Brandon Fricke Christmas is still three months away, but Simi Valley's football team may have received its big- gest gift during the summer.

After SVHS quarterback Bran- don Fricke's father received a great job offer, Fricke and his family made the 500-mile trip south from Pleasant Valley in Chico to Simi Valley. Pleasant Valley's loss may be the Pioneers' gain.

Even though Fricke played one snap-an incompletion-at Pleasant Valley, the quarterback is learning fast at Simi Valley and is hoping to make the best of the opportunity given to him during his senior year.

"I've been very grateful for my opportunities here so far," Fricke said. "At Pleasant Valley, we had a returning quarterback that played and it just didn't work out too well for me up there. Here, I got blessed and I got a chance to compete for the starting job and ended up winning."

Fricke has had to make many adjustments since joining SVHS, including getting used to playing in a different league.

"The game speed has been dif- ferent," Fricke said. "There are many bigger and faster kids down here than up there (Pleasant Val- ley). The teams we have played so far have been more competi- tive as well."

PIONEER PASSER-Simi Valley senior quarterback Brandon Fricke won the starting job after transferring from Pleasant Valley High in Chico during the summer. Thus far, he's helped lead SVHS to a 2-1 record. Although he's only thrown for 213 yards, Fricke said he's beginning to feel more comfortable running the offense. Last May, when Simi Valley head coach Todd Borowski learned Fricke was going to be joining his team for the 2006 sea- son, he was excited, even though he didn't know much about Fricke's game and wasn't allowed to coach him until practices started in the summer.

"I saw him last summer throw- ing the ball when he came down to our passing league," Borowski said. "I didn't know who he was but I saw that he threw a nice spiral. Then a little later I got a call telling me I had a kid transferring in but I still didn't know who he was.

"It's been great having him this year," Borowski said. "He's got a strong arm and is very ac- curate, and has picked up the of- fense really quick. The one thing he's getting used to is the speed of the game, which is faster down here than it was where he played up at Pleasant Valley."

So far, Fricke's completion percentage has gone up every week for the 2-1 Pioneers.

He's 19-for-39 passing for 213 yards on the year with only one in- terception. With Simi Valley hav- ing an outstanding running back in junior Langston Jackson, Fricke's had more time to survey the field and throw the ball.

Even though Simi's running game is set, Borowski believes the air attack is very important.

"For us to be more successful in league, we are going to need to throw the ball more," Borowski said. "With the teams in our league being very big and physical, we need to be able to pass. With us being able to run the ball well, that should give us more opportunities to use some play-action plays."

Although it's early in the sea- son, Borowski likes what he's seeing from his signal-caller.

"I'm impressed by his calm- ness," Borowski said. "He doesn't get rattled. He's only thrown one interception and he just lets it roll off his back and moves on. He knows that in order to succeed, you can't dwell on the past. It's tough making the transition his senior year to a new school."

After four months, playing at a new school has become less sur- real for Fricke and he's finally get- ting used to his new surroundings.

"It's kind of sunk in now after all the passing camps and the three games we've played here at Simi," Fricke said. "I've started to get used to the speed of the game. At the passing camps, the biggest thing I worked on was the timing of the receivers and being able to trust them with their routes."

Fricke grew up idolizing Dal- las Cowboys legend Troy Aikman, but Fricke never thought of being a quarterback until his freshman season at Pleasant Valley.

"When I first played Pop Warner as a kid, I was always a wide receiver and during that time I never wanted to be a quarter- back," Fricke said. "But my fresh- man year there were so many people going out for receiver I re- alized I wasn't one of the fastest. There were only two other people at quarterback, so I figured I would give that position a shot."

The change in position and scenery seems to be working out for Fricke and Borowski is glad to have him.

"He is a nice kid with a nice family. It's been great to have him here as Simi Valley doesn't have those kinds of transfers too often as players tend to transfer to Westlake and Oaks Christian since they have top-notch pro- grams," Borowski said. "So when they choose us because they like Simi, it kind of makes you feel good about what you are doing."