Even a truncated season with no playoffs and play restricted to league games will be cause for rejoicing, it says here.
The state CIF is scheduled to make a decision July 20 on whether there will be games in the fall.
Meanwhile, coaches and players wait.
Active top 10 in career victories:
NAME
YEARS
W-L-T
PCT
Rob Gilster
1989-2019 (31)
230-129-5
.639
Ron Hamamoto
1985-2019 (34*)
228-159-4
.588
Sean Doyle
1996-2019 (24#)
204-94
.685
Matt Oliver
Christian (20)
172-73-3
.700
Chris Hauser
2000-2019 (20*)
168-74-2
.693
Mike Hastings
1998-2019 (22)
148-105
.584
Rick Jackson
2004-2019 (16)
141-49-1
.741
Tom Karlo
Grossmont (15*)
108-65-2
.623
Joel Allen
The Bishop’s (11)
100-35-1
.739
Damon Baldwin
Ramona (15)
100-69-1
.591
*Coached at multiple schools (use Football/Coach 100 Club menu to see a complete list of coaches with at least 100 career victories and their schools).
#When Doyle became coach in 1996 school was known as University of San Diego High, and became Cathedral Catholic at a new campus in Carmel Valley in 2005.
TRY TO TOP THIS
Point Loma has had three head coaches in the last 75 seasons.
Don Giddings, later the school principal and the first principal at Patrick Henry, was 52-23-3 from 1946-54. Bennie Edens was 238-173-17 from 1955-97, and Mike Hastings is 148-115 since 1998.
QUICK KICKS
Jack Mashin was the first coach to win 100 games, when Grossmont defeated Oceanside, 21-6, in game 6 of the 1941 season… El Camino’s Mike Hobbs coached a San Diego Section record and maybe coached or tied a state record… Hobbs’ team
posted a 9-7 record in 2019…the 16 games played in one season have never been equaled in this area…other teams from San Diego played 15 games in the previous decade, but El Camino went one step further when it did not have a first-week bye and was forced to play four San Diego section playoff games before entering the state playoffs…after a 4-6 regular season, the Wildcats caught fire and won five in a row before bowing at Santa Rosa Cardinal Newman, 31-13, in the state III-AA championship game….
2020: Veteran Coaches Move On, Others Move Up
Address changes and new names represent most of the news-making activity these days in the San Diego Section as it pushes on to a critical date and still looking for light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.
The state CIF is scheduled to make a decision later in July on the 2020 future of football in California, but steps here were taken over the spring to position the men who will lead.
Nine new coaching assignments have been announced, including those for five veteran mentors who have moved on to other schools, according to prep writing honcho John Maffei of The San Diego Union and Max Preps.
NAME
NEW SCHOOL
PREVIOUS SCHOOL
REPLACED
Tyler Arciaga
Bonita Vista
Mar Vista
Sam Kirkland III
Jason Texler
Eastlake
San Marcos
John McFadden
Bryan Wagner
Hilltop
Sweetwater
Drew Westling
Will Gray
Hoover
Kearny
Zach Shapiro
Curtis Mays
Mar Vista
Tyler Arciaga
Kyle Williams
Poway
Westview
Scott Coats
Shane Graham
Rancho Buena Vista
Joe Meyer
Ervin Hernandez
Sweetwater
Bryan Wagner
Jason French
Westview
Kyle Williams
Kearny has not announced a replacement for Will Gray, who had a won-loss record of 34-25 from 2015-19.
Jason Texler has coached in the North and East County and now moves south to a strong program at Eastlake, succeeding John McFadden, who was 135-50-4 in 16 seasons.
Texler is 79-58-1 in 12 seasons over 16 years. He was 18-16 at El Cajon Valley from 2004-06, 5-15-1 at Escondido in 2010-11, and 56-27 at San Marcos from 2012-18.
Texler was an assistant on McFadden’s staff in 2019 and is a classroom teacher at the Chula Vista school.
Arciaga was 41-34 from 2013-19 at Mar Vista and comes from a coaching family. His father Bob Arciaga, was head coach at San Diego Southwest from 1978-80.
Wagner moves from Sweetwater to his alma mater, Hilltop, where he tied a County field-goal record of 53 yards in 1978 and eventually was a punter for nine seasons in the NFL, including 1994 with the San Diego Chargers.
Williams served at Westview since 2016.
1951 Baseball & Track: Two Sports, Almost Two Champions
Grossmont was the champion in baseball. San Diego High was the champion in track and field…for three days.
San Diego lost a title after a review of film from the 440-yard race in the Southern Section finals revealed that Hal Espy had finished fifth and not fourth, taking away a point from the Cavemen and awarding the team championship to Glendale Hoover, Glendale, and Compton.
The winners tied with 15 points each, edging the stunned Cavers, who had 14 ½.
BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Grossmont, picked below San Diego and La Jolla in early-season City Prep League forecasts and a non-factor in previous races in the Coast League, rode the strong arms of its pitching staff, headed by left-hander Ray Preston, to win the Southern Section title.
Splitting the sports with regular and italics typefaces:
San Diego High was Southern Section power, led by head coach Bill Patten (left in front row) and assistant William (Red) Burrows.
3/5/51
Clyde Wetter, his eye on Hal Norris’ 1950 school record of 58-2 1/2, took the Southern California lead in the 12-pound shot when he reached 56 feet, 4 ¾ inches, in a 66-38, dual meet win over visiting Sweetwater.
3/8/51
San Diego and La Jolla tied for first in the City Prep League Relays in Balboa Stadium, each with 51 ½ points, followed by Grossmont with 45.
All marks were combined. Distances were cumulative. Teams could enter three in each event and their performances were combined.
An individual record was set when San Diego’s Hal Espy ran the 100-yard dash in :10.0.
3/9/51
San Diego Lions Club announced it was sponsoring a three-day, first annual baseball tournament of sixteen teams, including outside teams Anaheim, Brawley, El Monte, and Norwalk Excelsior.
San Diego and La Jolla were seeded No. 1 and No. 2, followed by Excelsior and El Monte.
Metropolitan League boss Joe Rindone, principal at Chula Vista, announced a double-round robin baseball schedule, highlighted by the annual carnival April 27 at Lane Field.
John Green was named coach at Sweetwater, replacing Bruce Clarke, called to active duty by the Marine Corps in response to the war in Korea.
Other new Metro coaches included Bob Ganger at Mar Vista and John MacDonald at Oceanside. Bill Duncan returned at Escondido and Chet DeVore at Chula Vista. Coronado did not field a team.
3/11/51
Coronado was awaiting the results of its “telegraphic” track meet with Balboa High of the Panama Canal Zone.
3/14/51
Clyde Wetter took the national lead in the shot put at 58 feet, 3/8 inches, as Grossmont outscored Kearny, 73-31.
Wetter took his place among outstanding Grossmont shot putters.
“A shot putter relies on the wrist snap for great power and distance,” the 5-foot, 8-inch, 180-pound Wetter told Gene Earl of The San Diego Union, “but strong fingers are just as important, to keep the ball from slipping while being released.”
Wetter revealed that part of his exercise regimen is standing several feet from a wall and falling against it with all fingers extended and kept straight to prevent flex.
–San Diego won an early City League dual-meet showdown against La Jolla, 61 2/3-42 1/3.
The Vikings’ Joe Epps and San Diego’s Hal Espy were double winners in the 120-yard high hurdles and 180 low hurdles and 100 and 440-yard races, respectively.
Espy also anchored the Cavers to a 1:32.4 victory in the 880-yard relay and Frank Johnson won the broad jump at 22-6.
–Lincoln Lucero set a Point Loma record of :20.3 in the 180 lows, but Hoover won, 53 1/3-50 2/3.
3/16/51
San Diego and La Jolla made the Lions seeding committee look good by reaching the championship game, the Cavers 22-1 over Oceanside and 6-3 over El Monte.
La Jolla advanced, 5-4 over Escondido and 3-2 over Grossmont.
Doug Hubacek’s 3-run homer in the last of the seventh inning ousted El Monte and Tom Tomaiko scored on Bill Whitson’s single in the 10th inning to top Grossmont.
3/17/51
San Diego outscored Long Beach Poly, 32 4/15 to 29, to win the large-school team championship for the third consecutive year in the 30th Southern Counties’ Invitational at Huntington Beach.
Newport Harbor won the small schools division with 30 points, followed by Covina (24) and Kearny (21 3/5).
Several running events in the crowded field included two heats.
–Walter (Red) Taylor won his heat in the 100 in :10.2, followed by Hal Espy, who also anchored the San Diego 880-yard relay squad to victory in one of three races.
–Clyde Wetter broke Hal Norris’ meet record (56-3/4) with a 57-9 ¾ effort, almost 7 feet further than Ontario Chaffey’s Don Vick, who would set a national record in 1953.
–John Rushing of Kearny won the 180 lows in :19.7 and La Jolla’s Joe Epps took a heat in the 440 in :52.
–Don Hydrick of Chula won a division of the pole vault at 12-3.
La Jolla’s Bill Whitson was tournament most-valuable player as the Vikings defeated San Diego, 5-3, for the Lions title at Lane Field.
Whitson struck out 10, walked one, allowed five hits, and profited from three double plays.
Kearny won the consolation bracket, 19-0, over St. Augustine in the morning championship at San Diego High.
Grossmont pitching was in good hands with (from left) Noel Mickelson, Fred Wilburn, and Ray Preston.
3/18/51
Because of a San Diego City League ruling that no school could compete or practice during the Easter week, there would be no teams in the upcoming, Pomona 20-30 Club tournament, which San Diego High had won 7 times in the event’s 16-season- history.
Escondido would be the County’s lone representative.
3/28/51
Oceanside won seven of 12 events and Bob Penrod took the 100 in :10.1 and set a school record of :22 seconds in the 220, but Chula Vista claimed the Metropolitan League dual, 55-49.
3/30/51
John Rushing of Kearny ignored blustery weather and won three events and anchored the relay team to victory in the meet’s final event as the Komets edged Point Loma, 54-49.
The 1:35.4 victory in the two-lap exchange of batons broke a 49-49 tie. Rushing also won the 100 in :10.4, 180 lows in :20.6, and broad Jump at 21-2 ½.
Bill Whitson struck out 16 and didn’t allow a hit and La Jolla won its CPL opener, 11-0, over Point Loma.
Pointers base runners were by a walk and two errors.
–Charlie Powell hit a 400-foot home run and Eddie Boyle doubled in two runs in the sixth inning as San Diego topped Kearny, 5-4.
San Diego sophomore Bob Borovicka came on in the sixth and struck out 10 of the 15 batters he faced, allowed three hits and two walks, and tagged out a Kearny runner at the plate for the final out of the game.
Hoover’s Ed Rodgers was the third City Prep League shot putter in 1951 to surpass 50 feet, reaching 51-3 1/2 in dual meet with Point Loma.
4/3/51
Kearny beat La Jolla, 5-4, but the Vikings’ Bill Whitson, in a three-inning relief appearance, faced the minimum 9 batters and struck out 5.
–Grossmont outscored San Diego, 7-2, in what was inaccurately described as an upset.
Grossmont coach John Hancock’s signature pitcher, Ray Preston, set down the Hillers on seven hits and drove in a run with a third-inning single.
Grossmont (4-0) was pulling away in the CPL baseball race, routing challenger Kearny (2-2), 14-4.
Ray Preston, the Foothillers’ pitching ace, moved over to first base and collected four hits, including two home runs, a double and single.
4/14/51
Grossmont walloped La Jolla, 11-0, as Ray Preston struck out 18 and allowed two singles to Vikings shortstop Art Luppino.
The Foothillers finished the first half of the CPL race with a 5-0 record. San Diego was 4-1 and Lions tournament champion La Jolla was 1-4.
–La Jolla’s Joe Epps and Bill Lawrence posted CPL season highs in the Vikings’ 67-37 win over Point Loma. Epps cleared the 120 high hurdles in :15.0 and Lawrence traversed the mile in 4:46.6.
–John Parker led the way with a 22-6 broad jump and San Diego teammates Alex Hudson and Frank Johnson also spanned at least 22 feet in an 87-16 win over Kearny.
–Kearny high jumper Danny Bain became the first in the City League to clear 6 feet.
City Prep League 180-yard low hurdlers (from left) Bob McWilliams, Hoover; Jim Cole, San Diego; Gaylord Watson, Grossmont; Lincoln Lucero, Point Loma; Joe Ypma, La Jolla, and John Van Hooser, Hoover, turn for home in Balboa Stadium trials. Lucero won finals later in week in :20.9.
4/20/51
Sweetwater claimed the Metropolitan League dual meet championship, 66 ½-37 ½, at Chula Vista.
The Red Devils won 9 of 11 events and John Palhegyi tied a school record of :22.2 in the 220 on the Chula Vista straightaway.
–No score was reported, only that San Diego topped Point Loma for a 5-0 dual meet record.
–Coach Bill Patten’s Cavers had won 22 consecutive dual meets, dating to a 57-47 loss to Grossmont in the opening dual of the 1948 season.
4/20/51
Art Webber of La Jolla no-hit Point Loma, 6-2, overcoming seven bases on balls and four Vikings errors.
4/24/51
Grossmont closed in on the CPL baseball title, 5-0, at San Diego. The Foothillers were 7-0, Cavemen 5-2.
4/27/51
San Diego, as expected, cruised to the City Prep League team championship with 73 ½ points, followed by Grossmont (34 3/4) and La Jolla (33 ½) before about 1,000 persons in Balboa Stadium.
–Joe Epps of La Jolla was a double winner in the high hurdles (:15.3) and 440 (:52).
–San Diego finished 1-2-3 in the broad jump, led by Alex Hudson’s 21-10 ½.
–Clyde Wetter won the shot put at 57- ¾, but had some competition from San Diego’s dual-sport star Charlie Powell, second at 55-11 ¾, which was better than the 1948 school record of 55-2 1/4 by Bob Van Doren.
–Bernie Nelson, a Class B performer at Hoover, took the area lead in the high jump when he cleared 6-1 13/16.
A crowd of 2,000 attended the Metro League carnival at Lane Field and saw San Dieguito, Oceanside, and Sweetwater emerge as winners. .
–Teams played three innings each. Mar Vista, Escondido, and Chula Vista were losers.
–Sweetwater’s Dick Walker pitched two hitless innings, and struck out five as the Red Devils beat Chula Vista, 1-0 in the final three innings.
–San Dieguito, borrowed from the Southern Prep League, was a 4-0 winner over Mar Vista and Oceanside beat Escondido, 4-3
Charlie Powell slugged in baseball and hurled the shot in track.
4/28/51
Postponed twice, the Metropolitan loop trials at Chula Vista were dominated by Sweetwater with 17 qualifiers, followed by Escondido, 12, and Chula Vista, 9.
–The weather again was cold and blustery but did not hinder Mar Vista hurdler John Poole, who ran :15.3 in the 120 highs. Dave Binney of Chula Vista recorded a 4:45.6 mile.
4/30/51
San Dieguito ran away with the Southern Prep League title with 103 ½ points, but Bob Knapp of Army-Navy set the only meet record with a 49-foot shot put.
5/1/51
Sweetwater won five events and scored 56 ½ points to win the Metropolitan championship. Chula Vista was second with 31 ½, followed by Escondido, 29.
Sweetwater’s Jim Seebold won the 440 in :53.4 and was second in the 100. Teammate Ted Granger was first in the 180 low hurdles (:21) and second to Mar Vista’s John Poole, who won the high hurdles in :15.3.
Oceanside’s Bob Penrod doubled in the sprints with a :10.4 100 and :22.4 220.
No meet records were broken but Sweetwater set a school record with its 1:34.4 victory in the 880 relay and Chula Vista’s Don Hydrick cleared 12-5 1/8 in the pole vault.
5/4/51
Ray Preston pitched a 3-1 victory over La Jolla as Grossmont (8-0) clinched the CPL title..
San Diego dropped a 10-inning, 4-3 decision to Hoover on Dick Pomeroy’s single after the Hillers’ Carl Lutz tied the score in the ninth with a two-run home run.
5/5/51
John Parker broad jumped 23-9½ to take the state lead and break Bob Logan’s 1938 school record of 23-6 3/4 as San Diego High led with 11 qualifiers at the Huntington Beach divisional meet.
Three-hundred athletes competed from San Diego’s three leagues, City, Metro, and Southern Prep, along with qualifiers from the Orange and Sunset circuits.
Hal Espy doubled with wins in the 100 (:10) and 440 (:51.9). Haldon Grey and Walter Taylor were disqualified for false starts in the 100 and the relay team was bumped for a lane violation. Grey recovered to win his heat in :22 in the 220.
–Oceanside’s Bob Penrod won a 220 heat in:22.1 and John Rushing of Kearny doubled in the Class B hurdles with times of :09.1 in the 70-yard highs and :13.1 in 120 lows.
–Forty-eight of the 108 San Diego County entries from league finals qualified to move on to the divisional semifinals at Ontario Chaffey.
5/8/51
Ray Preston struck out 19 batters and didn’t allow a hit in a 21-0 rout of Point Loma. The Foothillers were 9-1 in league play, San Diego 7-3.
–This was the 35th and final season the Cavers played home games in Balboa Stadium. They would move to the upper practice field north of the Stadium in 1952.
–Chula Vista shut out Sweetwater, 8-0, as Chuck Phinney pitched a no-hitter. Escondido claimed the Metro championship with a 5-2 record.
5/12/51
Twenty-two athletes from San Diego’s 3 leagues qualified in semifinals at Chaffey.
San Diego led with six advancers in three events. Hal Espy won his heat in the 440 in :50.4, off the school record of :49.3 by Norman Stocks in 1946 but unofficially the fifth fastest in area history.
More significant was Clyde Wetter’s losing his first competition of the season, beaten by the Cavers’ Charlie Powell, who had turned in his baseball uniform only four days earlier.
Powell’s winning toss was 56-3 to Wetter’s 56 feet.
5/19/51
San Diego thought it had won the team championship with 15 ½ points. Glendale Hoover, Glendale, and Compton had 15 each.
The Cavers scored their points early and held on.
John Parker won the broad jump at 23-3, followed by Compton’s Rollin Garrison, 23-2 ¼, and Parker’s teammates, Frank Johnson, third at 22-1 ¾ and Alex Hudson, tied for fourth at 22-1. When Espy was awarded fourth in the 440 more than half the meet remained.
–Wetter won the shot put with a school-record 58-4 7/8 and Powell was runner-up with 57-9 ¼.
–Others included Joe Epps of La Jolla, fourth in the 120 high hurdles; Bob Penrod of Oceanside 4th in the 220, and Don Hydrick, Chula Vista, tied for fifth in the pole vault vault at 12 feet.
–Kearny’s John Rushing tied the Class B record of :08.9 in the 70 hurdles and won the 120 lows in :13.2.
Grossmont opened the Southern Section playoffs with a 5-2 win at Santa Ana. Ray Preston stopped the Saints on 3 hits and 14 strikeouts to improve his record to 8-0. Preston also singled, doubled twice, and hit a home run.
5/23/51
Grossmont won its semifinal playoff versus visiting El Monte, 9-4, as Preston allowed five hits and struck out seven and his battery mate, Bob Rand, and Bill Harris homered.
5/25/51
Escondido, having beaten Wildomar Elsinore and Holtville, was three outs away from the Southern Section minor division crown, leading 6-4, but bowed to Bonita, 7-6, at Fullerton.
5/26/51
Clyde Wetter was second to Leon Patterson of Taft with a best of 57-8 ½ to Patterson’s 59-2 ½ in the state meet in Berkeley. Charlie Powell was fourth in the shot put at 54-7 ½ and John Parker fifth in the broad jump at 21-4 1/4.
5/26/51
Ray Preston (10-0) struck out 16 and allowed 2 hits as Grossmont won the Southern Section major division, 5-0, over Compton, before about 1,000 persons at Lane Field.
Preston, finishing his season with a 10-0 record, beat future major leaguer Benny Daniels, who struck out eight and walked eight.
The Foothillers’ Bill Harris, 2 for 3, and sophomore Ernie Merk, 2 for 4, backed Preston.
STRIKES AND SPIKES
San Diego sprinter Hal Espy entered the Air Force after graduation and then enrolled at Idaho State, where he became a national collegiate boxing champion…Point Loma’s coach was Bennie Edens, later one of the County’s all-time winningest football mentors…Metropolitan League principals, at a meeting at Coronado, announced that ticket prices for football and basketball in the 1951-52 school year, would be increased to 80 cents for adults, while students still would pay 30 cents…Jim Hunt was an all-around contributor at Hoover, scoring in the high jump, 880-yard run, and hurdles…his son, Thom, was one of the nation’s top milers a generation later at Patrick Henry…shot putter Clyde Wetter was one of five brothers and two sisters of a La Mesa family whose father was a grocery store butcher…Ray Preston and Bob Rand were all-Southern California first-team selections….
1915-2020: Boys State Track and Field Champions
They didn’t necessarily post the all-time San Diego County best in their event, or even their best, but 62 individuals have won 80 state track championships since the first meet in 1915.
Pole Vaulter Bill Miller of San Diego, jumper Dokie Wiliams of El Camino, and weight specialist Darius Savage of Morse stand out as triple winners.
Miller took his titles in 1927, ’28, and ’29. Williams won the triple jump in 1977 and ’78 and the long jump in 1978. Savage won the shot put in 2006 and the discus in 2005 and ’06.
There have been numerous double winners, the most recent being Madison’s Kenon Christon, who won both sprints in 2019.
A father-son combination was Clairemont’s Dale Fleet, who won the two-mile in 1972. Mac of University City won the mile in 2009.
There has been one brother-sister combination. Kristin Fahy of La Costa Canyon won the 3200-meter run in 2019. Darren Fahy took the 1600 meters in 2012.
Champions:
EVENT
YEAR
NAME
SCHOOL
MARK
100 yards
1929
Jimmy Willson
San Diego
:09.8
1973
Elijah Jefferson
Crawford
:09.6w
1974
Jefferson
:09.8
1977
David Russell
Parrick Henry
:09.61
100 meters
1992
Riley Washington
Southwest
:10.30
2019
Kenon Christon
Madison
:10.30
220 yards
1929
Willson
:21.4
1941
Glenn Willis
San Diego
:21.7
1977
Russell
:20.97w
200 meters
2019
Christon
:20.69
440 yards
1929
Irvine (Cotton) Warburton
San Diego
:49.6
1946
Norman Stocks
San Diego
:49.3
1979
Tony Banks
Morse
:47.28
880 yards
1957
Jim Cerveny
Mission Bay
1:52.7
1964
Bob Hose
Madison
1:51.7
1966
Terry Rogers
Hilltop
1:51.5
800 meters
1988
Mark Senior
Mount Miguel
1:51.37
2008
Charles Jock
Mission Bay
1:51.64
2012
Alexander Monsivaiz
Army-Navy
1:51.34
One Mile
1965
Tim Danielson
Chula Vista
4:08
1966
Danielson
4:07
1600 meters
1989
Francis O’Neil
San Pasqual
4:08.67
1991
Daniel DasNeves
Helix
4:12.22
1992
DasNeves
4:09.54
1994
Meb Keflezghi
San Diego
4:07.67
1999
Marcus Chandler
Serra
4:10.44
2000
Evan Fox
West Hills
4:09.44
2006
A.J. Acosta
El Camino
4:04.95
2009
Mac Fleet
University City
4:05.33
2012
Darren Fahy
La Costa Canyon
4:08.78
Two Miles
1972
Dale Fleet
Clairemont
8:53.8
3200 meters
1994
Keflezghi
8:58.11
2007
Eric Avila
Bonita Vista
9:01.77
120-yard high hurdles 42-inch
1938
Johnny Biwener
San Diego
:15.3
110-meter high hurdles 39-inch
NA
300 intermediate hurdles
2001
Jeff Hunter
Granite Hills
:36.25
4×100-meter relay
1994
El Camino
:41.16
2001
Helix
:41.17
880-yard relay
1941
Ed Pohl, Don Smalley, Lou Barrera, Glenn Willis
San Diego
1:29
1946
Jim Barrera, Harold Miller, John Holloway, Norman Stocks
San Diego
1:29.2
1963
Walter Blackledge, Gordon Baker, Ray Dixon, Charles Sanford
San Diego
1:26.3
4×400-meter relay
NA
High Jump
1918
Brick Muller
San Diego
5-9 3/4
1953
Bernie Nelson
Hoover
6-4
1970
Jerry Culp
Oceanside
7-0 1/4
Long Jump
1957
Luther Hayes
Lincoln
23-8 1/2
1962
James Kennedy
Lincoln
24-5 3/4
1966
Doyle Steel
San Diego
25-3 1/4
1978
Dokie Wiliams
El Camino
25-1 1/4
1990
Jerome Price
University City
25-3 1/4
2003
Darrell Hutsona
Helix
25-5 3/4
Triple Jump
1973
Willie Banks
Oceanside
49-7 3/4
1974
Banks
50-9
1977
Williams
51-0 1/2
1978
Williams
50-4 1/4
1989
Lenny McGill
Orange Glen
51-1 /14
1994
Von Ware
Rancho Buena Vista
50-6
Shot Put
1950
Hal Norris
Grossmont
56-5 1/2
1968
Pete Shmock
San Dieguito
63-11
1986
Brian Boggess
El Capitan
61-4
1989
Brent Noon
Fallbrook
66-1 1/2
1990
Noon
74-4 3/4
2003
Jared Bray
Mission Bay
63-3 1/4
2006
Darius Savage
Morse
66-3 1/4
2014
Dotun Ogundeji
Madison
65-5 1/2
Discus, 4 lb., 6.4 oz.
1925
Eddie Moeller
San Diego
126-6 5/8
1926
Moeller
141
Discus, 3 lb., 9 oz.
1999
Dan Ames
El Capitan
199-9
2004
Daniel Schaerer
The Bishop’s
206-5
2005
Savage
194-8
2006
Savage
205-6
2013
Brenden Song
West Hills
188-8
2015
Charles Lenford
Oceanside
195-4
Pole Vault
1922
Harry Smith
San Diego
11-11 1/2
1923
Smith
12-3 5/8
1926
Bill Hubbard
San Diego
12-4 tie
1927
Bill Miller
San Diego
12
1928
Miller
12-9 1/2
1929
Miller
12-6
1956
Bill Logan
El Cajon Valley
13-6 tie
1961
Mike Graves
El Cajon Valley
14-3
1995
Mike Brown
Torrey Pines
16-4
1974-2020: Girls State Track and Field Champions
It’s the time of year that University City’s Katrina Wright, Poway’s Ashley Callahan, and members of Scripps Ranch’s 4×100 relay squad should be preparing to defend their San Diego Section championships Saturday and move on to the 102nd state track meet at Clovis next week.
Like the prom and traditional graduation, they sadly won’t have the opportunity, but their achievements in 2019 now are part of our area’s rich history in the sport. They can look back and say, “I was a state champ.”
There have been 28 individual champions and 46 total, beginning with the sprint double by La Jolla’s Janice Wiser in the first girls’ state meet in 1974.
Monique Henderson of Morse won five individual titles, four in the 400 meters and one in the 200 meters. Henderson and only 11 others in state history have 5 gold medals.
Sweetwater’s Gail Devers and Vista’s Kira Jorgensen each won three championships.
Devers later was a twice Olympic champion in the 100-meter dash and a gold medalist on a 4×100 relay team. Henderson was on the winning U.S. 4×400 relay squad in 2004.
Jorgensen topped the field in 1600-meter races in 1987, ’88, and ’89. Devers won the long jump in 1983 and doubled in the 100 meters and 100-meter 30-inch hurdles in 1984,
The 100 hurdles 33-inch and the 4×400 relay are events in which there has not been a first-place finisher from the San Diego Section.
San Diego High was on its fifth head coach in the last three seasons and found itself sharing headlines for the first time with a team not from Long Beach.
Coronado High, across San Diego Bay, was flexing muscles.
Controversy would follow.
John Perry left coaching after the 1926 season and was succeeded by John Hobbs in 1927 and Mike Morrow and Charlie Church in 1928, changes that were followed by a couple years of mediocrity.
The new coach was John Harold (Hobbs) Adams, a former standout USC lineman fresh from a head coaching stint at Monrovia High.
Adams played on Perry’s 1920 and ’21 San Diego High teams (in 2013 Adams was a second-team lineman on the all-time, all-San Diego County high school squad).
Hilltoppers won with Adams at helm.
Adams’s arrival at San Diego ushered in an era of success rivaling that of coaches Bill Bailey and Duane Maley in later years.
The Hilltoppers were 41-11-3 during Adams’s tenure, which ended after the 1934 season, when Adams joined the staff of Howard Jones, his college coach at USC.
Adams’s first team posted a 6-1 record, beaten only by archrival Poly, 20-13, in a Coast League battle before an estimated 13,000 persons in City Stadium.
After that game Coronado coach Amos Schaeffer, who attended the contest between the Hilltoppers and Jackrabbits, “challenged” the Long Beach team.
Under a CIF Southern Section rule, Coronado, a Group B (minor) school, could issue a challenge a Group A (major school).
PLAYOFFS OR BOWLS?
Media described the process and similar other midseason challenges as “playoffs”. In reality they were more like midseason “bowl” games. In effect the games helped the CIF project its postseason invitations.
Nov. 9 had been set aside as a date by the California Interscholastic Federation for challenge games open to all schools.
The CIF struggled for years to find a structured playoff format. Four teams, beginning play in a semifinal round, eventually were selected this season by Secretary Seth Van Patten, after the schools agreed to participate.
The Islanders, with Frank (Toady) Greene and Johnny Lyons leading 15 outmanned teammates, took the fight to mighty Poly, leading 7-6 with six minutes to play before bowing 20-7 in front of 7,000 spectators at Poly’s David Burcham Field.
Interestingly, the Los Angeles Times described a “courageous” Poly team, apparently the underdog, that came from behind to defeat the heralded and “classy Coronado eleven”.
Greene was dangerous runner for Coronado’s once-beaten Islanders .
The trans-bay squad finished with an 8-1 record, scored 415 points, and dominated the Southern Prep League, also known as the County league.
Greene set a standing state record with 11 touchdowns and 14 points after touchdown in a 108-0 victory over Sweetwater and held the school season scoring record with 164 points for 74 years. J.T. Rogan, playing in 11 games, broke Greene’s record in 2003.
Greene’s running mate, quarterback Johnny Lyons, played only 7 games but had 15 touchdowns and 92 points. Both players played at Tulsa University. Greene played for the Chicago Cardinals of the NFL.
Speculation was that San Diego and Coronado would meet in a postseason game for city bragging rights, but another CIF rule and prior scheduling by the teams prevented a showdown.
Prep squads not in the playoffs were barred from playing beyond Dec. 1. Announced schedules were chaotic, opponents often changing on hours’ notice and games routinely canceled.
San Diego seemingly was set for a game on Thanksgiving day with Tucson High of Arizona after finishing runner-up to Poly in the Coast League and Coronado was rumored to be going into the Southern Section Group B playoffs.
None of those games materialized. Nor did a Nov. 9 San Diego High challenge to Fullerton, which instead played Brea. A San Diego challenge to Covina also fell through.
The only question was how many points Coronado would score, with Greene (left) and Lyons (right) leading the way.
COACH CALLS OUT CORONADO
Local fans had flooded media outlets with calls for a San Diego-Coronado showdown. The San Diego Sun reported that a game was in the works.
Adams reacted.
Under a Nov. 14 byline by recent San Diego High graduate Nelson Fisher in The San Diego Sun, Adams said, “What do I care about Coronado? Those guys ran out on us before (challenging Poly instead of San Diego), but tell ’em if they’re still squawking when our season’s ended, we’ll take on the whole gang and Schaefer can play, too.”
Evening Tribune writer George Herrick, only three years removed from when he was sports editor of the student Russ newspaper and a classmate of Fisher’s, took a veiled shot at the The Sun:
“Published reports to the contrary, there will be NO game this season between the elevens representing the high schools of San Diego and Coronado.” Herrick quoted officials of the schools as “categorically” denying a report in the city’s other afternoon newspaper.
Herrick attempted to cool the Adams-stirred controversy, pointing out that “although noted for his impulsiveness, Adams claims he was misquoted.”
The Cavers and Islanders could have met on Nov. 9, since Coronado coach Schaefer, in attendance at the Oct. 26 Poly-San Diego battle in City Stadium, had informed Herrick that day that he would challenge the Jackrabbits-Hilltoppers winner.
ISLANDERS COACH FIRES BACK
Schaefer evenly responded to Adams’ incendiary remarks.
“Inasmuch as we have definite intentions to play Calexico either this week or next, it would be impossible for us to meet San Diego,” Schaefer told the Sun on Nov. 18.
“We want to make it clear we’re not ‘running out’ on San Diego. It’s just that it can’t be done at this time.”
The affable mentor was just warming up:
“Coach Hobbs Adams’ statement referring to Coronado as “squawking for a game” is misleading.
“Coronado never requested a game with San Diego nor has Coronado run out on them.
“We challenged Long Beach because we thought they were not as strong a team as San Diego (a shot at Adams’ coaching since the Hilltoppers were beaten by the Northern squad?) and, too, the secretary of the SCIF suggested we play Long Beach.
“Since we lost to Long Beach we dismissed all thought of a challenge to San Diego. We readily admit that it would mean but little for San Diego to defeat us. They have a much larger squad and a superior coached team.”
THE COTTON TOP
Irvine (Cotton) Warburton has been honored as one of San Diego High’s all-time athletes, known throughout Southern California as a champion 440-yard runner, having won the state championship with a time of :49.6 in the spring and leading Hobbs Adams’ team in the fall with 10 touchdowns in seven games.
Warburton went on to become an All-America at USC and, like other Trojans athletes, went into the film industry. He won an Academy Award for cinematography in 1964 for Mary Poppins
Hilltoppers’ Irvine (Cotton) Warburton was fast, shifty, and a leader.
COTTON SETS PACE
Warburton earned all-Southern California first-team honors, the only San Diego-area athlete in the first 11. St. Augustine’s Blas Torres was on the second team, and Coronado’s Frank Greene on the third team.
LONELY SAINTS
Out of the loop was St. Augustine High, coached by Herb (Duke) Corriere. The Saints were without a league affiliation and virtually without a country.
The Saints’ motto could have been “Have team, will travel. Expenses negotiable.”
The school at 32nd Street and Nutmeg also played by its own rules. San Diego High graduates Blas Torres and Harry Jones were standouts on this year’s squad, which posted a 7-3 record against teams from all over, several of which were not on the schedule Corriere announced in September.
Itinerant St. Augustine played three games in eight days: Nov. 8 at Yuma, Arizona; Armistice Day, Nov. 11, at Ontario Chaffey, and Nov. 15 versus L.A. Cathedral.
There were 13 high schools in San Diego County, population approximately 210,000. Julian, Mountain Empire, Fallbrook and Ramona did not field teams. Others playing varsity football were Point Loma, La Jolla, Oceanside, Sweetwater, Grossmont, Escondido, and Army-Navy Academy.
WAIT JUST A GRAPE-PICKIN’ MINUTE!
Escondido principal Martin Perry convened a meeting of Southern Prep League honchos to protest a 6-6 tie with La Jolla. An apparent winning Escondido touchdown was disallowed by referee Glenn Broderick, who penalized the Cougars for having too many men on the field.
An enthusiastic Grape Picker (a name also attributed to almost anyone from the Northern community as a salute to the area’s favorite fruit) came off the bench to celebrate the touchdown before the play was whistled dead.
Perry and his coach, Harry Wexler, appealed on the basis that the offending player had not interfered with the game action and was yards away from the play.
Appeal denied.
San Diego High’s lightweights, also known as the B team, won the Southern California championship behind coach Glenn Broderick (inset). Ball packer is Curtis May. Four charging backs are Robertson, Schreibman, Miller, and Gentles (from left).
POLY WINS COAST AND CIF
The large throng at City Stadium watched Long Beach Poly overcome San Diego, 20-13, with two late touchdowns the day after the stock market crash and earn the Coast League championship and trip to the playoffs.
Poly defeated Huntington Park, 7-6, and met Santa Barbara, 2-0 winner over Fullerton, for the CIF Group A championship. The Jackrabbits outran the Golden Tornado, 14-6.
Santa Barbara coach Clarence Schutte announced early in the week of the championship that the ‘Tornado might have to pull out because several players came down with the flu.
The Los Angeles Times, quoting CIF boss Seth Van Patten, reported the next day that the game was on and that if Santa Barbara did not show the contest would be ruled a forfeit.
Coincidentally, the flu outbreak was revealed about the time big wigs from Santa Barbara were told the championship would be played at Poly’s Burcham Field. Neutral Wrigley Field and the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles were unavailable.
MERCY FOR ARMY-NAVY?
The Cavemen, or Hilltoppers, take your choice, scored all of their 27 points in the fourth quarter of a shutout at Army-Navy. Hobbs Adams played his reserves in the first three quarters.
Was the San Diego coach worried about blowback from earlier in the decade?
This was the first game between the teams since 1922. Adams was a member of John Perry’s 1920 squad that hung a 130-7 defeat on the Warriors. Two seasons later Army-Navy was on the short end of a 106-6 score.
NO BLAST
The Dynamiters misfired. Adams’ first game was a 32-0 victory over Glendale. The Hilltoppers tried two incomplete passes but barged up and down the City Stadium field for 24 first downs to four.
FOOTBALL IN MOUNTAINS?
Ramona announced that it was preparing to field a team in 1930. The Bulldogs didn’t have any equipment so coach Jack Wilson had students playing touch football.
It would be 1938 before the Bulldogs took the field in a regulation game.
TRUE GRID
San Diego’s Class B team, coached by Glenn Broderick, defeated Whittier, 33-7, for the Southern California championship…a few days after the stock market crash Tom Salisbury, a key player for the Hilltoppers, briefly quit school because of “financial difficulties”…another player left the team after choosing a haircut over practice…San Diego’s bus trip to Alhambra necessitated an overnight stay in Santa Ana…Oceanside coach Glenn Wilson announced during the season that the school henceforth would be known as the Pirates… Oceanside opened in 1904 but did not play football until 1926…located in Pacific Beach, Army-Navy had unveiled a new turf playing field a week before the San Diego visit when Covina was the opponent…approximately 500 students boarded a passenger train to Santa Ana, where a crowd estimated at 5,000 saw San Diego score what was termed an upset win, 6-0, that knocked the Saints out of a possible tie with Poly for the Coast League championship… Poly’s record was 4-0-1. San Diego was 4-1, and Santa Ana 3-1-1… an estimated 15,000 was on hand at Peabody Stadium when St. Augustine scored a touchdown with 20 seconds remaining for a 12-12 deadlock with favored Santa Barbara… the Golden Tornado’s Johnny Beckrich returned the ensuing kickoff 98 yards for a game-ending touchdown and 18-12 victory…Coronado gridders were presented gold footballs at an awards banquet attended by more than 300 persons in the Hotel del Coronado…a turnout of 70 invited guests at San Diego Athletic Club, including the superintendent of schools and other civic honchos, honored the Hilltoppers at their season-ending awards dinner…coach Hobbs Adams declared that San Diego would play a 12-game schedule in 1930, with games already lined up with Phoenix, Los Angeles High, and Fullerton…small schools Whittier and South Pasadena left the Coast League and helped form the Foothill League with Pasadena Muir, Burbank, Monrovia, and the new Glendale Hoover…Fullerton and Covina were expected to take their places in the Coast …Covina was out but Fullerton and Long Beach Wilson joined.
