The Handyman set aside his tools when one job was finished and was preparing to use them in another.

Gene Edwards’s 29-year run as head coach at La Jolla ended with a 27-0 victory over Clairemont.

He was going to continue working for the school in a role best described as “facilities fixer-upper.” Gene had accepted a position upon retirement.

He would utilize his skills around the campus as a general handyman.

This was no extension of goodwill to keep Edwards occupied.

He had supervised and helped in the construction of his home in the La Jolla Muirlands and Edwards knew his way around a Skil saw.

Edwards’  playing and coaching career of more than 40 years on local gridirons began at San Diego High in 1945. Gene was an all-Coast League lineman  in 1946 and ’47 and played for San Diego Junior College, Oregon, and San Diego State.

Edwards began his coaching career at Brown Military Academy in 1954, followed by a stint at Mar Vista.  He moved to La Jolla in 1958, and succeeded Harry West in 1961.

The Vikings were 136-128-9 during Edwards’ tenure, with three league championships, six seconds, and 6 playoff appearances.  His 1980 team went to the 2-A finals, losing to Lincoln 39-22. Edwards also coached baseball, softball, golf, and wrestling.

Gene’s  best team may have been his first.  Led by quarterback Dan Berry, a future fifth-round draft choice of the NFL Philadelphia Eagles, and scatback Butch Taylor, the Vikings were 7-1, their best record since 1948, and they defeated San Diego 27-19.

The victory over the Cavers was La Jolla’s first  since 1951, a period in which Vikings’ losses to San Diego included blowouts of 57-0 in 1955 and 59-0 in 1958.

JEWEL CITY UPROAR

That the 1961 game was played at La Jolla on a Thursday night contributed to a curtailed coverage of the game. The San Diego Union sent a representative but the Evening Tribune did not.

A win over San Diego was considered very large in the Jewel City and afternoon newspaper-reading residents were outraged that the victory did not command front-page headlines.

The telephone rang off the hook in the La Jolla offices of newspaper publisher James Copley.  An edict soon came down from the fourth floor at the Union-Tribune building on Second Avenue in downtown San Diego.

Massive coverage, including a full picture page of game action, henceforth appeared in the Saturday Evening Tribune.  Prep followers everywhere were elated. The affable and respected Edwards had something to do with that.

Seven  months following his final game Gene passed away at age 60 from an apparent heart attack.  His cremains were scattered over the gridiron at the Vikings’ Scripps Field.

THUNDERING HERD, CONT.

The rapid rise of Rancho Buena Vista continued. The Longhorns’ 56-36 win over Point Loma in the 3-A semifinals almost boggled the imagination, virtually a weekly occurrence for coach Craig Bell’s team.

Rancho rushed for a stunning total of 596 yards before a standing-room-only crowd of more than 5,500 persons at Mira Mesa.

“Jeepers,” Pointers coach Bennie Edens groaned.  “They’re so versatile.  You stop them off tackle, they run the trap.  Take away the trap and they run the option.  Take away the option, they run something else.”

Bell apparently had seen enough of the passing game. Quarterback and future Los Angeles Dodgers manager “David” Roberts’ first attempt, on the fourth play of the team’s first possession,  was intercepted by Michael Driver and returned 56 yards for a touchdown.

Perhaps the Pointers should have allowed the Longhorns some receptions, to keep them off the ground. O.J. Hall rushed for 288 yards in 20 carries and scored three touchdowns.  Markeith Ross gained 218 yards in 18 carries and scored 4 touchdowns.

Almost as an afterthought, tailback James Lewis gained 76 yards in 4 carries and caught Roberts’ only other pass for a 30-yard gain.

“Their running attack rates with anything I’ve seen in high school,” said  Edens. “We scored enough points to beat most teams.  I wish I had an answer for how to stop ’em.  I don’t.”

POINTERS ALSO PRETTY GOOD

Point Loma defeated the Longhorns, 42-35, early in the season and also had an outstanding offense, with quarterback Danny White, who threw for more than 3,100 yards in an 8-5 season, most of the passes  to J.J. Stokes and Brett Callan.  Stokes later was a No. 1 NFL  draft choice of San Francisco out of UCLA.

Rancho’s O.J. ran like the more renown O.J. Simpson.FOGGY NOTION

Morse’s defense was more up to the task in the finals, but the Longhorns, making the jump from 2-A to 3-A, won their second straight title, 21-7.

As Steve Brand put it in The San Diego Union, some observers were saying the Morse-RBV final in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium was the best game they’d never seen. Seasonal fog rolled in, draping  a shroud on the field in the second half.

The 12,119 fans in attendance could only hear as the scoreboard operator, statisticians, and announcer walked the sidelines.

The fog brought back memories of San Diego Section title contests in 1974 and ’81, not to mention many games in the area’s prep history, including San Diego’s fog-delaying playoff loss at Fullerton in 1950.

EL CAMINO COMES UP SHORT

Coach Herb Meyer’s Wildcats presented just one player who rose above 6 feet, 1 inch, and went all the way down to 5-4 Joe Malek, their starting quarterback. “It’s the biggest  collection of midgets we’ve ever had,” said Meyer.

El Camino didn’t come up short on the field, posting a 13-1 record and taking out Lincoln 38-6 in the 2-A championship behind the 4 touchdowns by 5-6 running back Brian Madlangbayan.

Of a playoff run in which they outscored opponents 184-20, Meyer said:  “It’s scary to play this well.”

CALIFORNIA TIE-BREAKER

Deadlocked at  25, Lincoln and Grossmont went into overtime in the 2-A quarterfinals. Lincoln’s Charles Brown needed just two of his team’s allotted 4 plays to score from the 10-yard line under the California tie-breaker rule.

Grossmont sophomore Jason Eskridge, who rushed for 182 yards in 29 carries and blocked an extra-point kick, came up a half-foot short on fourth down.

Although the game went into the books  a tie, it still was a bitter “loss” for the Foothillers. Lincoln advanced.

The season ended with a 10-1-1 record for the Foothillers, who overcame a 12-point disadvantage at halftime and led 25-19 when they punted with two minutes remaining.

Lincoln’s Victor Dean fumbled the punt on his 25-yard line but recovered and took the ball 75 yards to tie the game. Dean repeated the following week in a 38-35 win over San Pasqual, returning a punt 77 yards with 32 seconds remaining in the game.

In another California tie-breaker Point Loma advanced over Orange Glen after a 28-28 standoff.  J.J. Stokes caught 79, 59, and 19-yard touchdown passes in regulation play and a 14-yard scoring pass in the tie-breaker, which was determined in the Lomans’ favor by Brett Callan’s 99-yard interception return.

HAINES ATTENDS SEEDING MEETING

Vista missed the playoffs in 1987, when coach Dick Haines did not make a presentation at the seeding meeting, an absence construed by some members of the selection committee as that the Panthers weren’t interested in participating.

Haines stormed and fussed but was one of the first  to arrive at the postseason parley this year, advocating for the 4-6 Panthers. Vista was awarded with a first-round game against No. 3 seed Chula Vista (9-0-1).

Sweetwater’s Andy Sanchez almost did not make the meeting.  His car broke down near the E Street on-ramp to Interstate 5 in Chula Vista. Fearing he’d be victimized by the “Dick Haines Rule,” (if your team is on the bubble and Sanchez’s was at 5-5, you’d better be there) Andy called his defensive coordinator, Dan Prager.

Prager picked up Sanchez and the pair rushed to the seeding site  “I thought, ‘Who’s going to believe this?'” said Sanchez.

PLAYOFFS EXPANDED

Seven losing teams  gained playoff berths as the tournament was expanded to 16 teams.

More teams did not make the process easier, according to committee member John Shacklett of Morse.  “This was much more difficult (than when 12 teams were given berths),” said Shacklett.

Not everyone was rejoicing.

“I think it stinks,” St. Augustine coach Marty Martin said of the pairings, “but you have to play them all anyway.”  The 6-4 Saints were matched in 2-A against Western League champion Kearny (9-1) and won their first-round game, 18-16.

“My opinion is that the playoffs are diluted,” University City’s Steve Vukojevich said of the expanded format.  “I personally think eight-team playoffs are better; it would produce a quality championship.”

Vukojevich told Steve Brand that “if I can’t finish in the top two (of the league) I think it would be a waste of time to participate, but I’d leave it up to the kids.  I don’t think 4-5 is a playoff record.”

The Centurions took their 4-5 eventual record into the 2-A eliminations and gave San Pasqual a test before losing, 27-23.

TRICKY DICK?

Chula Vista eliminated Vista in the playoffs 24-22 after some “Hainesmanship.”

On Monday, following the playoff meeting, Haines informed Chula Vista officials that he did not have head phones, which, according to high school rules, meant that Chula Vista also would have go without  communication from field to press box.

Haines called Chula Vista again later in the week and said that he was going to borrow communication equipment from Torrey Pines, where his son, Rik, is head coach. Then Haines called again, saying the agreement “fell through.”

Chula Vista assistant coach Gary Chapman was able to obtain headphones for the Panthers from nearby Castle Park.

Haines, burning the coaxial cables from North County to South, dialed Chula Vista again on the same day and informed the Spartans that he did not have enough white jerseys, the required color for visiting teams.

Haines wanted his squad in Vista red.

“We told him it didn’t matter if he put his team in junior varsity jerseys,” said Spartans coach George Ohnessorgen.  “We were wearing our home blues and he would have to find a way to dress his team in white.”

Haines told Chula Vista coaches before kickoff  that his borrowed headphones weren’t working.  It was soon determined that someone had unplugged the connection behind the Panthers’ bench.

“I’ve heard a lot of stories about Dick and I can’t blame him,” said Ohnessorgen.  “He was just playing a little cat and mouse.”

DOES HE SHAVE YET?

Not old enough to play varsity football, Rashaan Salaam had to wait until his 15th birthday, which came the week La Jolla Country Day played Francis Parker.

The 6-foot, 1-inch, 185-pound sophomore started the season on the Torreys’  junior varsity.  “But that was a joke,” said athletics director Patrick Murphy.  “He scored every time he got the ball.”

Salaam had 19 rushes for 216 yards, caught 5 passes for 98, and had three returns for 57—371 yards combined—and scored five touchdowns. ‘Day beat Parker, 48-30, for its first victory over the Lancers since 1985.

Salaam ran for 1,246 yards and scored 21 touchdowns in 6 games.

A lot more would be heard from Salaam, who would play in 11-man and 8-man games in the next two seasons.

NOT YET, ‘BAY

“I’d say it’s about time we beat them again,” said Mission Bay’s Dennis Pugh when the coach was informed that Kearny held an all-time advantage of 24-1 against the Buccaneers, whose only victory over the Komets was a 12-6 decision in 1958.

Timing was not on the Bucs’ side.  Willie Matson’s Komets won the Western League championship with a 20-10 triumph. Kearny profited by the transfer from Sumner High in St. Louis of junior Darnay Scott, who returned a kickoff 92 yards and caught a 10-yard pass for touchdown.

WILD WORLD OF 8-MAN

Julian defeated Midway Baptist 53-31.  The Eagles’ Eric Fredburg rushed for 455 yards in 19 carries and scored on runs of 76, 64, 53, 26, and 23 yards.  The listed San Diego Section 8-man rushing record was 286 by Borrego Springs’ David Glantz in 1984.

TRUE GRID

Rancho Buena Vista’s Dave Roberts, a future major league outfielder and manager who spent time as a player and coach for the San Diego Padres, never threw more than 4 passes in a game…his season totals were 21 attempts, 17 completions…David Dunn, the future head coach at Lincoln, was an all-CIF choice at Morse…Dunn was a fifth-round draft choice of the NFL Cincinnati Bengals in 1994 and played five seasons, catching 91 passes for 6 touchdowns and also serving as a kick returner for four teams…top top three teams in the decade of 1980-89 were Sweetwater (90-22-2), Lincoln (90-26-1), and Helix (89-22-5)…Rancho Buena Vista’s O.J. Hall and Markeith Ross each rushed for more than 2,000 yards and were named San Diego Section co-players of the year…no duo had ever achieved the yardage milestone in California…Mission Bay’s 9-3 record represented a school record for wins…the Bucs won 7 in 1954 (against a largely junior varsity schedule), 1958, 1973, and 1974…Holtville defeated Imperial 34-13 for the Mountain-Desert title, then beat the Tigers 42-7 the following week for the Section 1-A championship…”From Day I it was the only thing on our minds,” said Holtville coach Sam Faulk. “We were behind only once all season”…from the season’s seventh game through the first round of playoffs Lincoln outscored its opponents 171-0…things perked up at Calipatria, a winner of one game in two seasons and outscored 339-10 in 1988…the Hornets improved to 4-6…Lincoln’s Terrell Davis was a rare avis…the 6-1, 195-pounder was a fullback and played on the defensive line in football and was a quarter miler and shot putter in track, diversified skills, size and speed which contributed to a brilliant NFL career with the Denver Broncos…St. Augustine earned a playoff berth for the first time since 1970, and finished with its first winning season (7-5) since 1982 and second since 1973…3-year-old West Hills competed on the varsity level for the first time…Borrego Springs did not field a team….

January, 1958,  was  special  for Tom Shaules, for St. Augustine High, and for basketball in San Diego. That wintry month annually signals the anniversary of Shaules’  epic run through the City Prep League.

The 5-foot, 8-inch senior scored a record 60 points against Crawford, led the Saints in three games in which they scored more than 100, and created a buzz around North Park and throughout the County.

Friday night home games at St. Augustine meant get there early. The tiny Daugherty gymnasium between 32nd and Bancroft streets was built to accommodate about 500 persons.  Attendance would be double that, as long as the fire marshal wasn’t around.

On January 8, 1958, St. Augustine jumped to a 46-18 halftime lead over Crawford, an  out-manned first-year school.

Shaules had 27 points in the first two quarters.

Jerry Moriarty, the Saints’ coach,  turned  the second half over to Tom Carter, the varsity football mentor who also doubled as JV basketball coach.

Moriarty got into his automobile and drove a few miles East to Hoover to  scout the remainder of the Cardinals-San Diego game, both upcoming opponents for St. Augustine.

A very late-evening telephone call awakened Moriarty at home.  Someone, possibly Carter, was calling to say that Shaules finished the game with 60 points and that St. Augustine had won 102-38.

Shaules’ quarterly scoring output was 13, 14, 13, and 20.  Evening Tribune reporter Paul Cour wrote:  “The Saints’ sharpshooter scored 20 field goals on driving layins and his unorthodox jump shot from around the key.”

This in an era long before three-point shooting arc.

Shaules also made 20 of 21 free throw attempts, including 17 in a row.  The Saints led 76-24 after three quarters.

Carter sat Shaules for the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, according to Cour.

“Coach Moriarty wouldn’t have let me play that much,” said Shaules.  “He was embarrassed.  The next time we played Crawford I only played the first half.”

Shaules followed with 34 points to pass 1,000 in two seasons in a 71-57 victory over Kearny, then had 37 more in a 105-34 victory over La Jolla.

Next up was Lincoln.  Hornets coach Don Smith said he would not make any drastic defensive changes.

“Teams have two-timed Shaules; they’ve used a zone against him, and he still scores,” Smith told Cour.  “We’ll play the game like any other.  We think we can win the ball game.”

Shaules sniped the Hornets for 38 points in a 74-50 victory.

St. Augustine then  took a rest from City Prep League competition and defeated Arizona’s visiting Yuma High Criminals, 62-51, as Shaules scored 23 points.

St. Augustine finally was stopped, when Hoover scored a 55-48 victory and Shaules was held to 19 points in a slow, dreadful affair in which 48 personal fouls were called, 24 on each team.

After an earlier, 62-56 victory over San Diego, the Saints and Cavers met again.  San Diego High brought in bleachers to increase its gymnasium’s capacity from about 900 to 1,500.

A turnaway crowd of more than 1,600 (the entrance was closed an hour before tipoff) watched the Cavers, who would finish with a 23-2 record, score a 65-57 victory.  Shaules scored 27.

St. Augustine, in its first City League season, finished with a 20-6 record and tied for second with an 11-5 league standing. Shaules set the County scoring record with 735 points and a 28.3 average.

St. Augustine was not a basketball school. Shaules’ supporting cast essentially was Sammy Owens, a rugged forward and 15-point scorer known more as one of the City League’s best football running backs.  Alex Castro, a defensive specialist, was the  Saints’ other starting guard.

“Bill Whittaker (a playground mentor who went on to a long career as baseball coach at St. Augustine) taught me some things when I was 8 or 9 years old,” said Shaules, “but my idol was a guy named Robin Freeman.”

Shaules fashioned a jump shot  that, like  Freeman’s, had a reverse spin on the ball.  A 30-point scorer, Freeman was an all-America at Ohio State in the early ‘fifties, when Shaules was a student at Blessed Sacrament, the grammar school which also lists Bill Walton among its alumni.

His records have been broken but Shaules remains a San Diego hoops legend.

He was known as “Shotgun” Shaules during a successful career for Seattle University, then a powerful independent whose alums included future NBA Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor.

“I went with Elgin (on what could be termed as a recruiting visit) and the team back to Louisville for the NCAA finals when they played Kentucky,” Shaules remembered.

The NCAA would frown upon the practice today.

Shaules went into sales for the National Filter Company after college and finally was able to relocate to San Diego in 1998.  A widower with three grown children, Tom resides in the Chula Vista suburb of Eastlake.

 

The UT-San Diego boys’ basketball ratings deadline came a few hours early yesterday.  Disaster struck a little later for the No. 1,  and No. 5 teams.

Cathedral Catholic was stunned by No. 6 Army-Navy, 67-61, as 7-foot, 1-inch Cheikh (Chay) Ndiaye (En-die) dominated the shorter but quick Dons with a 25-rebound-22-point-10-blocked-shots performance in the Martin Luther King Showcase at Hoover.

Hoover, No. 5, was shocked by Horizon, 91-90, in overtime.

More upheaval is possible Thursday night at Point Loma Nazarene University, where No. 1 Cathedral and No. 2 St. Augustine collide.

First place votes in parenthesis.

Place	Team	Record	Points	Last Week
1	Cathedral Catholic (13)	17-2	130	1
2	St. Augustine	13-3	106	3
3	La Costa Canyon	15-3	97	5
4	El Camino	17-2	85	6
5	Hoover	18-4	79	2
6	Army-Navy	15-4	63	4
7	Mission Hills	16-3	56	7
8	San Ysidro	15-5	34	8
8	San Marcos	18-3	34	9
10	Torrey Pines	11-7	6	NR

Others receiving votes: Westview, 14-5 (5); Morse, 17-5 (5); Francis Parker, 10-5 (4); Santa Fe Christian, 111-5 (1); Helix, 13-5 (1).

Scott Webb and Jim Arnaiz weren’t joined at the hip.  It was more like at the leg.

Together three varsity seasons at Helix High, they would be inducted together into the school’s  Hall of Fame  in 2005.

Webb quarterbacked the Arnaiz-coached  Highlanders to a 12-1 season and the San Diego Section AAA championship in 1982.

The championship in Webb’s only season as a starter  was not necessarily more than what he accomplished as a sophomore and junior, seasons in which Webb may have gotten into the game for a dozen or so plays as Jim Plum’s backup.

While Plum set passing records, Webb made his way into the record book and took on a national profile as the best high school placekicker, ever.

He also was the Highlanders kicker as a senior, concluding his career with 207 points after touchdowns and 29 field goals.

Cincinnati Bengals coach Paul Brown was so distrustful of placekickers that Brown turned his back at the snap of the ball when one particular specialist attempted a field goal.

The Helix coach did not suffer from such anxiety.

Grossmont League opponents believed that touchdowns counted for six points at every school but Helix.  “For us, it’s seven points because of Scott Webb,” Arnaiz said in an interview with The San Diego Union’s Steve Brand.

“It’s a comforting feeling knowing he’s there,” Arnaiz told Brand.  “He becomes a real weapon in close games.”

“(The pressure of) kicking never affected Scott,” said Arnaiz.  “He was an outstanding kicker as a young kid, plus he was a three-sport athlete (football, basketball, baseball) and a good golfer.”

In a 29-0 victory over Granite Hills, Webb did something normally seen only in NFL games.  He kicked field goals of 37, 37, 37, 39, and 49 yards for a national prep record and added two extra points for a total of 17.

120X123

Webb kicked 120 points after touchdown.  He booted 33 in a row as a sophomore before missing a meaningless conversion in the 1980 Section championship game, then made  45 of 46 attempts as a junior and  42 of 43 in 1982.

“Scott has received most of his notoriety as a kicker,  but the thing we’re so pleased about is his complete development as an athlete,” the coach said in another interview.  “(Before) I think he sort of felt like he was on the fringe because he only kicked.”

Arnaiz won 213 games in his 28-season career, which spanned from 1973-99.  After an 11-20 start from ’72-’75, followed by a 4-4 season in 1976, Arnaiz’ program kicked into high  gear.

The former Cal Poly-Pomona athlete, who grew up in the Imperial Valley and played four sports at Imperial High,  posted a 200-58-15 record and .781  winning percentage in his last 21 seasons.

With Webb kicking and eventually playing quarterback, the Scots enjoyed a 34-4 run in 1980 (12-0), ’81 (10-3), and ’82 (12-1).

Many of Webb’s San Diego Section kicking records would be broken. Inflated scoring and Webb-inspired  kickers  pushed others in front, but Webb remained near the top in several categories.

Arnaiz would line up Scott against all of them.

 

 

 

Morse’s 31-28 victory over Orange Glen in the 3-A finals ranks among the most exciting of all San Diego Section championship games.

And that game followed Rancho Buena Vista’s 21-10, 2-A victory over San Pasqual, climaxing Rancho’s meteoric rise in the school’s second season.

Long runs, NFL-style passing, and  two of the County’s all-time coaches, David Lay of Orange Glen (12-0) and John Shacklett of Morse (10-2) competing against each other, made this a game to remember for the crowd of 12,611.

A quick bow to “Cowboy” Ken  Maynard.

Not to the 1930’s Western movie shoot-’em-up hero but to  the coach with the same name  who was Lay’s and Shacklett’s  mentor when the two offensive linemen played at Grossmont in 1956.

In 13 seasons at Sweetwater and Orange Glen, Lay posted a record of 102-34-5. Shacklett was 229-118-9 in 31 seasons at Morse and was in the middle of a three-year,  36-5 run centered around  Teddy Lawrence, who burst on the scene in this game.

Sophomore Lawrence knew no fear.

He intercepted Cree Morris’ pass deep in the Morse end zone, hesitated a moment, then took off on a record, 106-yard return with 2:30 remaining in the first half.

Awhile later, with halftime nearing, Lawrence stood in punt formation, saw something he liked on the right side of the defense and took off on a 54-yard touchdown run, the first half ending as he sped to the end zone.

BEST PLAYERS SHOW UP

Shacklett:  “They threw the ball so well with (Cree) Morris and that receiver (Jake) Nyberg. We played zone, not wanting to get beat, but down around the twenty we’d go man-to-man.

“The thing I remember most about Teddy’ interception is that all of the best players on the field were in about a 10-yard circle on that play. Ty Morrison pressured Morris and Darrell Lewis hit Nyberg as Nyberg was coming across.  Teddy had an open field.”

Shacklett quizzed Lawrence as he set up to punt as the half was ending.  “I said, ‘What are you looking at if the defensive end comes in to block the kick?'”

“It was a high snap,” Lawrence explained to Steve Brand of The San Diego Union.  “I saw number 2 (Lenny McGill) coming in at me and I faked outside.  I got a great block from Jimmie Rose and was gone.”

Brand’s game account noted that Jessie Campbell’s 54-yard touchdown run and German Puentes’ 38-yard field goal for a 31-13 fourth-quarter lead “all but broke Orange Glen’s back.”

But Morris, who completed 17 of 31 passes for 325 yards and three touchdowns, and Nyberg, who caught 12 for 207 and two TD’s, kept the Patriots coming.

Two touchdown passes by Morris and a late drive positioned Orange Glen at Morse’s 20. Three incomplete passes  left the North County squad still 20 yards away. Lay called for a game-tying field goal but Shannon Vinje’s 37-yard attempt was wide left.

“I just felt at fourth-and-10, you haven’t made it in three plays, you might as well get part of the championship,” Lay told Brand.

“We could have put twenty guys on Nyberg and he still would have caught all those passes,” said Shacklett. “The guy is amazing.”

So was Lawrence. “Teddy was a great player and great athlete, certainly our best quarterback,” said Shacklett, when asked to compare  Lawrence to the dozens of outstanding players he coached through the years.

Lawrence did not want to be a quarterback when he turned out for spring practice after his sophomore season, Shacklett remembered. “Teddy said he wanted to be a wide receiver;  I told him we didn’t have anyone who could throw the ball.”

The coach knew he wanted this 160-pound bundle of energy handling the ball on every play.

The play on words certainly was not original.

Roger Conlee and I referred to Bob Speidel as “The Watchman”, in reference to his last name and to the company that made millions of timepiece wrist bands.

But Speidel was in the forefront of basketball coaches in the early years of the San Diego Section.  He guided Helix to championships  in  1964 and 1966 in the pre-Bill Walton era.  A basketball lifer, Speidel had several other stops along the way and never left the game.

According to Bill Dickens of U-T-San Diego, Speidel  most recently was a San Diego State season ticket holder with friend and former Monte Vista and Grossmont College coach Felix Rogers.

Speidel passed away on Jan. 6, 2013, at age 80 from complications of lung cancer.  “What is really strange is that he never smoked a day in his life,” Rogers told Bill Dickens.

I was a prep writer for the Evening Tribune in 1964 when Helix  took on La Jolla for the San Diego Section title.  It was the first finals matchup between  city and  county squads. Hoover won in 1961 and ’62 against city opponents and Crawford defeated a city opponent in 1963.

La Jolla had been extended in a 78-70 semifinals win over Lincoln the night before and Helix had struggled but eliminated Chula Vista, 49-43.

La Jolla was 29-0 and featured a pressing defense and up-tempo offense that had run off  30 straight victories dating to the 1962-63 season.  Helix was taller and, at 25-3, a formidable opponent but slight underdog.

With 6-6 Al Skalecky, 6-3 Jim Sunderman, and 6-1 Ron Slocum in the front line (Slocum was injured early in the game and replaced by Larry Bailey), the Highlanders were taller but  not as quick as the Vikings’ 6-3 Rick Eveleth, 6-1 Bill Canning, and 5-10 Charlie Buchanan.

Helix turned the game into a 76-56 rout with a 15-2 run in the second quarter before about 3,300 persons at Cal Western University’s Golden Gym.

“Our strategy was to run on their press and get the ball downcourt,” said Speidel.  “We got off a lot of shots without setting up.

“I knew we had a size advantage,”  Speidel added, not expecting the Highlanders’ 46-22 advantage in rebounds.

“I’ve seen Helix three or four times and they never played that well,” said the stunned La Jolla coach, Bill Reeves.

Two seasons later, led by John Skalecky, John Ugrin, and Rick Barnes, Speidel’s Helix squad defeated Chula Vista 51-41.

“Bob and I co-owned a mountain cabin near Julian in the ‘seventies and ‘eighties,” said my Evening Tribune colleague and Helix graduate Roger Conlee.

“We spent some good times there around a blazing fire talking–what else?–basketball,” said Conlee.  “He loved the game and was a great student of the game.”

CATHEDRAL UNANIMOUS NO. 1

U-T Sportswriters-Sportscasters poll
First-place votes in parenthesis

Place	Team	Record	Points	Last Week
1	Cathedral Catholic (13)	16-2	130	1
2	Hoover	17-3	102	3
3	St. Augustine	11-3	99	3
4	Army-Navy Academy	14-3	90	4
5	La Costa Canyon	13-3	80	5
6	El Camino	15-2	71	6
7	Mission Hills	14-3	46	7
8	San Ysidro	13-5	30	T10
9	San Marcos	16-3	23	NR
10	Westview	13-4	15	9
10	Torrey Pines	9-4	20	10