Metropolitan League coaches doubled as classroom or physical education teachers, began  their school years with football practice in early September, jumped into winter basketball, and followed with baseball or track in the spring.

That’s the way it was done at the area’s smaller schools. Year after year.

So it was a little surprising when a line in a story by Charles Byrne of The San Diego Union mentioned that Metro coaches had agreed to halt all basketball activity–no games or practice–following the opening round of league contests Dec. 16 until Jan. 6.

The Christmas holiday and school break meant relaxation but not abstinence. No games, but no practice, too? In the middle of the season? Usually there was some repeat and review a few days before the turn of the calendar and the onset of the most important games.

Perhaps the coaches needed a break from the merry go ’round of Class A and B, and, at some schools, C and D.

There would possibly be an opportunity to make extra money selling Christmas trees or delivering packages for the Post Office.  Money was not in abundance. The Great Depression was in its ninth year. War clouds hung over Europe.  Many viewed an uncertain future

Basketball could wait, at least for awhile.

CORONADO YES, SAN DIEGO NO

Coronado, which won one Metropolitan League game the previous season, went all the way to the Southern Section playoff Final 4, while San Diego bailed, its chances for a second championship in the last four seasons diminished by midterm graduations.

For the second straight season published reports indicated the Hilltoppers played a short schedule, posting a 7-4 record after 5-3 in 1937-38.

All-Coast League first-team players Glen Walden and Mel Skelley were going to graduate and Skelley would have been sidelined after sustaining a broken nose, compliments of an Alhambra player’s elbow in the regular-season-ending, 28-24 victory.

ASTERISK NEEDED?

San Diego’s Glen Walden was the leading scorer in the Coast League with a 15.1 average for 6 games.  Hilltoppers coach Ed Ruffa said Walden had played in 18 games and scored 220 points for a 12.2 average.  Seven games, according to Ruffa’s declaration, apparently were played and unreported.

The 7-4 record included Coast League games and the Huntington Beach tournament, plus a 38-18 loss to a team from Consolidated Vultee Aircraft and 32-21 defeat to the San Diego State freshmen.

TOTTERING

The Coast League was on unsteady footing.  Alhambra was leaving in June, 1939. Only San Diego, Hoover, and Long Beach Poly were to remain.  To keep the league viable, The CIF would the next school year create a schedule partially of opponents from other leagues with wins and losses counting in Coast League standings.

For now, Coast League basketball was limited to two rounds and six games beginning Dec. 2.

The double round-robin schedule would be completed by Jan. 20, at a time when the other San Diego leagues, Metropolitan and Southern, were in the middle of loop action.

KATIE BAR THE DOOR!

“Before a crowd so large that the doors finally had to be closed when no room remained for spectators,” said a local writer, coach Ed Ruffa’s San Diego Hilltoppers opened the season with a double win over Lawrence Carr’s Hoover Cardinals.

The San Diego gymnasium, featuring wide, polished wooden bleachers that seated about 900 persons on the South side, was capable of handling several hundred more, with bleachers in space provided by a second full-length court on the North side of the building.

The Hilltoppers, not expected to contend against favored Long Beach Poly and the Cardinals not expected to contend against anyone, scrapped to a couple close victories, 27-24 in varsity and 26-24 in B.

Poly came south and rolled to a 37-20 lead but the Hillers finished strongly, outscoring the Jackrabbits, 12-4, in the final minutes of a 41-32 loss.  That closing finish was a harbinger.

San Diego would not lose to a high school team for the rest of the year.  Behind scoring star Glen Walden, Coach Ed Ruffa’s club tied for the league championship with a 34-28 victory on the road at Poly after falling behind, 15-3.

A playoff with the Jackrabbits to determine the Coast League representative in the playoffs was in the works, but with the prospect of playing without Glen Walden and Mel Skelley, San Diego made the decision to withdraw.

Poly went on to claim the Southern Section championship, 29-17 over a Whittier team San Diego had beaten handily six weeks before.

REPEAT NOT PRETTY

Hoover, which was a winless, 0-6 in the Coast, went down hard in the second game with the Hilltoppers.

“Ice hockey tactics stole the show,” said a Union correspondent.  Twenty-three fouls were called and the visiting Hillers won the “rough and tumble game”, 39-17, behind Glen Walden’s 20 points.  Hoover upset the San Diego B squad, 41-18, and tied for the league title.

CORONADO IN BIG SHOW

Coach Hal Niedermeyer’s Islanders raced to a 6-0 Metropolitan League record and defeated visiting El Centro Central, 32-18, in the first round of the playoffs and gained the semifinals with a 31-18 victory over the Southern League’s Ramona Bulldogs at the Tent City Pavilion.

Host Whittier defeated the Islanders, 39-25, breaking from a 21-21, third-quarter deadlock in the playoff semifinals and Ventura topped the Islanders, 38-30, in the third place game.

BULLDOGS BITTEN

After launching a football program in the fall (2-5 record), coach Charlie Snell turned to his more established Ramona basketball program.  The Bulldogs almost ran the table in four divisions.  They were undefeated in A, C, and D competition in the Southern League.

The Bulldogs and Vista, each 9-0 in A & B, squared off on the final, regular-season date. Ramona won the A encounter, 42-31, and Vista upset the Bulldogs, 23-22, in B.  Ramona and Escondido then clashed for the “mythical lightweight championship of the County” and Escondido topped their visiting neighbor, 35-32.

Ramona’s playoff loss to Coronado was attributed partly to the Bulldogs’ having trouble adapting to the less-than-regulation-size Tent City Pavilion layout.

BOB’S WAY

Coronado’s Bob Carrothers, a national junior champion, led the Islanders to a 23-4 tennis team victory over Point Loma and then traveled to Los Angeles for a tournament, after which Carrothers flew back to San Diego and started the playoff win against Ramona.

Carrothers returned to the tournament the next morning by flying back to Los Angeles.

Maybe it was Carrothers’ presence had encouraged the Metropolitan League to add tennis to the spring sports calendar this year.

TWO-HANDED SET SHOTS

Hoover center Clarence Huddleston was known as “Spindleshanks”, apparently in reference to Huddleston’s skinny legs…Oceanside had the reported highest score for one game in a 53-7 win over Sweetwater…the Pirates’ B team also defeated Grossmont, 52-9…Ramona had a 53-9 win over the San Dieguito Bees…Hoover passed on the Huntington Beach tournament to be part in the first Chino 20-30 Club event…the Cardinals left in the morning for their first game at 3 p.m. and defeated the advertised “vaunted”  Chino host, 32-5…they lost to Huntington Beach, 35-33, in overtime the next day…the correct spelling of the Coronado coach’s last name was “Niedermeyer.”…no matter, San Diego Sportswriters continued to spell the name “Neidermeyer… San Diego was runner-up to Ontario Chaffey, losing, 26-22, in its fourth game in three days in finals of the Huntington Beach tournament…the Hillers days before had won a 37-28 league game against Alhambra and then traveled to defeat Whittier, 39-21, and Santa Ana, 38-21….

How decisive was top-ranked Helix’ shocking, 43-3 defeat at San Bernardino Cajon last week? Two-hundred, sixty-nine games decisive.

You have to go back to the third contest of the 1996 season, a 41-0 Highlanders loss to El Camino, to find a more conclusive result.

Only four others in the school’s storied, 68-season, 691-game history—41-0 to San Diego in 1951, 50-0 and 49-0 to Hoover and San Diego, respectively, in 1953, and 52-6 at Oxnard in 1957, when the Highlanders decided to go ahead and make the trip after several players had been sidelined during the world-wide Asian flu epidemic—surpassed last week’s stinker.

Week 1, nonleague losses are important in ratings, but not as important as setbacks in league play, so Helix and four other teams in the first Union-Tribune Top 10 can hit the reset button.

–Helix, which still has the respect of the voters, is third in this week’s poll, and gets a chance to even the slate with a home game against Arroyo Grande, a former Southern Section school now toiling in the Central Section, to its early pleasure.  The Eagles opened with a 56-21 victory over San Luis Obispo.

–Mission Hills, a 26-18 loser to a Paramount squad the Grizzlies defeated, 41-14, on the road last season, dropped from fourth to fifth and plays host to another Southern Section team, Westlake Village Westlake, which beat Chatsworth Sierra Canyon, 35-30.

–Cathedral, beaten by La Costa Canyon, 19-7, takes on El Camino, 17-16 winner over Point Loma.  Jerry Ralph, former head coach at El Camino, now is on the Cathedral coaching staff and his quarterback son is on the Dons’ roster.

–Eastlake, ninth last week and consigned to the “others” category after a 13-0 loss to now No. 1 Torrey Pines, gets a home game against Hilltop, 31-20 loser to visiting Escondido in the first game at the Lancers’ new stadium..

–Steele Canyon, 10^th last week and the defending state Division III-AA champion, fell to Carlsbad, 41-13, and didn’t get a vote.  The Cougars could have begun a repeat of 2017, when they lost first-half games by scores of 41-10, 41-7, and 51-14 and then ran the table with a stunning, 8-0 finish.

Week 1 poll:

NR–not ranked.

Others:  Valley Center (1-0, 25 points), St. Augustine (1-0, 23), Eastlake (0-1, 19), Grossmont (1-0, 4), Mira Mesa (1-0, 3), Oceanside (0-1, 3), Rancho Bernardo (0-1, 3), Granite Hills (1-0, 1), University City (1-0, 1).

Voting panel (30 sportswriters, sportscasters, various County football honchos):

• John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune
• Jim Lindgren, Rick Hoff, Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Union-Tribune correspondents
• Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, KUSI Chl. 51
• Adam Paul, ECpreps.com
• Ramon Scott, EastCountySports.com
• Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com
• Ted Mendenhall, Tyler Quellman, The Mighty 1090
• Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions
• Troy Hirsch, Fox 5, San Diego
• Rick Smith, PartletonSports.com
• Jerry Schniepp, John Labeta, Ron Marquez, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego Section
• Joe Heinz, Coordinator, Athletics, Sweetwater School District
• Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net
• Montell Allen, MBA Sports/San Diego Friday Night Lights Magazine
• Bob Petinak, Fox 1360 Radio
• John Kentera, Brandon Suprenant, 97.3 FM The Fan
• Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9 FM
• Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, San Diego Section Tournament Directors.

QUICK KICKS
A 39-yard field goal by Jack Bosman gave Santa Fe Christian a 28-25, overtime win against Olympian, one season after the Eagles dropped an overtime, 28-25 game at Olympian…Torrey Pines rushed for 203 yards in the second half to squeeze Eastlake…Karson Lippett’s 46-yard touchdown run with 1:32 remaining in the game iced Cathedral for La Costa Canyon and showed that Lippert is recovered from the pulled muscle injury that shortcut his track season last spring…Rancho Bernardo’s Jonny Tanner intercepted a Madison pass, moved to offense on the resulting change of possession, took a reverse on the next play, and connected with Jackson Carpenter on a 50-yard touchdown pass play…Gunnar Gray of University City passed for 6 touchdowns and 400 yards in the Centurions’ 41-14 win over Valhalla…Lincoln (David Dunn) and Sweetwater (Bryan Wagner) are coached by ex-NFL players…Monte Vista led Mar Vista, 30-0, after one quarter, behind Jahmon McClendon’s 72 yards and two touchdowns and, by the end of the first half, the game was on a 44-0, running clock…Morse’s 39-0 win over Mount Miguel finished with a running clock…

Helix is number one, at least for the opening week.

The Highlanders received 14 first-place votes and 262 points from the panel of 30 in the first Union-Tribune football poll coordinated by veteran prep honcho John Maffei.

The Scots also were number one in the final 2017 vote:

*Includes forfeit loss.

Others:  Lincoln (9-2, 1 first-place vote, 26 points), Carlsbad (6-6, 23), Oceanside (6-7, 21), Valley Center (9-2, 16), El Camino (8-6, 13), St. Augustine (7-4, 12), Granite Hills (10-3, 3) Otay Ranch (8-4, 3), Rancho Bernardo (6-6, 2), El Centro Southwest (13-0, 2), University City (10-2, 2), The Bishop’s (9-1, 1), Monte Vista (8-6, 1).

Voters  (30 sportswriters, sportscasters, various County football honchos):

• John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune
• Jim Lindgren, Rick Hoff, Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Union-Tribune correspondents
• Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, KUSI Chl. 51
• Adam Paul, ECpreps.com
• Ramon Scott, EastCountySports.com
• Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com
• Ted Mendenhall, Tyler Quellman, The Mighty 1090
• Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions
• Troy Hirsch, Fox 5, San Diego
• Rick Smith, PartletonSports.com
• Jerry Schniepp, John Labeta, Ron Marquez, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego Section
• Joe Heinz, Coordinator, Athletics, Sweetwater School District
• Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net
• Montell Allen, MBA Sports/San Diego Friday Night Lights Magazine
• Bob Petinak, Fox 1360 Radio
• John Kentera, Brandon Suprenant, 97.3 FM The Fan
• Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9 FM
• Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, San Diego Section Tournament Directors.

CHALLENGING OPENER

Helix, 13-2 in 2017 and a state Division 1-A finalist, begins the season on the road against San Bernardino Cajon, an explosive D-III club from the Southern Section that was 14-2 in 2017, scored 748 points, and boast returning quarterback Jayden Daniels, who has passed for 110 career touchdowns.

The Cowboys, from the Citrus Belt League, also allowed 321 points.

The Highlanders are a preseason-ranked 26^th in the state, highest among San Diego Section squads, according to Max Preps.  Cajon, which defeated Moreno Valley Rancho Verde, 70-23, for the Southern Section championship but lost the state D-IIIA title to San Mateo Serra, 38-14, in 2017, is 12^th in Max Preps’ view.

Cal Preps.com gives Helix a 41.9 rating and Cajon 58.8.  The good San Diego Section teams usually receive low, early ratings from Cal Preps but gain cred as the season moves on.

CAL-HI SPEAKS

Cal-Hi Sports’ top 50 has Madison as the top-rated San Diego team  at 18, followed by Helix, 23, Cathedral, 33, Torrey Pines, 35,  Mission Hills, 42, and La Costa Canyon, 46.  San Marcos is in the “just missed” category and Helix’ opponent, San Bernardino Cajon, is 15th.

Madison, which opens at home against Rancho Bernardo, reportedly has a junior quarterback who transferred in from 12-3 Rancho Verde after passing for 40 touchdowns and 3,350 yards in 2017.

Other interesting opening week matchups will send No. 10 Steele Canyon (12-4 in 2017 and defending state DIII-AA champion) to Carlsbad (6-6), No. 2  Torrey Pines (7-5) to 9 Eastlake (9-3), and 3 Cathedral (5-7) to 6 La Costa Canyon (7-4).

MERRY GO-ROUND

There have been a whopping 16 head coaching changes since the end of last season, but at least five of the “new” coaches are “old” coaches.

–John McFadden returned to Eastlake, where McFadden built an outstanding program from 2000-13, during which his teams posted a 120-42-4 record.  McFadden’s win-loss percentage of .735 is second only among active coaches to the 128-39-1 (.764) of Madison’s Rick Jackson.

–Leigh Cole ran the Del Norte program from 2011-14 and was 20-25, including 6-6 in ’13 plus a couple seasons of 5-6. None of the two other Nighthawks head coaches, since the school teed it up in 2010, won more than two games in a season.

–Chris Thompson of Mira Mesa returns to his figurative alma-mater. He was a longtime assistant for the Marauders as far back as the Brad Griffith era in the 1980s.  Thompson was 26-25 from 2013-16 at Bonita Vista, including a 12-3 and state DV-AA championship game appearance in which the Barons came up short against Hanford, 33-21, in ’15.

–Troy Starr was 83-18-1 from 2008-16 at Helix, meting out punishment every year to Grossmont Hills opponents, and then suddenly stepped down, although Starr remains in the Helix physical education department.  He moves over a neighborhood to Spring Valley and Mount Miguel.

—Gene Rheam was 39-21-1 from 2010-15 at Calvary Christian San Diego, which isn’t in San Diego but Chula Vista.  Rheam was on hiatus in 2016 and the Royal Knights did not field a team in 2017.

Moving treadmill:

HAPPY TRAILS

To Blythe Palo Verde Valley’s George Dagnino, who stepped down after 17 seasons of long and longer bus rides for half of every season as the Yellowjackets competed in the Imperial Valley League and western Arizona from the most distant outpost in the San Diego Section.

Dagnino had the second longest run of consecutive seasons in the San Diego Section, behind Cathedral’s Sean Doyle, who is beginning his 23^rd season.  Matt Oliver of Christian has coached the Crusaders since 1999 but gave way in 2003 to ex-NFL quarterback Jay Schraeder, who was boss for one season.

MOVING UP

Grossmont’s Tom Karlo could become the 44^th coach to win 100 games.  Karlo is 91-53-2, posting 44-31 from 2005-11 at Mount Miguel and 47-22 since at Grossmont.  With 12 wins, The Bishop’s Joel Allen, 88-29-1 since 2008, also could receive Century Club status.

POSSIBLE

Monte Vista’s Ron Hamamoto would tie John Shacklett for fourth all-time at 229 victories with an 11-win season.  Hamamoto, with 218, is being shadowed by Valley Center’s Rob Gilster, who has 216.

A 12-win season by Cathedral would give Sean Doyle a 10^th-place tie with Dick Haines at 194. Matt Oliver needs 9 wins and Chris Hauser 11 to tie Mike Dolan’s 165 for 14^th.  Mike Hastings could tie John Morrison’s 146 victories if Point Loma wins 7.  Madison’s Rick Jackson needs 8 wins to advance from 29^th to 23^rd and tie Gene Edwards at 136.

(For additional information, click Football on our Home page, and choose “Coach 100 Win Club”. Choose “Scores / By Year / 2018“;  or “Teams / School” for a complete listing of coaches and schedules of the 97 schools playing this season).

HELLO

Mabel O’Farrell charter school, located halfway between Lincoln and Morse on Skyline Drive in Encanto, and with a published number of almost 1,350 students, is fielding its first football team and will begin as an independent with a game at Castle Park this week.  O’Farrell opened as a junior high in 1957 and later became known as a school of performing arts.

Mabel E. O’Farrell was an early 20^th century member of the County board of supervisors and was known to have served on a committee charged with creating a detention home for wayward youth.

I’m an O’Farrell fan already.  One of its alumni was the late Rosie Hamlin, lead singer of “Rosie and the Originals”, who recorded a ‘sixties favorite, “Angel Baby.”  Rosie attended Sweetwater and also had a cup of coffee at Mission Bay.

Ray DeBolt of Granite Hills, a new school at the east end of Madison Avenue in El Cajon, won the San Diego Section mile championship on May 27, 1961.

The victory gave DeBolt, who passed away in the recent months in Reno, Nevada, at age 75, the distinction of being the first section champion in his event.

DeBolt, who outran the field in 4:28.2 on a gusty afternoon at Kearny High, was one of 12–only event winners advanced–who went on to the state championships at East Los Angeles College the following week.

DeBolt did not place among the top five in the state meet but his 4:26.8 time was a personal best and was the fifth fastest ever by a San Diego-area runner.

Thanks to Buzz Thom for letting us know.

Mystery surrounds Hoover’s basketball season.

Someone, call the Shadow.

The mythical sleuth, introduced to American radio audiences early in the decade, had gained so much popularity that a movie “The Shadow Strikes”  was released in 1937.

The Shadow‘s alter ego Lamont Cranston, or more important, an enterprising newspaper reporter, would have determined why Hoover,  after celebrating the Coast League championship with a 7-1 record, essentially disappeared.

CARR: MORE GAMES

Cardinals coach Lawrence Carr told Mitch Angus of The San Diego Union after the final, regular-season game that the Cardinals looked forward to the upcoming CIF Southern Section playoffs and likely would play additional nonleague contests and in possible tournaments at San Diego State and Redondo Beach.

Angus’ story appeared Jan. 20.  The playoffs were to begin Feb. 25. Plenty of time to get in some extra work and win a few more games.

Strangely, nothing was heard of the Cardinals for almost seven weeks, save for announcements of varsity letters awarded; the all-Coast League teams, and an intrasquad game against underclassmen who would represent the 1938-39 club.

Nothing about the playoffs and postseason.

One clue that Hoover’s campaign may have been complete and contrary to Carr’s statement was in an oblique sentence in the middle of Angus’ game account of the Cardinals’ regular-season-ending, 20-19 loss to San Diego:

“It was the last start for the Hooverites and deprived them of a clean sweep (of the season series),” wrote Angus.

If that were the case…well, read on. It gets more mysterious.

SAINTS ENTER PICTURE

A list of results of the 20-team playoff bracket for the ’37-38 season  provided years later by Southern Section historian John Dahlem, revealed a St. Augustine victory by forfeit over Hoover in the second round.

The Cardinals really were finished. Abruptly and quietly.

A Saints-Hoover playoff, had it been played, would have been geographically and financially desirable to the Southern Section and would have made for a tremendous local matchup, considering Hoover’s run through the Coast and a sensational record by Coach Cletis (Biff) Gardner’s North Park team.

A Saints squad photo in the Union on Jan. 27, 1938, declared that the private school had won 22 games in a row, including six at the conclusion of the 1936-37 season.

But, like Hoover, the Saints also appeared to go underground.  Possibly because playoffs were beginning long after Coast League squads had completed their seasons, while others still were playing league games.

Late-season nonleague contests probably were not easy to schedule, especially for the independent Saints.

There was not even an account in the newspapers of St. Augustine’s forfeit victory over the Cardinals in a second-round game apparently scheduled for March 4.  Both teams had first-round byes.

FINALLY, ACTION

A local story on March 9 began:  “Having gained the third round without as much as doffing their sweat clothes, St. Augustine’s varsity basketballers are slated to get some opposition in the annual Southern California CIF Class A playoffs this week.”

The Saints were scheduled to visit undefeated El Centro Central, which had beaten Brawley for the Imperial Valley League title and had eliminated Ramona, 53-18, in the first round.

The Spartans also played on a court short of regulation length.  Their crackerbox home court figured to give the Saints problems, according to a pregame story.

St. Augustine won easily, 32-15, for a reported 23^rd straight win, but the great season, sparked by the play of four-year veterans Bob Menke, Ed Vitalich, and John (Red) Keogh, ended in the semifinals.

The Saints bowed to legendary power Whittier, 49-28, before “2,000 fans and several hundred others turned away.”  The Cardinals topped Chino, 43-27, for the championship the following night.

Whittier was home team for each game, although the CIF was said to have a rule preventing such an advantage.

St. Augustine defeated Fillmore in the consolation, third-place game, 28-17.

TIGHT MONEY

Don King wrote in Caver Conquest that because of the Great Depression San Diego High played only eight games, all Coast League contests, finishing with a 5-3 record and second place behind Hoover.

Hilltoppers coach Ed Ruffa apparently did not have budget to expand the schedule, but Ruffa managed to get in one more  game.

Kenny Hale, a star on the 1936-37 San Diego High team, haunted his alma mater as Hale led the downtown San Diego Club with 10 points in a 37-26 win.

PLAYERS VOTE

The Coast’s all-league players were the players’ choices as they were charged with picking all-opponent clubs in a poll conducted by the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

Hoover’s Dick Mitchell and Felix Aquirre were on the first team. Teammates Hal Prusa and Ed Tazelaar were on the second team, as were Al Martinez and Bud Mundell of San Diego.

Mitchell led Hoover with 56 points in 8 league games.

Hoover defeated Muir, 47-28, behind Mitchell’s 17 points and then routed Santa Ana, 48-19, and Ontario Chaffey, 45-32, to win the December Huntington Beach tournament.

TWO-HAND SET SHOTS

Point Loma (Class A) and Grossmont (Class B) repeated as champions in the Metropolitan League, Point Loma winning for the third consecutive year…as usual, the Pointers chose not to  participate in the playoffs…after 15 years the December San Diego Interscholastic Tournament was finished…San Diego High sponsored  area-wide Class C and D tournaments in February…Coronado won the Cee competition, 17-15, over San Diego and San Diego was Dee champ, 17-12 over National City Junior High…strange finish to St. Augustine-Army-Navy B game at San Diego State…the contest was tied at 17 after two overtimes when the teams decided to call it a day…perhaps Saints coach Biff Gardner and Coronado mentor Hal Niedermeyer had dinner plans…Mel Skelley’s basket with 4 seconds left gave San Diego a 37-35 win over Long Beach Wilson and clinched second place in the Coast for the Hilltoppers…Duncan Wexler made his dad, Escondido coach Harry, relax after an overtime basket beat Sweetwater, 26-25…Duncan scored 20 in a season-finale, 41-38 triumph over La Jolla…Ramona’s dominance of the Southern Prep League was never more apparent than in a quadruple rout of Fallbrook, 50-15 in A, 31-27 in B, 50-13 in C, and 33-10 in D…the Ramona Town Team then sent everyone home happy with a 56-32 victory over the Aztec Brewers…Point Loma was “all at sea”, wrote a writer of the Pointers’ 34-12 loss to Ontario Chaffey in the Huntington Beach Invitational…the Tigers soaked coach Joe Beerkle’s  peninsula club with a zone defense…Hoover no longer was the dominant Class B team, but the Cardinals dealt unbeaten Long Beach Poly a 25-14 defeat in the second round of league play…San Diego led Alhambra with four minutes remaining and didn’t score again as the visiting Moors pulled out a 32-30 victory…Hal Prusa’s 17 points propelled Hoover to the league-title-clinching, 41-34  win over Long Beach Wilson…future Sweetwater football coach Barney Newlee of Alhambra made the all-Coast team….

Class B teams were not junior varsities and not necessarily inferior to Class A (varsity) clubs.

The B designation was based on exponents, which combined height, weight, and age.  It was not unusual for seniors to play on B squads.

Under Coach Bruce Maxwell, Hoover ruled the B world, many times playing the feature, late game of a doubleheader with the Class A Cardinals team on the undercard.

The Hoover Bees had won CIF Southern Section titles in 1931-32, 1933-34, and 1934-35.

The Cardinals were at least even money to also win in 1935-36, but no championship game was contested because their South Pasadena opponent refused to play (search 1935-36, “Hilltoppers Win, Cardinals’ Feathers Ruffled”).

CIF honcho Seth Van Patten and his executive board did not call a forfeit on South Pas but declared that there would be no 1935-36 champion, and eliminated Class B playoffs going forward.

BRUCE ALMIGHTY STEPS DOWN

Maxwell now was teaching math at Hoover and was succeeded by Lawrence Carr.

Undefeated since ’33-34, the Bees had won 48 games in a row before stumbling on their home court at San Diego High, 25-21, to the Santa Ana Saints, who came into the game with a 0-3 league record.

Imagine a sway-backed plow horse outrunning Secretariat.

Hoover tied for first with Long Beach Poly in the Coast League  and was declared champion because it had beaten the Jackrabbits, but the Cardinals’ days of Class B domination were coming to an end.

MIDSEASON GRADS ROIL COAST

Class A league play in the 6-team Coast League lasted all of 14 days, Jan 12-Jan. 26.  Bosses wanted the schedule completed before mid-term graduation, theoretically giving teams time to regroup before the playoffs.

San Diego would lose Freeman Dill, the league’s leading scorer; Roy Falconer, and Homer Peabody, plus two reserves.

Alhambra lost three starters, Long Beach Poly, one.  The three teams finished in a tie for first, each with a 4-1 record.

Alhambra beat San Diego, 32-15, but lost to Poly, which San Diego defeated, 25-18.

What followed was an interminable postseason.

PLAYOFF BEFORE PLAYOFFS

A playoff to determine the Coast League entry in the Southern Section playoffs was to begin almost two weeks later.  The winner between San Diego and Alhambra would face Long Beach Poly.

The Hilltoppers, under first year coach Ed Ruffa, pulled off a rare double, beating Alhambra, 39-21, on Feb. 6 as erstwhile substitute Al Martinez scored 17 points, and in overtime at Poly, 22-21, Feb 13.

Most other Southern Section Leagues still were involved in their regular seasons.

Two weeks later, on Feb. 24, a scheduled Hilltoppers playoff with Metropolitan League champion Point Loma failed to materialize as the Pointers forfeited.

Point Loma coach Joe Beerkle said that he had lost two starting players, Gil Gonsalves and Gerald Lutes, to midterm graduation and, anyway, the rest of the team was concentrating on the beginning track-and-field season.

WAIT CONTINUES

On Feb. 27, Ruffa was getting desperate  for a game, any game.

The San Diego coach lined up one with the Eta Omega Delta fraternity from San Diego State.

No score was reported but the Cavers apparently won handily, behind newcomer Claude Roberts, who scored 16 points.

At about the same time Brawley was defeating Calexico for the desert title and then routed Southern League champion Ramona, 53-18.

ON TO THE SEMIFINALS

A 34-20 win over Brawley on March 5 moved the Hilltoppers into the round of 4 on March 13 at Whittier College against Tustin, which had a 24-4 record.

San Diego battled back from a 19-12 halftime deficit to a tie at 23, but the Tillers behind the Francis brothers, “Pivoting” Paul and “Slinging” Sam, pulled away to a 34-30 victory.

Tustin the next evening defeated Whittier, 34-24, for the championship.

San Diego closed with a 15-5 record that included a 46-day stretch from the end of league play to the semifinal round of the postseason.

SAINTS SOAR

The 14^th annual San Diego Interscholastic tournament, with 32 teams competing in 66 games in four days in Class A, B, C, and D divisions, played out as expected, with one exception.

San Diego High won A, C, and D and Hoover B, but St. Augustine got the headlines.

“Nearly one-thousand fans were startled when Biff Gardner’s smooth-passing, straight-shooting Saints created one of the biggest upsets of recent years by defeating Hoover, 22-16,” declared a writer for The San Diego Union.

The quintet of Ed Vitalich, Charlie Strada, Bob Menke, John (Red) Keough, and Evers would go on to post a 13-2 record, best in the area, and lost only to San Diego, 27-20, in the tournament finale and 40-15 later in the season.

The poor, all-boys school in North Park seldom got respect from the media and always was questioned by rivals of operating with much easier rules of athletic eligibility

The Saints rejoiced with this infrequent taste of glory.

TOURING CLASS

Coronado was 4-1 on a six-day visit after Christmas to the University of Redlands Frosh (20-17), San Jacinto (28-9), Long Beach Jordan (20-19), and San Juan Capistrano (27-20), sandwiched around a 25-20 loss at Redlands High.

San Diego coach Ed Ruffa prepared to whistle stop several venues in the Southwest, but received no replies after soliciting El Centro Central, Brawley, Holtville, and Mesa, Arizona.  The Hilltoppers still posted wins at Yuma, 32-11, and Phoenix Union, 31-22.

FUTURE BOSSES

San Diego’s Kenny Hale, played on San Diego State’s 1941 National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball championship squad and was a nine-season head coach at Hoover from 1947-48 through 1951-52, posting a 76-43 record, and at the start-up Mission Bay program, where Hale was 53-44 from 1954-55 through 1957-58.

Alhambra guard Shannon Deniston was better known as Shan when he coached football at La Jolla, Lincoln, and San Diego from 1955-81, posting a 94-81-4 record.

SIGN OF THE TIME

No longer will San Diego State athletes be mistaken for lettermen from Sweetwater, Santa Ana, J.C., or Stanford, wrote Charles Byrne in The San Diego Union.

“An interlocking SD debuted when lettermen from football got their sweaters at a college dance,” said Byrne.

The schools Byrne mentioned also matched Aztec colors of red and black.

“The Aztecs could still be mistaken for the University of South Dakota, but the Coyotes colors are yellow and blue,” said Byrne.

After World War II, San Diego High lettermen apparel featured a singular “S”, but gave way to the interlocking SD in the mid-‘fifties.

TWO-HAND SET SHOTS

When not coaching football, Hoover’s John Perry took his  additional football and basketball game officiating assignments  a step further…Perry often was third man in the ring on downtown Coliseum boxing cards…rain forced the Grossmont-Sweetwater game indoors to San Diego State…Hoover was forced to move a practice to San Diego High because of muddy courts…Cardinals would take floor after the Hilltoppers finished their practice, for Hoover often at 5 p.m….the 32-15 loss to Alhambra,  was San Diego’s most decisive in 38 games, since a 37-17 loss to Long Beach Poly in 1934-35…at least three separate scuffles reportedly broke out in the stands or between players during the teams’ Class B game won by Alhambra, 25-21… Point Loma presented a “basket ball” following its game at San Diego with Coronado…the Pointers also invited the Islanders team to what later would be known as a “sock hop”…games in the San Diego Interscholastic event were played at San Diego High, San Diego State, the downtown YMCA and the Army-Navy Y…Ramona gained the right to play Brawley in the playoffs by defeating Mountain Empire, 31-29, in overtime at San Diego State…Point Loma’s 31-22 win against Sweetwater gave the Pointers an undefeated Metropolitan record, 8-0…coach Harry Wexler’s Escondido Cougars had the reported highest scoring total for the season in  a 56-21 win over Coronado…Wexler’s sons, Warren (20 points) and Duncan (7) led the way…San Diego’s Roy Falconer joined Pasadena Muir’s Jackie Robinson and others on the all-Southern California first team…The Hillers’ Freeman Dill was on the second team….