. And to hear Daschbach talk about even the prospect of playing two sports at Stanford, it would be tough to disagree.

“Yeah, it’s something that I would definitely be interested in doing,” Daschbach said. “If I get the call from one of the football coaches, I have a feeling my answer would be yes. But the ball is in their court. … It would be a dream come true. Maybe we can make that a reality.”