Now wait just a grape-pickin’ minute!

Students at Escondido High were up in arms.

They did not cotton to the term Grape Pickers or its use to describe the school’s athletic teams, although the wine-making fruit held agricultural sway in the area and the city had hosted a Grape Day Festival since 1908.

The students wanted a tough, masculine mascot.

They voted to adopt the cougar, which had been known to prowl the mountain ranges near the valley community for centuries.

The school also made a request of sports writers to refrain forthwith  from referring to Grape Pickers in print.

Perhaps coincidentally, football at the second oldest football-playing school in the County finally was earning some respect.

The Cougars, paced by future major league baseballer Pete Coscarart; Tom Luscardi, and future NFL player Ed Goddard, posted a 9-2 record although defeated by El Centro Central in the CIF minor division championship game.

THREE-WAY TIE

Along the way, coach Harry Wexler’s North County squad tied with Coronado and Grossmont for the Southern Prep League championship.

Escondido defeated Grossmont, 31-0, and Grossmont topped Coronado, 12-7, but Coronado upset the Cougars, 20-6.

The teams were 3-1 in final standings and followed an interesting path from there.

A three-hour meeting of representatives from the three schools was held Monday, Nov. 12, at the Stanley Andrews store in downtown San Diego.

A league rule stipulated that a playoff would have to be played Tuesday, Nov. 13, or Friday, Nov. 15.

In the scrambling, seemingly haphazard manner in which the CIF Southern Section selected playoff teams, it appeared that two clubs from the Southern League were eligible for the postseason.

According to The San Diego Union, Coronado coach Amos Schaefer said he’d play only if Grossmont agreed to enter the playoffs.

Grossmont coach Jack Mashin bailed, citing a number of injuries that depleted his squad would preclude a game the next day.

Mashin and Schaefer, after a three-hour back and forth, finally conceded the championship to Escondido and its representative Martin Perry, and cited curious logic:

Grossmont had beaten Coronado the previous Friday and even if Coronado would defeat Escondido again, the Islanders’ loss to Grossmont would overshadow a win over Escondido.

That’s the way it was reported in The San Diego Sun.

ORANGE PEELED

The Cougars routed Orange County champion Orange, 52-0, that Friday in their final, regular-season  game. But a pregame story in The Sun declared that the matchup “may be considered as one of the Southern California interscholastic Federation, Unit B playoff contests.”

The disclaimer notwithstanding, the playoffs were scheduled to begin the following week, when Escondido was to play the inaugural City League champion, Point Loma.

It gets more confusing.

The story in The Sun added, “If pairings should so fall that Orange and Escondido would logically be paired up in second round playoffs the score of tomorrow’s game in all probability would be considered instead of (Escondido and Orange) playing another game.”

NEW DEAL

Always looking for possible revenue streams, the struggling federation this season had divided its members by leagues into Major Division and geographic Northern Minor and Southern Minor.

Teams from the Coast, Cirtrus Belt, Foothill, Orange, Ventura, Bay, and San Luis Obispo leagues were placed in the Major Division.

Teams from the San Diego City League, Southern Prep, and Imperial Valley circuits would align in the Southern group.  Teams from the Riverside, San Gabriel Valley, Ventura Minor, and Tri-County loops would comprise the Northern group.

The increased playoffs and more numerous pairings didn’t “fall” to a Cougars-Orange showdown.

Escondido met Point Loma and moved on with a 13-6 victory. Next up was Banning, the Riverside County champion, and the Cougars sent the Broncos home, 46-0.

The win over Banning set up a second match with El Centro Central, beaten, 6-0, by the Cougars early in the season.

Maybe it was the long postseason, but even a partisan home crowd couldn’t help the Cougars, who dropped a 20-6, championship game decision to the team from Imperial Valley.

THE WEXLER WAY

Coach Harry Wexler brought the Escondido program out of the depths in which it resided for most of the previous 30 years. His teams posted a 57-32-11 record over 10 seasons from 1928-37.

Escondido’s record under five coaches from 1920 until Wexler was hired was 10-41-5.

Wexler’s .624 winning percentage  is bettered at Escondido only by the standard of the legendary Bob (Chick) Embrey, who was 144-66-4 (.682) from 1956-77.  Paul Gomes was 59-37-7 (.607) from 2001-09.

Local merchants, so taken with the Cougars’ success, closed their stores in order to see the game with rival Oceanside.

NO, NOT ME

Did Wexler, a Washington State Cougar in his undergraduate days, have something to say about the change in nicknames?

School officials said Wexler did not suggest or have anything to do with the switch.

Wexler undoubtedly had something to say about Goddard’s future.

The sophomore fullback went on to an all-America career at Washington State and was the second player  selected in the 1937 NFL draft.

A Los Angeles Times reporter was so taken with Goddard’s running in a victory over USC that he coined Goddard the “Escondido Express.”

GODDARD GOES FIRST

There had been a handful of San Diego-area preps who had played professionally, notably Russ Saunders of San Diego High with the 1931 Green Bay Packers, but Goddard was the first to be drafted in the NFL.

Goddard played two seasons, 1937 and, ’38,  with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cleveland Rams and then went into teaching and coaching. He was an assistant coach on the 1950 Fullerton High staff. The Indians upset San Diego, 20-19, in the playoffs.

THEY ALL REMEMBERED

Before they passed, many retired San Diego High coaches and staff shook their heads when they spoke, often, of the game coach Hobbs Adams’ Hilltoppers lost at Long Beach Poly in 1930.

Estimated attendance at  Burcham Field was 15,000 persons for the game that decided the Coast League championship and the league’s playoff representative.

Another 4,000 was said to have been turned away.

Hundreds of Hilltoppers boosters were there. Radio station KSUN in San Diego offered a play-by-play of the contest. San Diegans also were able to pick up a Long Beach radio station broadcast on San Diego station KGER 1350.

The Fox Theater commissioned a special cameraman to take film of the game and begin a one-week showing the day after the Thanksgiving tussle.

LUCK O’ THE JACKRABBITS!

The Jackrabbits won, 14-8, and breezed to the Southern California upper division championship.

–San Diego had 15 first downs, Poly 1.

–Long Beach’s longest gain on a running play was 4 yards.

WRITER’S LAMENT

The game story lede, in part, as sent by The San Diego Union reporter Charles Byrne:

“Although outclassed—and outclassed badly—Long Beach Poly capitalized on the ‘breaks’ of the game to capture the Coast League championship in one of the weirdest prep school battles ever witnessed in Southern California.”

Poly’s one first down was on a pass play that turned into a 50-yard touchdown.

A Cotton Warburton punt from the end zone was blocked and Warburton recovered for a Poly safety.  Long Beach led, 8-0.

The Jackrabbits went up 14-0 after a lateral from Warburton to Ted Wilson was knocked in the air and strayed into the hands of another Poly defender, who ran 85 yards.

San Diego got on the board in the fourth quarter.  Cecil McElvain intercepted a Poly fumble and raced 20 yards to make the score 14-6.

King Hall blocked a Poly punt out of the end zone for another safety.

Poly went on to defeat Redondo Beach Redondo Union, 20-3, for the championship.

ROAD WARRIORS

Thirty-three of the 40-man San Diego squad boarded a 5:15 p.m. train on Thursday for an all night ride to Phoenix.

After “resting up” the Cavers dropped a 22-20 decision to Phoenix Union and hustled to the depot to catch the last train at 10:30 Friday night.

The team arrived back in San Diego Saturday morning.

The sluggish Hilltoppers trailed, 15-0, at halftime but rallied as Ted Wilson scored two touchdowns and Cotton Warburton added another.

SOUTHERN GOES ALL COUNTY

The fledgling City League, numbering Point Loma, La Jolla, San Diego High’s Reserves, and the new Hoover High, meant that the Southern Prep, originally known as the County League, would become just that, a league of County squads.

The Southern Prep now listed Coronado, Sweetwater, Oceanside, Escondido, Mountain Empire, and Julian.  The last two did not field football teams but competed in other sports.

HILLTOPPERS’ BIG THREE

At one point in the preseason, San Diego coach Hobbs Adams had five, 11-man squads practicing daily.

Adams decided that assistant coach Mike Morrow would handle a group called the “Reserves”, sometimes referred to as the “Seconds”,  and Glenn Broderick would continue as coach of the B’s.

Broderick’s B team was the defending Southern California champion, but the Coast League dropped its B playoffs this season

The Little Hilltoppers forged a free-lance schedule and again prevailed in Southern California.

The B team defeated Santa Monica, 25-6, in the preliminary game to Long Beach Poly’s 20-3 victory over Redondo at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

As was the practice in track and field and other sports, with A, B, and C squads based on “exponents,” B footballers’ eligibility was determined by their height, weight, grade, and age.

The Reserves served as sort of a varsity minor league.   Players shuttled back and forth between the teams.

LIGHTS…ACTION….

The date was Sept. 27, 1930, when St. Augustine and Grossmont took the field in the first high school night football game under lights in San Diego County.

One day after San Diego State had played the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on the tanbark Navy Field, St. Augustine defeated the Foothillers, 25-0.

San Diego coach Hobbs Adams took his team to Navy Field for a workout later in the season before the Hilltoppers boarded a train for a game in the north.

The Navy Field site at the foot of Broadway and adjacent  to Pacific Highway and Harbor Drive would be renamed Lane Field as home of the Pacific Coast League San Diego Padres later in the decade. The Padres’ franchise was moved from Hollywood in 1936.  The owner of the team was Bill Lane.

San Diego High’s Class B team represented the school in its first night-time venture when the Little Hilltoppers traveled to Brawley.

HOOVER, THE SCHOOL, ASCENDS

September was a historic month.

On Sept. 3, Herbert Hoover High, 4474 El Cajon Blvd., in East San Diego, opened its doors to almost 1,000 sophomore and junior students.  There was no senior class.

Known as the Engineers or Presidents, students opted for school colors of Red and White.

Their teams eventually became the Cardinals.

Coach John Perry, who had posted a 52-14-5 record at San Diego from 1920-26 but had left coaching to pursue additional educational credentials, came out of retirement to lead the Eastsiders.

Perry’s first call resulted in 88 candidates, a remarkable turnout, said The San Diego Union, in that there were less than 500 boys in the school.

A total of 130 were out at  San Diego High, 50 at Grossmont, 75 at Army-Navy, and 35 at St. Augustine.

ALSO DEBUTING

San Diego had a new practice field north of the City Stadium but the rough, dirt layout prohibited intrasquad scrimmages until the team moved into the stadium and its turf playing surface.

The football team and student gym classes soon would access the stadium on a daily basis throughout the school year after an agreement was reached during a meeting of the Balboa Park Board and City Schools big shots.

For the next 30-odd years, it was easy to identify the practice field site.  Whenever news media photos were taken of the San Diego High players, the Balboa Naval Hospital would loom in the background.

The new, Crosstown Freeway of Interstate 5 opened in 1963 and changed the practice landscape, as the baseball field was reconfigured.  Cavers teams continued to practice football there.

SIGNS OF THE TIME

La Mesa was approved for daily mail delivery after the community’s Chamber of Commerce voted to increase the number of sidewalks and paving as required by the U.S. Postal Service.

The government agency also had required La Mesa to improve street lighting and provide a modern numbering system for residential and business addresses.

AGGRAVATED BATTERY

Interscholastic athletics at Fresno Edison Technical were suspended until the end of the school year June 1, 1931.

Two Technical students were charged with assaulting game referee H.L. Rowe, a resident of Madera who ruled a touchdown in favor of Kingsburg with two minutes left in the game that gave Kingsburg a 6-0 victory and setting off a riot.

About 30 Technical students were involved in the beef at the game and for creating another disturbance that night.

FOOTBALL HUB

Thirty-one former San Diego-area gridders were listed on the rosters of 12 universities.

Twelve players each were from San Diego High and St. Augustine.  Coronado had four.

The schools included USC, Stanford, California, and Oregon of the Pacific Coast Conference, plus Idaho, Tulane, Kansas, Tulsa, St. Mary’s, Santa Clara, Regis of Denver, and Columbia of Seattle.

TRUE GRID

Hobbs Adams closed practices and locked gates at City Stadium as his team prepared for visiting Long Beach Wilson and Santa Ana…the Bruins were coached by former San Diego High star Rockwell  (Rocky) Kemp, Santa Ana by former Memorial Junior High and San Diego High coach Gerald (Tex) Oliver…heavy rain forced the Hilltoppers indoors to their new gymnasium the Thursday before the Alhambra game…Grossmont had turf for the first time…”We’ve been working for a turf field for about six years, and now that we have one, it’s probably the best in the County,” said Foothillers coach Jack Mashin…Ramona, which opened in 1893, continued the idea fielding a  football team… coach Harold Roberts was in place, but the Bulldogs wouldn’t be on the field until 1938…Gene Miller got San Diego on the scoreboard against San Bernardino by drop-kicking a 38-yard field goal…Oceanside was constructing an  athletic facility that could hold three full-size football fields, four tennis courts, and a quarter-mile oval for track and field meets…one local writer described Grossmont as “the back country school.”…flags flew in St. Augustine’s 64-0 win over Brawley…the Saints were penalized 165 yards and the Wildcats 105…the same Brawley squad dropped a 26-0 decision to the San Diego B team the next week…Cotton Warburton was the only athlete from the area to earn all-Southern California honors…Warburton was on the first team for the second year in a row.

With Frank Buncom IV leading the defense and explosive running back Elijah Preston propelling the offense, St. Augustine might have more good players than last season’s 11-2 team but could be hard pressed proving it.

The Saints have stayed close to home for most of  the San Diego Section’s first 54 years, but they’re stepping out this season, with road games at  legendary Los Angeles Loyola and Riverside County power Vista Murrieta.

Not to mention their annual roll in the dirt with Eastern League rival Cathedral.

The Saints have played 12 intersectional games since they attained membership in the San Diego City Prep League in 1957 and  nine since the San Diego Section was formed in 1960.

The Saints had played eight such out-of-the-area games  from 1951-56 and from 1945-50 they were members of the far-flung Southland Catholic League, competing against Los Angeles-area schools.

Their last foray against a team from outside San Diego County was a home-and-home series with Anaheim Servite, losing, 37-14, on the road  in 2005 and 23-0 at Southwestern College in 2006.

Loyola officials announced that they are bringing in extra bleachers and lights for the game with the Saints Sept. 12, marking the first after-dark home contest in school history and the first home game since 1949.

The Cubs’ home field for years has been at Los Angeles Valley College in Van Nuys.

St. Augustine played an afternoon league game at Loyola in 1949, losing, 28-6.

A video profile of the 2014 Loyola squad by Los Angeles Times writer Eric Sondheimer can be accessed by connecting to the link below.

Football: Loyola Coach Marvin Sanders is feeling comfortable

The Saints’ intersectional history and record of 7-12-1 since leaving the Southland Catholic League after the 1950 season (games against Imperial Valley teams since 2000 not listed, as they now are in San Diego section):

YEAR	OPPONENT	SCORE
1951	at El Centro Central	0-13
1952	Culver City	14-6
	L.A. Mt.  Carmel	12-25
1953	San Gabriel Mission	33-0
	Lawndale Leuzinger	13-0
1954	at Long Beach St. Anthony	0-6
1956	at Yuma, Arizona	7-20
	at Pomona Catholic	6-6
1957	at Torrance	26-6
1958	L.A. Mt. Carmel	6-40
1959	Brawley	31-7
	at Gardena Serra	12-7
1960	at Redlands	6-34
1965	at Santa Barbara	7-34
1974	at Santa Barbara	18-31
1987	L.A. Salesian	7-6
1995	at Rancho Santa Margarita	6-28
1996	Rancho Santa Margarita	7-27
2005	at Anaheim Servite	0-23
2006	Anaheim Servite	14-37
	Record: 7-12-1.

Preseason games don’t have the import of regular-season contests, which carry the prestige of potential league championships and playoff seedings, but the early intersectionals have their own realities.

Do well in these games and gain ratings.

Have high ratings and increase the possibility of state playoff invitations.

Many intersectionals will be played the week of Aug. 29, with Oceanside, Cathedral, and Eastlake serving as sites for the annual Brothers in Arms carnival.

One of those first week attractions sends St. Augustine to Oceanside in a battle of San Diego Section powers who were a combined 21-5 last season. Oceanside won the 2013 matchup, 47-28.

TEAM 2013 OPPONENT 2013 SITE Carlsbad 9-3 Temecula Great Oak 6-5 There Cathedral 11-2 Folsom 14-1 Home Cathedral 11-2 Westlake Village Oaks Christian 8-3 Oceanside Cathedral 11-2 Newbury Park 5-5 Away Christian 12-1 San Luis Obispo Mission Prep 11-3 Away Eastlake 10-2 Mesa Desert Ridge, Arizona 11-2 Home Eastlake 10-2 Los Alamitos 9-3 Away Francis Parker 10-1 Honolulu Arthur Radford 7-3 Home Helix 9-3 Ventura St. Bonaventure 8-4 Cathedral Helix 9-3 Loomis Del Oro 13-3 Oceanside La Costa Canyon 7-4 Corona del Mar 16-0 Cathedral La Costa Canyon 7-4 Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills 6-4 Home Mar Vista 4-6 Santa Cruz Harbor 2-8 Away Mar Vista 4-6 San Gabriel Gabrieleno 7-4 Away Mission Hills 12-2 Provo Timpview, Utah 13-1 Cathedral Oceanside 10-3 Mission Viejo 11-1 Home Oceanside 10-3 Temecula Chaparral 8-4 Away St. Augustine 11-2 L.A. Loyola 4-6 Away St. Augustine 11-2 Murrieta Vista Murrieta 12-2 Away Santa Fe Christian 6-5 Santa Barbara Bishop Diego 10-3 Away Torrey Pines 6-5 Pleasant Grove, Utah 9-3 Eastlake Valley Center 3-7 Redwood City Sequoia 5-5 Home Westview 2-9 Avondale Westview, Arizona 10-1 Away COACHING  CHANGES Not all returns are in, but at least nine coaches will be debuting with their teams when presesason games begin Aug. 29. There has been one head coaching switch.  Ron Gladnick  left Clairemont to head up the Torrey Pines program. NAME SCHOOL REPLACED Drew Westling Chula Vista Judd Rachow Joe Kim Clairemont Ron Gladnick Jon Goodman Classical Jon Burnes John  Roberts El Camino Pulu Poumele Tyler Hales La Jolla Country Day Jeff Hutzler Lance Christensen Otay Ranch Anthony Lacsina Jason Patterson Orange Glen Kris Plash Ron Gladnick Torrey Pines Scott Ashby Scott Catlin San Ysidro Tyler Arciaga

 

They could have asked Bennie Edens.

Writers and prep experts comprising the selection panel for The San Diego Union weekly Top 10 may well have consulted the Point Loma coach.

No one could have offered more expert testimony than Bennie.

The peninsula wise man coached his 38^th team at the Chatsworth Boulevard enclave and lost to the No’s. 1, 2, 3, and 7 teams this season.

Add another defeat to University City, which was 9-1 and didn’t make the Top 10.  The Pointers were beaten by five clubs with a combined record of 47 wins and three losses.

Poway, which eliminated the Pointers, 14-10, in the first round of the playoffs, finished with a 10-4 record.

Six teams at a combined 57-7!

The final Union regular-season poll:

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	POINTS
1.	Morse	10-0	39
2.	Helix	10-0	36
3.	El Camino	9-1	32
4.	El Capitan	9-1	28
5.	Mt. Carmel	8-1-1	21
6.	San Pasqual	9-1	20
7.	Kearny	9-1	13
8.	Orange Glen	7-3	11
9.	Torrey Pines	8-2	7
10.	Castle Park	8-2	5

St. Augustine was another 9-1 team looking up at the Top 10, as was Poway, 7-3 in the regular season.

MORSE CODE UNBROKEN

John Shacklett’s tiger had different spots this season but still claimed its second 3-A title in three seasons in its fifth trip to the finals in the last six.

The Tigers of Morse were ranked fourth in the country by USA Today in 1990 when they outscored 14 opponents by an average of 46-13.

Shacklett’s 1992 squad wasn’t as explosive, averaging 29 points in another 14-0 season but allowing only an average of 6.

Crushing defense and tough, slashing running by Archie Amerson (675 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns in one three-game stretch and 3-A offensive player of year) and three-year veteran Conan Smith (defensive player of the year)  were staples of Shacklett’s  squad, which won a fourth  championship in six tries.

TORREY  COMES OUT OF WEEDS

El Camino was looking for its fourth straight 2-A title but its 15-game playoff winning streak was broken, and convincingly, 38-13, by Torrey Pines.

The Falcons survived a season in which their quarterback, Ryan Lynch, was involved in a one-game suspension controversy and was lost with an injury in the middle of the 27-21, semifinal victory over San Pasqual.

BOWS TO BURKE

Torrey Pines’ Brian Batson spoke of coach Ed Burke:

“I can’t say enough about him and what he’s done for this football program.  It used to be all we’d think about on Friday nights was where the party was after the game.”

Burke, who coached the Falcons from 1980-84, returned this season and inherited a 4-6-1 team.

“I’m still in a state of shock,” said Burke, who led a program that until four weeks before  never had won a playoff game.

“This is El Camino,” Burke said to writer Ed Graney.  “This is no run-of-the-mill program.  These are people we’ve admired for a long time. To win is great.  To win this convincingly is overwhelming.”

GROSSMONT INFERS

One victory in 15 seasons against a neighborhood rival that is your essential progeny can lead to indigestion.

Two  fourth-quarter touchdowns that led to a 14-11 loss to Helix stirred acid reflux in Grossmont coach Judd Hulburt, whose postmortem included a sour observation:

“I like to refer to them as the East County All-Stars,” said Hulburt.

“They have players from (Canyon Country) Canyon, Mount Miguel, and other areas.  It’s hard to recruit speed and they certainly have it.”

Teneil Ethridge, a transfer from Mount Miguel, rushed for 74 yards in 16 carries and scored the Highlanders’ first touchdown on an eight-yard run. Quarterback Jeremy Gottlieb and Marc Baskin teamed on a 25-yard scoring pass for the winner.

COACH BACKS OFF

“Well,” Hulburt said to writer Jim Trotter two days later, “if I’m going to be on the record, I’m going to be very careful about what I say.”

“I’m just saying it looks really strange that Helix gets good athletes in its program year after year.”

Hulburt denied accusing the Helix coaching staff of recruiting but said something about Helix parents and boosters proselytizing off-the-books.

ARNAIZ SCRATCHES HEAD

Highlanders coach Jim Arnaiz was nonplussed.

“I just don’t know where he’s coming from,” said the 20-season mentor of the Highlanders.  “I know what I’ve done, what our staff has done, and I know how we handle our program.  We have nothing to be embarrassed about.

“We have been known statewide as a good athletic school as well as a good academic school,” Arnaiz added.  “Yes, we’ve had some good fortune of having great players show up on our doorstep, wanting to be part of a winning tradition.”

As an example, Arnaiz noted that when Chuck Cecil’s dad was job transferred from Hanford in the San Joaquin Valley to San Diego “he researched East County.  That’s how Chuck ended up at Helix in 1982.”

Cecil’s fierce play as a linebacker and safety led the Highlanders to the 3-A championship in 1982.  He went on to play and coach in the NFL.

Arnaiz had amassed 147 victories and was 12-6-2 against the Foothillers from the time of his appointment as the Scots’ coach in 1973 and 12-2-2 since 1977.

COUNCIL GOES AGAINST BOARD

The San Diego Section coordinating council unanimously voted, in the middle of the season, to return to a 16-team playoff bracket after the Section board of managers voted to reduce the number of playoff teams to 12 for this year.

The 16-team format had been in effect since 1989.

The board’s decision had met with criticism, partly because several concerned groups, including the coordinating council, had no opportunity to discuss the proposed reduction.

GO WEST, WILDCATS

An obscure but telling statistic to come out of the 2-A playoffs involved El Camino and its 24-14 victory over Kearny in the quarterfinals.

The win was the Wildcats 12^th in a row over a Western League squad in the playoffs, dating their 39-28 win over Kearny for the 2-A title in 1976, the year El Camino opened after splitting from Oceanside.

“I know (Western League) coaches get tired of hearing this, but we play tough football in the Avocado League,”  said Wildcats coach Herb Meyer.

COMES IN THREES

Chula Vista means beautiful view, but the Spartans’ view was anything but on a particular Friday night after a galling, 22-19 loss to San Diego Southwest.

–The Spartans surrendered the Metropolitan League championship after four consecutive titles.

–This, after their 36-game, league unbeaten streak came to an end the previous week in a loss to Castle Park.

–The Spartans were beaten by Southwest for the first time in seven years.

CATCH OR…?

Chula Vista coach George Ohnessorgen saw a fumble; the officials saw a completed pass.

Southwest faced a fourth-and-five midway in the fourth quarter at the Chula Vista 10-yard line. Raiders quarterback O’Brien Woods passed to Tony Diaz, who caught the pass at the three and was hit by J.J. Rosier. The ball came loose.  Southwest’s Danny Lim recovered.

Chula Vista celebrated, thinking the pass was incomplete. Game officials ruled that Diaz caught the ball and that Diaz’ feet hit the ground before before he fumbled, making the pass a completion.

Southwest scored on the next play.

“I’m sorry for the kids that the game had to be taken away on a bad play,” Ohnessorgen said to writer Tom Shanahan, “but we made some critical mistakes and Southwest did a good job of coming back (from deficits of 13-0 and 19-14).”

Raiders coach Alan Kaylor didn’t exactly have a straight face when he told Shanahan, “It was a catch.  We’ll have to look at the films.”

WHY BECOME A COACH?

“Sometimes I have no idea,” said Ed Burke.  “Unfortunately for me, I’m one of the weirdos who chooses to do this.”

The legendary Torrey Pines coach was addressing the question posed by Ed Graney of The San Diego Union.

Long hours, myriad logistics, and problems with players and parents are only part of a high school coach’s job.

“It gets to a point where you are validating your lifestyle around how determined 16- and 17-year-old kids are at winning football games,” said Vic Player of Lincoln.

“We sat down once, figured out how many hours we spent during the season, and the pay (actually a stipend) came out to something like 12 cents per hour,” said San Pasqual’s Mike Dolan.

The three coaches may at times have had a love-hate relationship with their profession, but they couldn’t resist the lure.

Together the three won more than 500 games.

KICKOFF CLASSIC

Four of the County’s most renowned coaches got together in the spring and came up with the idea for a season-opening doubleheader. Vista was the venue, with Herb Meyer’s preseason No. 1 El Camino squad meeting No. 2 Point Loma and John Shacklett’s No. 6 Morse Tigers taking on Craig Bell’s No. 4 Rancho Buena Vista Longhorns.

An added fillip was Meyer, the County’s winningest coach (243) against Edens, No. 2 (211).

The buildup was greater.   El Camino stifled Point Loma, 20-0, and Morse ran away from RBV, 45-29.

CALL THIS A SOFT OPENING

Morse actually began the season 2,600 miles away several days earlier in Hawaii, marking its eighth consecutive lid-lifter in the islands.

The Tigers were joined by three other San Diego Section teams that took part in a 10-team carnival at Aloha Stadium.

The surfeit of games honored Shawn Akina, a 19-year-old Honolulu Punahou graduate who died of a heart ailment at the University of Utah, where he was going to play football.

The Tigers defeated Kamehameha, 22-15, in the third and final game on a Friday evening card that ended well after midnight.

Kickoff for the first game was at 6:30 p.m., Kaneohe Castle defeating Monte Vista, 6-2.

Orange Glen’s 22-20 victory over Punahou began at 9 p.m., followed by Morse at 11:30.

Lincoln fell behind, 21-0, and came up short, losing 34-24 to Kahuku the next evening.  Mountain View of Mesa, Arizona, and Honolulu St. Louis appeared in the final contest.

EAGLE LATE TAKING FLIGHT

Someone was snoozing.

San Pasqual’s 34-20, quarterfinals playoff win over Santana was notable for a  very slow- developing touchdown.

The Golden Eagles’ David Villa intercepted a pass by Santana’s Doug Schultz five yards deep in San Pasqual’s end zone. Villa tucked the pigskin under his arm and began moseying off the field to give the ball to an equipment man for safekeeping.

“I was thinking about keeping the ball as a memento,” said Villa.  “But then everyone started yelling at me to run with it.”

Run Villa did, 105 yards for a touchdown and a 19-10 Eagles lead at halftime.

FOOTBALL FOR FEMALES

Addie Jacobs, a second-team, all-San Diego Section choice in girls’ soccer last year, kicked an extra point for Madison in the Warhawks’ 14-7 loss to Patrick Henry.

Jacobs is believed to be the second young lady to appear and score for a local squad, joining San Diego’s Mia Lebowitz, who kicked a field goal as San Diego defeated St. Augustine, 3-0, in 1988.

Jacobs wasn’t the only female on the Madison squad.  Dawn Collins also kicks for the Warhawks, as does Sheila Walsh for Clairemont.

BEST IN WEST(BROOK)

El Camino’s Bryant Westbrook was one of three players to get all ten Pacific 10 head coaches’ votes for the Long Beach Press-Telegram’s annual “Best in the West” team.

Westbrook, who also was the San Diego Section 2-A defensive player of the year, was joined by running back Lawrence Phillips of Baldwin Park and quarterback Pat Barnes of Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills.

The coaches may have viewed game film of Westbrook in El Camino’s 14-0 victory over Carlsbad.

A  205-pound defensive back, Westbrook intercepted a pass, returned a fumble recovery for a touchdown, forced a fumble, and caught a touchdown pass against the Lancers.

Westbrook was known as a big-hitting cornerback at the University of Texas and was the fifth selection in the first round by the Detroit Lions in the 1997 NFL draft. He played seven seasons.

Westbrook was the latest future NFL standout that Herb Meyer coached at Oceanside and El Camino.

The list also included Willie Buchanon, Dokie Williams, Darron Norris, and Jayice Pearson.

‘VILLE’S VIKINGS VICTORIOUS

Holtville, 44-7-1 since 1987, won its fourth straight 1-A championship in its fifth title game in a row.  Anthony Iten passed for three touchdowns as coach Sam Faulk’s Vikings topped Mountain Empire 41-6.

QUICK KICKS

Conana Smith scored 22 touchdowns and 132 points and was third in the San Diego Section in scoring but was not even the leader on his team…running back mate Archie Amerson had 23 touchdowns and 138 points…Kearny’s James Curtis was first with 144…San Diego’s star was quarterback-defensive back Jacque Jones, who went on to play 10 seasons in the major leagues with 165 home runs and a  career .277 average…Tommy Casper, the son of legendary golfer and former U.S. Open winner Billy Casper, was a starting tackle for Bonita Vista and also a member of the Barons’ golf team…Grossmont’s six wins in  its 6-5 season were against teams collectively 13-39, none witha winning record…San Pasqual defeated Lincoln, 28-22, for a 4-1 postseason record against the Hornets after the teams met  for the fifth time in six postseasons…Julian whipped Francis Parker, 37-20, in the final regular-season game, then turned around the next week to defeat the Lancers, 34-14, for the 8-Man championship…San Diego High athletic director Allan (Scotty) Harris touted safety Marlin McWilson as the first Caver in 18 years to bid for a college Division I scholarship…McWilson went on to play at California…Cavers Michael Hayes (USC) and Frankie Wilson (UCLA) won schollies after the 1974 season…a preseason publication rated Lincoln’s Akili Smith among  the top 13 quarterbacks in the nation…Linebacker Tom Stehly was the seventh brother to play football at Orange Glen…one more was coming, sophomore Pat, who was on the junior varsity…the 34 career field goals by Rancho Bernardo’s Nate Tandberg stood as a state record until 2010, when a kicker from Upland completed his career with 39…attendance for the championships at Jack Murphy Stadium was 8,182….

Successive records of 4-7, 0-10, and 6-6, had turned whispers into shouts at Vista. Had Dick Haines, borrowing baseball parlance, lost the hop on his fastball?

Two state No. 1 rankings, three San Diego Section titles, and 11 league championships were a distant memory until the Panthers shot down Morse, 21-7, in the season’s third week, erasing 57-14 and 48-14 losses to the Tigers in 1990.

Morse came into the game No. 1 in San Diego County, No. 2 in Southern California, No. 3 in California, and No. 20 in the country.

From that redeeming moment the rebuilt Panthers went all the way to 13-0 before losing to Point Loma, 14-0, in the Section 3-A title game.

It may have been Haines’s finest hour.

Vista’s retreat in the late ‘eighties was traced to the school district’s arbitrary and perceived gerrymandering of enrollment boundaries that favored newcomer Rancho Buena Vista.

The fledgling Longhorns won section titles in two of their first three seasons, corresponding with Vista’s decline.

Cries of political wheeling and dealing were heard.

REVENGE BY HIGHER-UPS?

Haines, often feisty and confrontational, wasn’t the most popular employee in the Vista School District.

“Dick felt very slighted after the split, “said Morse coach John Shacklett.  “Maybe if someone was doing something just to get him, I don’t know.”

Shacklett, speaking with Ed Graney of The San Diego Union, was a fan of his coaching rival.

“No matter what kind of talent he has been dealt, he always gets the most out of his kids,” said Shacklett.   “He loves to win but is gracious in defeat.  He certainly has been a force.”

Haines’ son, Rik, a head coach at Redmond in Washington State and former Torrey Pines head coach, may have put it best to Graney: “Really, he’s about as steady as rain in Seattle.”

MORE OR LESS FOR MORSE?

Morse was 3-0 with 17 consecutive victories after a 30-18 win over Carson, an L.A. City Section power that was ranked fifth in the state.

Gary Taylor, who was the state’s Junior Player of the Year, in 1990, rushed for 153 yards, gained 253 all-purpose yards, and scored three touchdowns.

The Tigers appeared positioned to make a second straight championship run, but they fell to Vista the next week, stumbled in Week 5 against Lincoln, 34-28, were shocked by Mira Mesa, 31-13, in Week 8, and shut out by Point Loma, 16-0, in Week 10.

The Tigers still were explosive, averaging 33.2 points and scoring 398 points in 12 games, but their season came to an end in the San Diego Section quarterfinals.

Vista did it a second time, eliminating Morse, 17-10.

IRON GLOVE(R)

La’Roi Glover was destined to play at Point Loma High, almost from the first day he boarded a bus in the Skyline District that took him to his kindergarten class at Silvergate Elementary on the peninsula.

The youngster graduated to Collier Junior High near Ocean Beach and arrived as a freshman at Point Loma, at 14 too young to play varsity but  teamed on the defensive line with his older brother, Darcel, as a sophomore.

AWARDS AND TITLES

Glover’s career at Point Loma included two San Diego Section co-player-of-the-year awards  and it was Glover’s presence in the middle of the Pointers’ defensive line that propelled coach Bennie Edens to his third championship in six tries.

The 13-1 Pointers allowed only 88 points, an average of a touchdown a game.  No team scored more than 14.

Glover also lettered in wrestling and track and field and his football accomplishments were such that Glover’s jersey number 76 was retired at Point Loma, joined only by Marcel Brown’s 22 and Eric Allen’s 25.

The 6-foot-2, 290-pounder was a fifth-round draft choice of the Oakland Raiders out of San  Diego Sate and went on to play 13 NFL seasons, mostly with New Orleans, and with Dallas and the St. Louis Rams.

Glover earned six Pro Bowl invitations and was the NFL’s 2000 defensive player of the year.  He had 84.5 career sacks after posting 44.5 tackles for loss in four seasons at San Diego State.

LANCERS WILL MISS THEM

Hilltop wistfully waved good bye when Jorge Munoz, Bobby Lugo, and the seniors on the 8-3 squad moved on.

Although beaten by Morse, 44-22, in the first round of the playoffs, the Lancers’ record was their best since the Stan Canaris-coached squads were 8-2 and 9-1 in 1978 and ’79.

If they’d known what the future held there might have been a move afoot to change some birthdates and grant additional eligibility for Munoz and pals.

Just kidding, but there would be no replacing Munoz, who finished runner-up to Helix’ Jim Plum in career passing with 5,712 yards.

Munoz threw for 298 yards and 3 touchdowns in the loss to Morse and finished a great senior season with 25 touchdown passes and 2,543 yards.

Lugo took in 9 of Munoz’ aerial darts for 226 yards and three touchdowns against Morse and led the San Diego section with 64 catches, 1,295 yards, and 12 touchdowns.

The Lancers began a 11-42 funk in 1992 that lasted until 1995, and then fell off the grid with a 47-99 stretch from 1997-2010.

DIRTY TRICK?

Castle Park won a contentious Metropolitan League game at Sweetwater, 25-20.

Cue a substance hitting the fan.

Leading, 19-14, early in the third quarter, Castle faced a fourth and five at its 45-yard line.

Scott Whitman, in punt formation, took a snap from center but did not launch a kick, instead passing toward the Trojans’ sideline, where receiver Dujuan Franklin stood, 20 yards from the nearest Red Devils defender.

Franklin caught Whitman’s spiral and hustled 55 yards for a touchdown and 25-14 lead.

Sweetwater coach Gene Alim was outraged.

Alim claimed that Franklin came off the sideline onto the field of play, undetected by game officials and the Sweetwater defense.

“You have to be within 15 yards of the huddle,” said Alim.  “It’s a heckuva way to lose a game.”

COACH CONTRADICTED

“He came from the huddle,” retorted Castle Park coach Alan Duke, denying subterfuge.

But Daniel Bean, The San Diego Union correspondent, spoke with Franklin, who didn’t identify Duke or a particular member of Duke’s staff,  but said,  “The coach told me to step off the sidelines.  I never went into the huddle.”

HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL

Such could have been said of Chad Davis, who brought an accurate passing arm to Mira Mesa, his third high school in four years.  Davis previously was at Palm Springs and Torrey Pines.

Marauders coach Brad Griffith hired Chad’s father, Bob Davis, as offensive coordinator. Bob Davis had been head coach at Torrey Pines in 1989-90.

Davis an outstanding passer with a strong supporting cast paced by future NFL running back Mike Pittman, led Mira Mesa to the 3-A semifinals and a 9-4 finish.  Included was a 31-13 upset at Morse.

Davis kept Morse off balance  with rollouts and steady passing, completing 12 of 19 passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns.  The Marauders’ defense almost shut down Gary Taylor, who was held to 60 in 17 carries.

Davis eventually bettered the national career passing  record of 9,182 yards, set by Capistrano Valley’s Todd Marinovich, although controversy seem to follow the youngster and his coach father.

The elder Davis periodically was accused of calling plays that allowed Chad to pad his stats and that many his completions came on low-risk  “shovel” passes.

ANOTHER GOOF 

Davis was involved as a defensive player in the most pivotal moment of Mira Mesa’s 15-14, quarterfinals playoff  win over Orange Glen.

Patriots quarterback Omar Navarro, after a 48-yard Hail Mary pass was tipped by Davis and caught by Orange  Glen’s Chris Buddin, had his team on the Marauders’ 12-yard line with less than a minute to play.

As Mira Mesa coaches attempted to call timeout, Chad Davis noticed that there were 12 Marauders on the field.

Davis backed up, exited through the end zone and off the field, a clear violation. Players must exit the field to their sideline.  No flag was thrown.

Navarro was intercepted on the ensuing play.  Ball game.

GILSTER STIFFED

“Everyone in the stadium saw it,”  Orange Glen coach Rob Gilster  explained later to Steve Brand of  the Union.  “The Mira Mesa coaches will tell you the same thing,  It’s right there in the films.”

Gilster said he tried to get an explanation from the game officials.  “I asked them afterward and they just ran away.  It’s very frustrating, but I’d never protest something like that.”

Mira Mesa’s run ended the next week in a 21-14 loss to Vista.  Davis’s stats were the poorest of his four prep seasons, 2  completions in 7 attempts for 17 yards.  He scored both of his team’s touchdowns on runs of 6 and 1 yard.

MOVING AGAIN                                                                          

Chad and Bob Davis returned to their roots in Oklahoma after the stay at Mira Mesa. Chad enrolled at Oklahoma University for one year before transferring to Washington State.

Davis was the Cougars’ starting quarterback for most of two seasons, until replaced by Ryan Leaf.

TOP THIS ONE

Pressed into service as a return man, University City’s Deranzol  Sheppard returned a punt 96 yards for a touchdown with 36 seconds left in the game, then passed to Ed Miller for a two-point conversion to give the Centurions an 8-6 victory over Madison.

TOP THIS, TOO

Seemingly destined to tie Clairemont, 7-7, Coronado had the ball on its 16-yard line with three seconds remaining in the game.

The snap from shotgun formation by Islanders center John Files eluded quarterback Chris Bright, who scrambled and kicked the ball out of the end zone.

Safety, two points and a 9-7 win for Clairemont.

AND THIS ONE

Grossmont quarterback Tom  Karlo scored a touchdown with 13 seconds left to tie Santana, 13-13.

But the point after kick was blocked and Grossmont’s undefeated season now included a tie at 7-0-1.

CAN’T TOP THIS

Writer Ed Graney said it best:  “It was arguably the greatest single-game, high school performance that nobody saw.”

Fog blanketed the field at Torrey Pines High, but that didn’t stop (or maybe helped) La Jolla’s E.J. Watson, whose team held on for a 50-49, semifinal AA playoff victory over San Pasqual.

Watson rushed for an 11-man record of 369 yards in 22 carries, surprassing the 366 by Rancho Buena Vista’s Scott Garcia in 1988.

Watson tied a record with seven touchdowns on runs of 2, 15, 39, 48, 72, and 75 yards, and on a 92-yard kickoff return.  He also scored on a two point conversion, had a pass interception and a fumble recovery.

Watson’s 44 points broke the single-game high of 38 by Chula Vista’s Jim Baldwin in 1965.

What would Western League champions be without Watson, who lived in the Madison district but chose to attend the seaside school?

“At home turning in their gear and we’d be playing this week,” said San Pasqual coach Mike Dolan.

The Eagles had a chance to win the game after scoring a touchdown with 27 seconds left, but failed to convert a two-point conversion attempt.

La Jolla, coached by Dick Huddleston, a standout on Escondido’s 1960 championship squad, was beaten in the AA final, 29-7, by El Camino.

SEEDINGS UPROAR

The refrain is similar each year at playoff time when seedings are announced.

–“We got shafted; we really got shafted,” St. Augustine coach Joe Medina told writer Steve Brand.

The Saints, 6-3-1 winners of the Harbor League, drew 9-1 Western League runner-up University in the first round of the AA tournament.

“It would have e been better to lose the league,” said Medina.  “How else can you explain Santana (4-5-1) playing Escondido (5-5)?”

“Yes, the Harbor League is weak,” admitted Medina, “but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one good team in the whole league.”

University, a 28-0 winner over its Catholic rival in Week 4, eased into the second round with a 31-14 victory.

PAIRINGS PAIN HAINES

Dick Haines was okay with his top-seeded and 10-0 Vista drawing 4-6 Sweetwater in the first round. But Haines didn’t like being in the half of a bracket in which the Panthers could meet Morse (6-4) or Hilltop (8-2) in the quarterfinals.

“I don’t know what happened,  but I was supposed to  be on that committee…the league voted me in ,” said Haines of the playoff selectors, who met for more than two hours to fill the AAA and AA, 16-team brackets.

“I know this,” Haines told Brand, “the team we beat last night (Torrey Pines) has a better seed than we do.  That doesn’t make any sense.”

One season Haines didn’t show for the meeting and his team was not chosen.  The committee indicated that Haines, by his absence,  didn’t care if his team was invited.

Haines hollered that he didn’t think it was necessary to attend.

–When 6-3-1 Christian was left out despite having a better record than seven invited teams, the Patriots’ coach, Dale Peterson, threatened to “start a new 1-A league,” so that Christian would be treated with more respect

COPS & COPPER

Police were looking for a thief or thieves who stole electrical copper cables that created a lighting problem at Montgomery.

A least 1 ½ of six light banks did not work, because someone had broken a bolted electrical ground box and hauled off 200 feet of copper cable, valued at $2,000.

Buster Olney of The San Diego Union reported that the heist meant the Northeast section of the field would be in darkness by the fourth quarter or earlier of games.

Cable for all six light banks had been ripped off several months earlier, meaning a loss of about $27,000 to the Sweetwater Union School District.

“It’s not that bad; we have enough lights to play,” said Aztecs coach Steve Summers on the eve of a game with Moreno Valley Canyon Springs.

Canyon Springs saw the light, rolling over Monty, 40-0, as David Dotson scored five touchdowns and rushed for 396 yards.

Five weeks later, the days and visits of sunlight much shorter, the Aztecs switched their league game with San Diego Southwest to the Raiders’ field.  Montgomery won, 20-0.

NORSEMEN FIGHT AGAIN

Valhalla was banned from the playoffs and forfeited a victory over Las Vegas Cimarron for starting full contact drills a day early and being in pads two days early.

Section commissioner Kendall (Spider) Webb backed conference officials who dropped the hammer on the Norsemen, but Valhalla principal Robert Avant appealed to a three-person committee put in place by the CIF.

The committee, chaired by Escondido superintendent Jane Gawronski, let the forfeit stand but erased playoff penalties and made the Norsemen give up two days of practice this season and start two days later than other schools in 1992.

Valhalla, 3-4 at the time of the legislation, did not make the playoffs, finishing with a 3-7 record.  A new head coach would be in place in 1992.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Mike Fouts, nephew of the Chargers’ Hall of Fame quarterback, tossed a couple touchdown passes in Torrey Pines’ 18-13 win over Fallbrook after replacing the injured Tom Luginbill, son of the San Diego State coach.

John Allred caught one of the touchdown passes for the winner with 1:08 left in the game.

Allred’s dad played at the Univerity of Arizona and was a Santa Barbara High teammate of  longtime NFL coach Ernie Zampese.

John Allred later played at USC and was drafted in the second round by the NFL’s Chicago Bears

QUICK KICKS

Francis Parker’s Scott Schneider passed for a San Diego Section 8-man record of 504 yards and 8 touchdowns in a 67-21 victory over The Bishop’s… the game was called with four minutes to play…Bryn Spradling of Parker tied a CIF record with 4 touchdown receptions…Point Loma blanked Morse, 16-0, to clinch the Eastern League title and deal the Tigers their first shutout since 1986, a span of 59 games…El Camino quarterback Noel Prefontaine went on  to a legendary kicking career in the Canadian Football League…”It was 619 versus 213 and 619 won,” chortled Lincoln linebacker Michael Brown, citing area codes and not cities after the Hornets topped Los Angeles Dorsey, 12-6, at Mesa College…Akili Smith, transfer from Madison and a future No. 1 NFL draft choice by Cincinnati, quarterbacked the Hornets….

 

Fullback Eddie Silva, who passed away recently in San Diego, where he was born, was the leading scorer in the County in 1949 and Point Loma won a championship.

Silva and Marshall (Scooter) Malcolm were touchdown twins for coach Don Giddings’ squad, which posted a 9-1-1 record and rolled to the Southern California minor division championship.

Silva scored 13 touchdowns and 78 points in 11 games. Malcolm added 11 touchdowns as the Pointers raced through the Metropolitan League, stopping only for a 13-13 tie with rival La Jolla.

Point Loma then swept through the playoffs, defeating San Dieguito, 48-7, San Jacinto, 42-12, and Bonita, 27-13.  Silva scored 4 touchdowns in the three playoff games.

The Pointers’ only loss was 28-13 in the season opener to San Diego.  Silva scored one touchdown and passed to Malcolm  for the other in that game.

Silva scored twice as Point Loma beat Oceanside, 26-6, in its Metro League opening game and his 50-yard dash opened the scoring for the Pointers in a 47-7 win over Kearny.

After a 27-0 victory  over Coronado, Giddings spoke of his deep, talented team’s  two-platoon system: “Each player can concentrate his talent on either the offensive or defensive phase of his position. For this reason, twenty-two first-string players are twice as happy and fresh as eleven.”

Gene Earl of The San Diego Union offered an enthusiastic endorsement:

“The Pointer backfield of quarterback Jim Dible, backs Marshall Malcolm and Ed Perreira, and fullback Ed Silva, rolls like a well-oiled gyroscope, never a miss as they repeatedly reverse the pigskin three times from the single wing formation before stepping through the yawning holes opened by the Lomans’ forwards.”

Silva earned all-Metropolitan League and all-Southern California honors.