Servite’s Kalil, Shoemate showing improvement

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Left tackle Matt Kalil and slot back DJ Shoemate will be named today/Thursday to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl during a halftime ceremony of a freshman football game at Servite High.

The all-star game, for outstanding high school seniors, will be played Jan. 5 in San Antonio, Texas.

It will be the first time Kalil, pictured right,

has been on campus since suffering third-degree burns on Sept. 23 in an ATV accident.

‘He’s ready to go,’ Coach Troy Thomas said. ‘He wants to play this game. He’s not gonna, but he will be ready next week.’

Servite (4-0), No. 6 in The Times’ Southland rankings, will play at No. 11 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (3-1) on Friday. Next week, the Friars begin Trinity League play against No. 24 Santa Margarita.

Thomas said there are two burns, one on Kalil’s left arm and another on his left shoulder. Skin grafts have already taken hold, Thomas said, and the USC-bound lineman has been cleared for some physical activity.

When Thomas was told by Kalil’s father, Frank Kalil, one of Servite’s assistant coaches, that his 6-foot-8, 282-pound son had been injured. It conjured up a bizarre image.

‘He told me he got in a motorcycle accident, which is pretty hard to imagine Matt on a motorcycle, and then he told me it was a quad,’ Thomas recalled. ‘I asked if that was something he does normally, and he said no.

‘To me, it was unbelievable he would be on one, especially during football season. It was a reminder to everyone that you have to be smart with your decisions. Fortunately, he’ll be all right and will be able to move on with his life.’

Oft-injured Shoemate, also headed to USC, is coming off his best game of the season. He scored five touchdowns in a 47-28 victory over Lynwood.

‘I don’t know that five TDs proves anything, but I think he had his best game,’ Thomas said. ‘We’re still seeing him improve every day. You don’t take that much time off and not have it affect you.’

Shoemate broke his foot at the end of his sophomore year and was inactive until mid-summer before his junior season. Then, he re-broke it in the first game last season ‘and was off it another eight months,’ Thomas said. ‘He made a catch tonight (Wednesday) in practice, you can tell it’s starting to happen for him, his instincts are coming back. He’s starting to make decisions with the ball that are instinctual.

‘My prediction at the start of this deal was that he was going to be ready by the time we got to league.’

- Martin Henderson

--Image by Robert Lachman/Los Angeles Times