Farewell, old friend.

Those words were heard over the summer for at least four former San Diego-area football players.

Doug Dunnam,  75,  was a starting guard on the 1956 City Prep League-champion Hoover team that upset San Diego High, 20-12, before a roaring, record, overflow crowd of  9,000 persons at Hoover.

Dunnam  also was a member of the San Diego team that played the Los Angeles City Section all-star squad in the annual Breitbard College Prep game after his graduation  in 1957.

Hal Krupens, 78, was a standout on Don Giddings’ 1953 Point Loma squad and scored 7 touchdowns and 42 points, plus touchdown runs of 72 and 2 yards as Point Loma routed Hoover in one quarter of play, 14-0, in the annual City Schools’ carnival before 24,000 fans in Balboa Stadium in 1952.

Krupens was head coach at Clairemont from 1986-90 and also coached track at Crawford.

Bill Harvey, 76, quarterbacked Bennie Edens’ first Loma squad in 1955 and was named to the Breitbard Athletic foundation all-City Prep League backfield.

Dave Saska, 68, whose family has owned a popular Mission Beach restaurant since the early 1950s, was a 210-pound all-San Diego Section lineman at El Capitan in 1963.

The Vaqueros upset Hoover, 27-12, in the playoffs and were beaten, 20-6, by Kearny in the finals.

Ron Loneski who coached Lincoln to six section basketball championships and state runners-up in 1988  and ’91, passed away at age 77 in Lawrence, Kansas.

Dick Huddleston won championships in multiple sports, as player and as coach

—He was a  tight end and linebacker on the 1960 Escondido team that won the first  large-school San Diego Section football championship.

–Huddleston coached Point Loma to the 1973 San Diego Section baseball title.

And  led La Jolla to the 1993 San Diego Section Division III championship and the best record, 13-0, in school history.

The unbeaten season was the second for the Vikings and their first in 58 years.

Lawrence Carr guided the Vikings to a 9-0 season in 1935. Carr also happened to be the principal at San Diego High when the Cavemen were surprised but not upset, 19-13, by Huddleston, 180 pounds, and other similar-sized Cougars in 1960.

70 WINS IN EIGHT YEARS

Huddleston’s coaching record ranked among the elite. Although serving as the Vikings mentor for a relatively short eight seasons, 1990-97, Huddleston’s teams compiled a 70-24-1 record for a .742 winning percentage.

DID HE OR DIDN’T HE?

Neighboring Mission Bay, the school that took much of La Jolla’s strong Pacific Beach and Mission Beach enrollment connection when that school opened in 1953, almost denied the Vikings’ chance for an undefeated season.

“I still haven’t heard from anyone close to the play who said the kid (Jaime Blake) ever got into the end zone.” said Mission Bay coach Jerry Surdy.   “I would say, without a doubt, it’s the toughest loss I’ve had here at Mission Bay….”

Surdy was visiting with Union-Tribune writer Frank Brady after the Buccaneers’ 8-7 loss.

This one went down hard, not only because of La Jolla’s Blake had transferred from Mission Bay.

Blake’s involvement in the game’s winning play created additional acid reflux

DREADED PENALTY

The Buccaneers had committed a dead ball foul as La Jolla kicker Jason Green was lining up to kick a point after following a La Jolla touchdown with 6:33 left in the game that made the score 7-6.

Huddleston, whose team had trailed all afternoon, took a time out and assessed the benefits of the penalty.

The foul moved the ball half the distance to the goal line, to 1½ yards.  Now Huddleston opted for a two-point try and Blake squirmed toward the goal.

Did he score?  Yes, according to the official furthest from the play.

“Hey, we dodged a bullet,” said Huddleston.

BOUNCING BACK

With 13 offensive and defensive starters returning and Blake looming as a potentially outstanding successor to 1991’s sensational E.J. Watson, the Vikings were optimistic when they began the season.

But how far could they come back from 2-7-1  in 1992?

Their opening game said much. La Jolla defeated Santana, 20-17, on a 43-yard touchdown pass play with 3 seconds remaining in the game, after the Sultans had driven 88 yards to take the lead.

The Vikings offered a preview of what to expect in the playoffs when they beat St. Augustine, 35-12, in Week 3.  They repeated with a 14-6 win over the Saints as Blake rushed for 206 yards and a touchdown in the San Diego Section championship.

OTHER SIDE OF COIN

While Surdy ruminated about a victory lost, San Marcos’ Ken Broach, declared a 20-16 win over El Camino to be one of the biggest victories of his career in a season in which the Knights finished 10-3.

Quarterback Luke Underwood threw two touchdown passes in the final 3:31 as the Knights rallied from down 16-7.

El Camino’s first loss to San Marcos since 1987 slowed the Wildcats temporarily, but they went on to finish 10-4 with a 24-14 D-II championship victory over San Pasqual.

HORNETS FOUL OUT

This time the officials’ flags favored Mission Bay in a 21-17 win over Lincoln.  The Buccaneers drove 99 yards in the fourth quarter, with the help of three, 15-yard penalties.

BIG, BIG MEN

Seventeen Morse players were at least 205 pounds, including five who needed an industrial-sized Toledo scale when they weighed in at preseason training camp.

The Big 5 pushed the needle from 275 to 330.

Tigers coach John Shacklett weighed 205 and was the second heaviest man on the squad when he turned out for his senior season at Grossmont in 1956.

Reasoned 282-pound David Gates: “Athletes today spend a lot of time in the weight room. Everyone knows muscle is heavier than fat.” The Tigers’ offensive line averaged a close-to-NFL standard of 286 pounds.

BIG, BIG MEN, CON’T.

Not exactly, but when Morse was vacating the field at Brigham Young-Hawaii, the Torrey Pines squad was entering for its practice. ‘Pines coach Ed Burke had an idea.

Kiddingly (maybe) Burke attempted to persuade some Morse linemen to make a U Turn. “Okay, fellows, over here,” implored Burke.  “I’ve got some Torrey Pines shirts for you.”

Pointing to David Gates and others, Burke said, “I’ll take this one, this one…this one”.

Union-Tribune writer Tom Shanahan was on the premises, covering the one-week trip by Morse, which dropped a 29-8 decision to Oahu Kahuku, and Torrey Pines, which defeated Honolulu Punahou, 32-21.

Meanwhile, Marian Catholic topped the Yakota Air Force Base squad, 26-8, in Tokyo.  The base team, which plays other U.S. military schools, had won nine consecutive Far East championships.

GO FIGURE

Early-season ratings can be disastrous.

No. 1 Mt. Carmel fell to No.  9 San Pasqual, 47-7, in Week 2 as the Golden Eagles, paced by Ethan Barkett’s three touchdowns and 117 yards, rushed for 494 yards.

Two weeks later Mt. Carmel defeated Rancho Bernardo, 17-9. Coach Bill Christopher’s surprising Broncos overcame the setback and finished with a 12-1 record, claiming the  D-I championship with a 7-3 victory over Poway.

Mt. Carmel up and downed its way to a 7-6 record, but not before shocking No. 1–ranked Rancho Buena Vista, 45-7, four weeks after its loss to San Pasqual.

San Pasqual, supposedly rebuilding, went 10-3 and all the way to the D-II finals before losing to El Camino, 24-14.

THE HIP COACH

Tom Shanahan  had an interesting read on Rancho Bernardo’s Christopher:

“Bill Christopher, the football coach with the pierced ear and who coached NFL star Ronnie Lott (at Rialto Eisenhower), now has a new identity, coach of Rancho Bernardo, CIF San Diego Division I champion.”

Christopher, who played for Bennie Edens at Point Loma in the late 1960s, promised his team he’d wear an earring if the Broncos won the Palomar League.

Christopher affected the jewelry during the playoffs and, after the title game win over Poway, agreed to continue with  the adornment through the team banquet. He was not excited about the prospect.

The issue arose during preseason practice when several players turned out with earrings, to Christopher’s disdain.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE…

Ethan Barkett was an all-San Diego Section running back for coach Mike Dolan’s San Pasqual Golden Eagles.

Thirty years before, Ethan’s father was a starting forward on the San Diego City College basketball team that was runner-up to Fresno City in the State Junior College tournament.

Nick Barkett also was the first San Diego Section basketball player of the year.  He led 24-3 Hoover to the 1960-61 championship.

THEY STAND ABOVE

Three South Bay coaches each won his 100^th game, bringing to 16 the number of 100-game winners in County history.

Joining the prestigious group were George Ohnessorgen of Chula Vista, Gil Warren of Castle Park, and Gene Alim of Sweetwater.

Steve Brand of the Union-Tribune visited with some of the  group’s active members:

“The one-hundredth is a milestone,” said Point Loma’s Bennie Edens (229).  “After that you kind of go from victory to victory.”

“I was at about one-twenty when someone brought it to my attention,” said Dick Haines of Vista (127 at Dover, Ohio, and 180 at Vista). “The two-hundredth was no big deal.  The three-hundredth, I thought it would never come.”

“To win one-hundred games you need an understanding wife,” said Helix’ Jim Arnaiz  (156).  “You need good assistant coaches.  You need to have good parents and good players, and you need lots of luck.”

“All one-hundred means is you’re getting old,” said Ohnessorgen.  “These players weren’t here when I started (in 1982), so our first goal is winning the Metro League and, in the long term, the CIF playoffs.”

ZEIG AND ZAG

Mark Zeigler of the Union-Tribune covered Chula Vista-Sweetwater, the premier, continuous rivalry in the County.

Chula Vista won, 14-12, when Sweetwater missed a two-point conversion attempt with 15 seconds remaining.

“It was,” Zeigler wrote, “the kind of game that embodies high school football, where you can’t find a parking place, where even those who can find a seat stand, where players hold hands in the huddle…”

…and only where the coach promises his players they could shave his head if they won. Ohnessorgen’s hair, soaked from the contents of a water cooler dumped on his head, would be gone by Monday.

ONE FOR THE BOOK

Bonita Vista’s 6-2 victory over Sweetwater, giving the Barons a best-in-school-history 7-0 start, was manufactured by one man.

Bonita’s Scott Shields kicked field goals of 37 and 47 yards before a full house at Sweetwater’s Gail Devers Stadium, then retreated out of the back end of the end zone from punt formation with five seconds remaining, giving the host Red Devils a safety and making for a final score of 6-2.

How often have games ended 6-2?

In the almost 100 years of football in San Diego County there had been 11 other games by that score.

The first teams listed in the table below were the 6-2 winners, except for Monte Vista, which was the 6-2 loser.

Year	Team	Opponent
1927	San Diego	=Santa Ana
1928	San Diego	St. Augustine
1934	Escondido	=Grossmont
1946	Fallbrook	=Ramona
1949	Grossmont	Sweetwater
1952	San Dieguito	Hemet
1959	Coronado	=Oceanside
1967	Grossmont	=Mount Miguel
1979	Clairemont	Mira Mesa
1985	San Marcos	=@Oceanside
1992	Monte Vista	@Oahu Kaneohe James Castle

=League game.

QUOTABLE

“I just made the cuts, put my shoulders down, and executed.” Vista’s 6-foot, 240-pound sophomore Eddie Lologo, to Ed Graney of the Union-Tribune.

Lologo rushed for 165 yards in 28 carries as Vista defeated Rancho Buena Vista, 14-7, in the teams’ annual battle for city bragging rights. Lologo added, “We played our hearts out.”

It gets no better than that.

MARKS

Morse’s 1990 state record of 649 points in 14 games was topped by Concord De La Salle, which had 665 in 13 this season.

Chad Davis’ career national passing record of 9,337 yards, achieved at Palm Springs, Torrey Pines, and Mira Mesa, was broken by Newbury Park’s Keith Smith (9,967).

Crawford’s Altie Parker caught 95 passes in 12 games, but was the state runner-up to Newbury Park’s Leodes Van Buren, who caught 101 in 14 games.

MON”DAY”  AND NIGHT

For awhile it appeared the preps would be out of luck.

Saturday night, Dec. 11, at Jack Murphy Stadium, was out because the Chargers would have a game on Sunday, Dec. 12.

The stadium manager had been fired in 1983 after Long Beach State and San Diego State had chewed up a rainy field the night before the Chargers were to play the Dallas Cowboys on national television.

Stadium manager Big Bill Wilson worked with CIF honchos to arrive at a Monday, Dec. 13 date.

Combined attendance of 14,395 watched a triple header that began at 1 p.m. and ended about nine hours later.

QUICK KICKS

Castle Park freshman linebacker Zeke Moreno did not pass age-eligibility to play football until near the end of the season…Moreno finally got his chance and had 13 tackles in a playoff loss to El Capitan…Dick Huddleston also was captain of the 1961 Escondido team and played collegiately at Cal Western University…Mission Bay’s 21-17 victory was its first over Lincoln since 1973 and ended a string of six losses in a row to the Hornets…his life would end prematurely in an auto accident after playing for the Los Angeles Raiders, but, for now,  there was unlimited promise for St. Augustine’s Darrell Russell, a 6-foot, 5-inch, 280-pound defensive tackle who also was a standout on the Saints’ basketball squad…Rancho Bernardo’s 21-6 win over Monte Vista marked dedication of the Broncos’ stadium…CIF officials ratified in February a long-discussed and ping ponged decision by the Coordinating Committee and Board of Managers to drop the 3-A, 2-A, 1-A designation for football playoffs in favor of I, II, III, and IV….

 

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….