There wasn’t just a millennium going on.

Wholesale league changes and the San Diego Section’s second annexation of schools in the Imperial Valley were creating a new landscape.

What started in 1980 with the addition of Calipatria, Holtville, and Imperial, was completed after Blythe Palo Verde Valley,  El Centro Central, Brawley, Calexico, El Centro Southwest, and Calexico Vincent Memorial left the Southern Section.

Winterhaven San Pasqual also joined in 1980 and Salton City West Shores became a member in 1998, but neither of those schools was in for the long run.

DID VALLEY GET SHAFT?

Not everyone was happy.

Brian Hay wondered about his new associates. The El Centro Southwest coach was miffed when his 7-3 team was left out of the playoffs and three with losing records were bracketed into D-III.

“All of the San Diego-area team reps teamed up to keep us out,” Hay told Steve Brand of The San Diego Union.  “There’s something wrong when you’re 7-3 and don’t get into the playoffs.

“Only one of the Imperial Valley teams (Brawley) made it,” Hay added.  “I’d like to see the top two teams from each league be included.”

Hay was determined:  “We’re looking for a game against a San Diego-area team next year, so this won’t happen again.”

Hay didn’t get that game for El Centro Southwest.

He  went one better.

The Southwest mentor headed west to San Diego to become head coach at Hilltop and became a fixture in the South Bay,  moving on to Mar Vista and then Sweetwater.

OTHERS UPSET, TOO

University was in the playoffs with a 3-7 record, but Rancho Bernardo (4-6-1) and San Diego (6-3-1) received the veritable rubber key.

“They say they want the best teams playing each other, so we play marquee teams and get punished because of our record,” said Rancho Bernardo’s Ron Hamamoto.  “We’re one of 12 best teams in the County.”

The Broncos defeated Vista, 6-3, and Rancho Buena Vista, 28-27.  Those teams received first-round byes in D-I.

67 YEARS FOR METRO

The Metropolitan Conference, which started as the eight-team Metropolitan League in the 1933-34 school year, servicing the city’s small schools and select suburban schools, became two-headed, splitting into Mesa and South Bay circuits.

Sweetwater, San Diego Southwest, Montgomery, Chula Vista, and Bonita Vista came together as the Mesa League, all with larger enrollments than their South Bay brethren.

Marian (enrollment about 450), was by far the smaller entry among Mar Vista, Castle Park, Hilltop, and Eastlake, which made up the South Bay.

The Metro split once before, in 1960, when it divided into Northern and Southern divisions as the San Diego Section began play.

THE ORIGINAL METRO

Coronado and Sweetwater were charter  members, with Point Loma, La Jolla, Army-Navy, Escondido, Oceanside, and Grossmont.

SEISMIC SHAKEUP

The Central League, born in 1980, went to the Great League in the Sky (only to be resurrected in 2005) and its temporary passing was felt throughout the city.

The Western League greeted Crawford, San Diego, and Madison from the Central, and Hoover, which bid bon voyage to the Harbor. Western holdovers were La Jolla, Lincoln, and Kearny.

The Eastern League, which debuted with the Western when the City Prep League divided in 1959, also was involved.

University and St. Augustine moved from the Western to the Eastern.

The parochial schools joined Morse, Mira Mesa, Patrick Henry, Scripps Ranch and Point Loma.

TAKE THIS SPLIT AND SHOVE IT

Despite attempting to level the field based on enrollment, Mesa and South Bay teams still were scheduled to play interleague games.

There were unintended consequences.

Large school San Diego Southwest (Mesa) was run off the field, 66-0, by small-school-but-traditionally-formidable Castle Park (South Bay).

“We shouldn’t have had to play this game,” Southwest coach Joe Gonzalez fumed to writer Tom Shanahan.  “We’re struggling.  We’re overmatched.  We should be in a different league.”

Gonzalez added, “Give us a couple years to turn this around, but don’t force us to play strong competition we’re not ready to play.”

In a 0-10 season the loss to Castle Park was not the most humiliating.  Mesa League rival Sweetwater defeated the Raiders, 72-0.

AVOCADO-PALOMAR-VALLEY SHUTTLE

The North County Conference also was shuffling. Torrey Pines moved from the Avocado League to the Palomar and Oceanside went from the Avocado to the Valley.

This made for three, more symmetrical alignments–five-team Avocado and six-team Palomar and Valley.

BAPTISM BY FIRE

Chris Hauser’s first game as head coach at Vista was against the most storied program in California.

It was a formidable assignment, but the fiery Hauser had been preparing for the moment.

Hauser was a wide receiver and defensive back in the early 1980s for legendary Vista coach Dick Haines.

After college Hauser returned to the school as a classroom teacher, was married to a Vista graduate, coached the Panthers junior varsity from 1990-93, and was varsity defensive coordinator from 1994-99.

The Panthers dropped a 20-14 decision to Long Beach Poly, ranked second in California by Cal-Hi Sports and third in the country by USA Today.

Hershel Dennis’ 65-yard touchdown run with 5:07 remaining clinched the victory for the visitors.

“We talked about spilling our guts and our guys spilled their guts tonight,” Hauser said to writer Mick McGrane.  “It’s neat to see them leave with a different taste in their mouth.

“They came in here pretty arrogant, thinking they were going to mow us down.  It’s great it was a close game, but I want to win.”

BUCS’ BLOCK

Mission Bay’s 13-0 season included a stiff regular-season test when the Buccaneers went to 9-0 with a 10-7 victory over Lincoln (8-1).

David Abbott, a 6-foot, 245-pound lineman, blocked a 27-yard field goal attempt by Lincoln’s Noe Gonzalez  with 5.2 seconds left.

BUSING

Although Shannon Nowden owned a car, most of Mission Bay’s football players were products of optional school choices and were bused in.

Coach Dennis Pugh said that probably 75 per cent of his team came from areas outside the Bucs’ natural enrollment boundaries.

Nowden was from the Lincoln district.  Others included JaJa Riley and Scott White (Morse), Marcus Smith and David Abbott (Hoover),  and Jared Bray and Adam Riccardulli (Clairemont).

“When we start in the fall it’s like  we have a bunch of kids moving in from out of state,” Pugh told Tom Shanahan of The San Diego Union. “These kids go through a lot to make it work.  They spend more than two hours a day on the bus.”

CHAMPIONSHIP PLUCK

Those transfers played a part in the biggest play of Mission Bay’s season.  Trailing Lincoln, 13-7, Marcus Smith pick-pocketed Lincoln quarterback Jason Swanson and raced 96 yards for a touchdown in the Buccaneers’ 27-13 win in the D-III final.

“First I went for the strip and then I went for the end zone,” said Smith, who heard “dangerous” footsteps chasing him.  Then Smith took advantage of something not usually available in high school games, according to Steve Brand.

“I looked up at the Jumbotron (in Qualcomm Stadium) and when I saw Shannon (Nowden) take out two blockers I knew I had a touchdown,” said Smith.

PRECURSOR

North County big shot Rancho Buena Vista did not play a team from any of the Grossmont leagues until it tested the waters in 1998, when the Longhorns dismissed Granite Hills, 20-0, and West Hills, 61-28.

Craig Bell’s No. 4-ranked Vistans ratcheted it up this season, visiting No. 6 Helix.

Sophomore Reggie Bush had 157 yards in 14 carries and ran 77 yards for a touchdown that gave Helix a 34-22 lead in the fourth quarter.

The Highlanders held on for a 34-29 victory, but their fifth straight victory without loss was just the beginning.

With Bush and junior quarterback Alex Smith setting the pace, Helix rolled to a 13-0 record and beat two more North County clubs in the playoffs, Oceanside, 28-10, in the semifinals and San Pasqual in the II championship, 24-14.

Bush rushed for 1,034 yards and scored 11 touchdowns and Smith passed for 1,592 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Bush’s emerging greatness was evident in another game when he ran 80 yards for the clinching touchdown with five minutes remaining  in a 22-19 triumph over Monte Vista, which had taken a 16-0 halftime lead.

The pair of future No. 1 NFL draft choices made for an outstanding coaching bow for Gordon Wood, who inherited a full cupboard when Wood took over for the retiring Jim Arnaiz.

IGNORED IN PRESEASON

For awhile at least Helix was a secret, not even in Cal-Hi Sports’ preseason state Top 20.  That was not the case with Fallbrook.

After first-year coach Randy Blankenship revived the Warriors with a 7-4-1 season in 1999, Fallbrook was ranked 11^th and ready to make its first serious run since Tom Pack’s 1986 team was 11-2-1 and upset Vista, 28-14, in the 3-A championship.

From 1987-98 the Warriors were 45-78-2, including an 11-49 drought since 1993.

Fallbrook overcame early defeats of 28-21 at Santa Ana Mater Dei and 42-23 at Anaheim Esperanza and then ran the table to an 11-2 record that included a 50-12 victory over Carlsbad for the D-I title.

Blankenship left after the season and was replaced by Dennis Houlihan.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

William Buchanon caught 84 passes in 13 games, for a 19.3-yard average and 16 touchdowns for  Oceanside this season and marked the third generation of Buchanons at the school.

Willie stood out in football and track in 1967-68 and William’s grandmother was the first Africa-American to graduate from the school in 1947.

The family lineage did not stop there.  William’s grand-uncle, C.R. Roberts, was the legendary star halfback on the Pirates’ 1951-53 squads. Roberts scored 61 touchdowns in his final two seasons.

RANCH COACH CALLS IT A CAREER

Craig Bell, who posted a record of 106-62-1 at Rancho Buena Vista and won two section championships in 14 years, retired at the end of the season.

Bell, 57, began the RBV program when the school opened in 1987.  He also was head coach at Burbank Burroughs and was 34-42-2 in eight seasons at San Dieguito.

Bell told Mick McGrane of The San Diego Union that his decision was made during a summer vacation trip to Wyoming with his wife.

“I was able to relax, my blood pressure was down, my hair wasn’t falling out, and I was able to eat something other than burritos and French fries, which is about all you ever eat during football season,” said Bell.

Bell won titles in 1988 and 1989 in a  sometimes contentious tenure that was  marked by legal proceedings and a law suit against the Vista School Board.

11TH HOUR REPRIEVE

Horizon dodged the Dreaded Administrative Glitch.

Eight hours before kickoff  Horizon’s 11-game forfeiture mandated by San Diego Section commissioner Jan Jessop was overturned by an appeals committee.

Horizon responded by defeating The Bishop’s, 33-20, for the Division IV championship.

The Panthers were penalized for using an ineligible player.  There also was a question of another player’s eligibility.

The committee consisted of John  Collins, Poway district associate commissioner; Mark Oschner, Rancho Bernardo athletic director, and Kamran Azimzadeh, Lakeside district deputy superintendent.

“It was a good decision,” said Bob Ottilie, one of two lawyers working on Horizon’s behalf.  “It was a good decision, a well-reasoned decision.  These kids will not suffer because of the administration.”

The Horizon player was declared ineligible for violating the so-called “eight-semester rule.” Students enrolled in school for eight semesters must receive a waiver from the San Diego Section to be eligible for sports in their fifth year.

Horizon did not seek a waiver, said Jessop.

EXPANSION BY MILES

Granite Hills in El Cajon was the easternmost school when the section began in 1960, as Mountain Empire in Campo remained in the Southern Section for a few years.

After the first immigration of Imperial Valley schools, the  longest distances from San Diego were to Holtville (124 miles) and Imperial (133 miles).

Blythe Palo Verde Valley, which had to make long trips in the Southern Section, was essentially in the same travel situation when it became a San Diego Section member this year.

The 104 miles from Imperial Valley League rival El Centro Central had not changed, but a Palo Verde Valley  game in San Diego would be 215 miles distant, at least three and a half hours.

SIGN LANGUAGE

El Camino’s 17^th consecutive victory was fueled in part by a sign that greeted the Wildcats’ bus when it entered the Vista campus. The sign read, “The Streak Ends Here”.

“We saw that when we drove in,” said El Camino quarterback Demetrious Spates.  “That gave us a tremendous amount of motivation.  You may not like us, but don’t disrespect us.”

It was Vista that got the message.

El Camino rolled, 56-20, as Spates passed for two touchdowns to Antwaine Spann and rushed nine times for 168 yards and three scores.

A 42-25 win over Oceanside the next week was El Camino’s 18^th in a row over two seasons and moved the Wildcats past Lincoln (1978-80) for the third longest winning streak in County history.

CARLSBAD CRUSH

El Camino’s streak came to a quick and decisive end. Carlsbad’s Eddie Sullivan scored on a 99-yard pass play and 97-yard kickoff return, propelling the Lancers to a 35-17 victory and a pungent observation by Wildcats coach Herb Meyer.

“We didn’t practice well all week and I coached us right into the toilet,” Meyer told Tom Shanahan of the Union.

“We’re 0-1 in the Avocado League,” said Meyer.  “That’s all that counts.  The streak and all that other stuff are for sportswriters to write about.”

El Camino finished with a 10-3 record, nosed out by Fallbrook, 27-24,  in the playoff semifinals.

ISLANDERS MAKE WAVES

Coronado won 10 games in a row for the most successful season in the school’s 86-season history.

The Islanders won their first seven in an 8-1 campaign in 1929 and won eight in a row in 1940, after opening the season with a 0-0 tie against an alumni squad.

Islanders coach Bud Mayfield also was part of the chorus complaining about playoff seedings.

Coronado’s reward was a seventh seed in D-III, which Mayfield described as “a kick in the teeth”.

After a bye, the Islanders were eliminated, 34-21, by Lincoln in the quarterfinals.

STRANGE TWIN BILL

It looked like a misprint: Desert Hot Springs versus Monarch High of Lewisville, Colorado…at El Camino?

The off-beat scheduling called for the two schools to be on the undercard of an opening week doubleheader featuring host  El Camino and Whitehall, Pennsylvania.

Whitehall school board bosses moved in after the game was set and declared that the Zephyrs couldn’t play a game out of state for the second consecutive season.

El Camino reconnoitered and signed to play at Rancho Bernardo.  The Palm Springs-area school and Monarch went through with their contest and played at El Camino.

AT LONG LAST

Ramona’s Jason Bash batted down a last-second Poway pass in the end zone to preserve a 20-17 victory. Poway had been 11-0 against the Bulldogs from when it opened in 1961.

FOR WHOM BELL TOLLS

The bronze bell trophy was in the offing when San Diego Southwest had a first down on Mar Vista’s two-yard line with 50 seconds remaining. The Mariners stiffened and held on to win, 20-13, and reclaim the bell.

The bauble  had sat on the desk of Southwest  coach Joe Gonzales since the rivalry was suspended after a 32-6 Southwest win in 1993. Mar Vista moved to the Harbor League in 1994.

The teams had played for the bell since  Southwest was introduced in 1976.

FAMILY FEUD

Crawford more or less ended a 14-game losing streak when it tied Kearny, 14-14, in a matchup of father (Kearny coach Orlando [Skip] Coons)  versus son (Crawford coach Laurent (Lou) Coons.

“We just ran out of time.  Give us another minute and we win,” said Lou.

TRUE GRID

West Hills quarterback Troy Burner was on fire, bettering the section record by completing 88.8 per cent of his passes (32 of 36) for 346 yards and five touchdowns, including the 35-34 winner with 23 seconds left against Granite Hills…Helix gained 578 yards and averaged 9.6 yards a play in a 57-18 win over West Hills…it was the Highlanders’ most points since a 57-7 win over  Mount  Miguel in 1993…the Helix record came in a 68-0 victory over Santana in 1966…Valhalla’s 24-14 victory over Granite Hills was the Norsemen’s first on opening night since 1990 and marked the first time since 1992 they had scored more than seven points in an opener…”Field Turf”, a modern, more convenient and safer version of  the original Astroturf, was installed at La Jolla and Grossmont College…La Jolla was the first high school in Southern California south of Ventura to use the rubbery stuff…awful loss for San  Pasqual:  Rancho Buena Vista’s Justin Nelson sneaked 1 yard for a touchdown with 16 seconds left in the game, then scrambled two yards for a two-point conversion and 22-21 defeat for Eagles…Carlsbad coach Bob McAllister opted to play a rare day game at Hoover and told his squad that the sunshine contest would be a prelude to Saturday afternoon games when they would be in college…the Lancers won, 21-0…Sean Sovacool, Fallbrook’s standout linebacker, went on to become head coach at La Costa Canyon….

Madison’s Doton Ogundeji, who made noise in the state meet in 2013, raised the decibel level to a shout  at the Sundevil Invitational Saturday at Mt. Carmel.

The all-San Diego Section football linebacker last season took the national lead in the shot put with a 65 foot, 4 ½ inch heave, almost two feet better than the reported 63-7 by Kord Ferguson of Ottawa, Kansas.

Only three other County athletes have bettered Ogundeji’s throw.

Fallbrook’s Brent Noon went 76-2 in 1990, Morse’s Darius Savage 66-3 ½ in 2006, and El Cajon Valley’s Curt Hampton 65-11 1/4 in 1974.

Ogundeji was sixth in the state shot put at 58-11 ¾ last year and was the only double-qualifier from San Diego. He was a nonscoring discus finalist at 175-2.

Meet Director Dennis McClanahan’s annual  Sundevil event is usually a barometer of the big meets in late May and early June.

Outstanding marks, including several state Top 10 efforts, were made by section athletes in what was for most the first significant meet of the season.

Hanna Labrie-Smith’s :43.4 in the 300-meter hurdles moved the Cathedral junior into second place in California behind the :43.14, converted hand time of Bakersfield Liberty’s Morganne Hill.

Labrie-Smith in 2013 came within 1/10 of Gail Devers’ 1983 San Diego Section record of :42.26.

A rare dead heat occurred in the Girls’ 3,200-meter run, when favored Sarah Baxter of Simi Valley and Irvine Northwood’s Bethany Knights were inseparable.

Each finished with times of 10:07.52, fastest in the country this year.

La Jolla Country Day’s 60-42 loss to Los Altos Hills Pinewood in the State Girls’ V championship last week was the final, tumbling domino in a disappointing San Diego Section season.

Mater Dei Catholic was the only boys’ team to advance beyond the first round of the Southern California Regional and got to the Division II semifinals before losing to eventual state champion Bellflower St. John Bosco, 84-64.

San Diego Section boys teams lost 11 of 12 first-round encounters.  The girls won 6 of 14.

Mount Miguel girls reached the D-III semifinals but were beaten, 60-50, by Santa Barbara, which got to the state finals before losing to Modesto Christian, 64-55.

FARED BETTER A YEAR AGO

Local teams won 8 of 11 first-round games in 2012-13 and earned two championships, St. Augustine boys in D-III and Horizon girls in D-V. Area squads had won championships in three of the previous four years.

St. Augustine was denied the opportunity to defend its  championship and forced to play in the new Open Division.  The Saints went out early, losing to Santa Ana Mater Dei, 65-38.

La Costa Canyon, another Open Division entry, went down, 71-51, to Redondo Beach Redondo Union.

Criteria for the Open Division is based on a premise of  “past success” and other factors in a confusing tableau.

Why, then, should La Jolla Country Day, a traditional girls state power, be allowed to drop after elimination in San Diego’s Open division to the state D-V bracket?

That champions St. Augustine and La Costa Canyon had to play on the road in first-round games was a radical departure from other years.

Adding to confusion, the divisional nomenclature in San Diego is not the same as for the rest of the state.  Example, Kearny won the San Diego Section D-IV title but played in the D-III regional bracket, losing to La Canada St. Francis, 67-62.

ROAD TO DESTRUCTION

To underscore the weakness of the San Diego Section against the rest of the state were blowouts by margins of 70-21, 85-51, 62-34, 69-33, 79-60, 83-38, and 88-39, among others.

Ocean View Christian was outscored, 67-4, by San Juan Capistrano JSerra.  Perhaps embarrassed, the editor of the state website refused to list the score in the bracket results.

Another head shaker was The Bishop’s 70-26 loss to Long Beach Poly in the Girls’ Open.

The Bishop’s, enrollment about 500?

Long Beach Poly, enrollment more than 4,000?

They were in the same division?

KELL, STEWARD LEAD SCORERS

St. Augustine’s Trey Kell and San Ysidro’s Lynard Stewart each scored 768 points to lead all scorers in the San Diego Section, according to unofficial records by Max Preps.

Kell averaged 24 points in 32 games and Steward averaged 26.5 in 29 games.  Foothills Christian’s T.J. Leaf scored 689 points and also had a 26.5 average. Kajohn Patton of Gompers Prep had the highest average, 27.7 for 20 games.

A list of other top scorers for the 2013-14 season can be found on home page’s basketball link.

 

Bill Walton and Larry Blum had more in common than just being among the crowd at the University of San Francisco’s National Invitation Tournament game recently.

Both are former San Diego Section basketball players of the year, Blum at Crawford in 1962-63 and Walton at Helix in 1969-70.

Blum set a San Diego Section record with 737 points and had a 23.8 average in Crawford’s 24-6-1 season that concluded with a championship-game,  64-44 victory over St. Augustine.

Walton averaged 29.1 points  and scored 960 points in leading  Helix to a 33-0 season.  Helix defeated Madison, 87-72, for the title in 1969 and repeated, 70-56 over Chula Vista in 1970.

Blum went on to play at the University of San Francisco and forged a highly successful career in the business world in the Bay Area.

Even in his ‘sixties, Blum still plays fullcourt basketball 2 or 3 nights a week and has a key to the USF gymnasium.

Walton became one of the most famous basketball players in history, winning championships at UCLA and with the Portland Trail Blazers and Boston Celtics in the NBA.

The 6-foot, 11-inch Walton and 5-11 Blum hooked up last week, when Louisiana State defeated USF, 71-63, in a NIT first-round game at which Walton served as analyst on the ESPN broadcast.

As Walton said during the broadcast, “There is my good friend, Larry Blum, who set all the high school scoring records in San Diego (which Walton broke) and had a successful career at USF and after graduation he produced the world famous Haight-Asbury street sign poster and has been very successful ever since.”

It only took 46 years.

The population growth of San Diego’s North County coincided with the rise of the once small and remote Avocado League, founded in 1953.

After recent years of  ascendancy, a punctuation mark was added this season.

As Tom Shanahan of The San Diego Union pointed out:

–Five Avocado schools ranked in the top six of the County Top 10.

–Avocado champion El Camino won the section Division I title, defeating Carlsbad in an all-Avocado final.

–Oceanside won the D-II championship.

–Five of the league’s six schools were unbeaten against nonleague opponents and posted a 32-2 record against outsiders.

—Cal-Hi Sports declared the Avocado League the most competitive in the state.

–El Camino was ranked third in the state behind Concord De La Salle and Newhall William S. Hart by Cal-Hi Sports.  Oceanside was twelfth.

–Torrey Pines, with a 91-29-2 (.754) record, and El Camino, 92-36-1 (.717), had the best San Diego Section records for the decade of the 1990s.

“GOOD AS ANYWHERE”

“I came here from a strong league,” said Randy Blankenship, who coached state power Clovis West before moving to Fallbrook this year. “What made the Avocado different is we faced a college running back every week.”

”…In general North County football is as good as anywhere in the nation,” said Carlsbad coach Bob McAllister.

“I’m not saying we’d beat (Concord) De La Salle (winner of almost 100 games in a row), but…our top teams could play with anybody,” said El Camino’s Herb Meyer.

MEYER’S WAY

Writer Mick McGrane called him the “Fumin’ Human.

Herb Meyer’s backside could  turn the color of a summer sunset.

But Meyer’s style and toughness had carried him through 40 seasons, the first 17 at Oceanside and the last 23 at El Camino.

Now the coach was poised to become the first ever in California and the 27^th in the United States to win 300 games.

This landmark victory could have been accomplished a year before, were it not for Meyer’s refusing to nominate his 3-6-1 team in 1998 for a playoff berth.

History shows that many sub.-500 teams accept playoff invitations and most campaign for them.  An 0-10 team has made the postseason.

“I refuse to be a hypocrite,” said Meyer on the eve of his 300^th win.  “I’m the guy, when we expanded the playoffs (to 12 teams in 1987), said we should only have eight teams. “I think the playoffs should be a reward for a good year.”

Meyer gave up more than the chance to go to the playoffs. The Wildcats’ 17-season streak of winning their playoff opener also ended.  “That was a point of pride,” said the coach.

College Prep of West Vancouver, British Columbia, was no match for El Camino, which exploded for 42 points in the first quarter and won, 66-13.

HERB’S HALLMARKS

VICTORY	OPPONENT	DATE
1	Oceanside 34, Blythe Palo Verde Valley 0	Oct. 9, 1959
50	=Oceanside 21, Orange Glen 14	Oct. 28, 1966
100	*Oceanside 7, Clairemont 6, @Mesa College	Nov. 24,1974
150	=El Camino 33, @Ramona 6	Oct. 8, 1982
200	El Camino 22, Fallbrook 20	Sept. 23, 1988
250	=El Camino 28, San Pasqual 7	Nov. 6, 1992
300	El Camino 66, W. Vancouver Prep, Canada 13	Sept. 8, 1999

=League game.  *Playoff.

JUST A START

El Camino followed up the next week with a 62-6 rout of Morse and never looked back. The Wildcats’ 13-0 record matched that of Meyer’s 1984 champions and was the last of his 10 San Diego Section championships.

The playoffs proved the easier for El Camino. To get there the Warriors had to defeat league rivals Carlsbad, Torrey Pines, and Oceanside in the final three regular-season games.

Carlsbad fell, 19-7, Torrey Pines, 18-9, and Oceanside, 58-35. El Camino earned a first-round playoff bye,  then ran past Rancho Bernardo, 48-34, Poway, 43-6, and Carlsbad, 24-6, for the championship.

BIG, AS IN BIG

“One of the biggest high school football games in the county over the last twenty-five years,” enthused Tom Shanahan in his writeup  before the meeting of neighborhood rivals El Camino (9-0) and Oceanside (8-1).

STORK CAN’T WAIT

Felicia Shaw fidgeted as she sat in her living room, watching the San Diego Chargers’ 1981 AFC playoff at Miami. Pete Shaw, her hard-knocking free safety husband, was neck deep with the Chargers in their epic divisional round game in the Miami Orange Bowl.

But the major player in what became  family legend was Kenneth Ryan Shaw, who was not yet born but warning his mother that he was on the way.

Felicia was not due.

Kenneth Ryan wasn’t expected for another six weeks. “Who knows why kids come early, but I got so excited in the game that Ryan started kicking,” Felicia laughed as she spoke to Tom Shanahan.

Maybe Ryan sensed what was going on in that topsy-turvy thriller almost 3,000 miles away. The Chargers finally pulled out a 41-38 victory in overtime.

Pete Shaw, spent physically and worn out  from the excitement and tension,  wearily flew home with the team. But the Chargers’ veteran didn’t get much sleep.  Felicia was in labor.  Ryan was born premature the next day and weighed in at 4 pounds, 10 ounces.

“The game was so dramatic,” said Felicia, going back to that evening. “I think it shook Ryan loose.” The premature baby grew to be a 6-foot, 190-pound offensive and defensive star for the La Costa Canyon Mavericks.

“Ryan is bigger than I was when I came into the league,” said Pete Shaw.

THE NEXT GENERATION

Four other sons of Chargers who played in that Miami barnburner were active on San Diego prep fields.

–Cornerback Willie Buchanon’s son, William, was a junior wide receiver at Oceanside.

–Center Don Macek’s son, Scott, was a senior linebacker at University.

–Duke Preston, senior center for Mt. Carmel, is son of Chargers linebacker Ray Preston.

–Kellen Winslow, Jr., was a junior tight end at Scripps Ranch.  The senior Winslow set an NFL playoff record with 13 catches against the Dolphins.

THE MATSON LINE

Hoover’s 7-0 start had been matched only by the 1954 team and the Cardinals, under fourth-year coach Willie Matson, set a school record for most victories in their 10-2 season.

Winning is the great elixir. Matson’s athletes enjoyed Thursday night team dinners and wore ties to school on Friday.  They finished every practice with a shout of “Family!”

Before the 1998 squad went 8-4, Hoover had not had a winning season since 1987, only two winning seasons since 1969, and in 16 of those seasons had two or fewer victories.

Matson was accustomed to athletic success.  He was a perennial champion in the annual, summer Over-the-Line beach softball tournament at Fiesta Island.

ANOTHER REBOUND

Fallbrook, like Hoover, was coming back under first-year coach Randy Blankenship, who left a Central Section power and 90-14 record at Clovis West.

Blankenship’s 1993 team was ranked eighth in the country and the team he left behind was in the U.S. top 25.

With those kind of credentials, Blankenship was able to get people’s attention in the far North County community.

Fallbrook, 11-49 from  1993-98, raced  to five straight victories. All of sudden red Fallbrook jerseys and shirts were seen up and down Main Street and the Warriors’ 3,500-seat stadium was overflowing at Friday night home games.

Traffic became so bad that the Highway Patrol began ticketing cars on nearby Stagecoach Lane.  The school responded by operating shuttle buses from Christ the King Church and the Palomar Land Conservatory.

Advancing with Blankenship’s version of the Wing T, Fallbrook improved to 7-4-1. A taskmaster, Blankenship described his coaching style:  “I push and push and push to the point of mutiny.”

ROLL ON

Torrey Pines coach Ed Burke said it best about Carlsbad’s 250-pound quarterback-running back Pana Faumuina: “It’s like being on the freeway with an 18-wheeler coming at you.”

Faumuina arrived in San Diego from American Samoa at age 8.

He had no knowledge of football but saw kids playing in a park. “I asked what they were playing,” said the strapping 17-year-old, “and they said football.  And I thought, ‘You know, I may be good at this.’”

As  Shanahan noted, “Call it Pana-Vision.”

CASE OF BROKEN LIGHT BULBS

Torrey Pines coach Ed Burke spotted what he thought were hundreds of pieces of styrofoam  littering the Falcons’ football field as he drove in to school on an early November morning.

It wasn’t styrofoam.

Between the end of practice at 7 p.m. the evening before and Burke’s arrival the next day vandals commandeered boxes of florescent light bulbs, crushed them, and scattered the shards on the gridiron.

Burke discovered several cardboard boxes on the field, many of which still held unbroken bulbs. Fragments of others also were found  on the gravel track surrounding the gridiron, and on adjacent bleachers.

Coaches tried raking or vacuming the shards.  Nothing worked.

A safety threat to players on both teams necessitated moving Torrey’s home playoff game with Fallbrook to  La Costa Canyon, up the road in Carlsbad.

Years later the coach and some members of his staff remembered the incident.

“We seem to recall that the unknown vandals found the bulbs in our (school) dumpsters,” said Burke.

The scofflaws apparently got away clean after they’re late-night caper.

Burke and his coaches still had a important undertaking at hand.  “Nobody likes giving up a home game,” said the coach, but Torrey persevered and eliminated Fallbrook, 31-25.

ALOHA!

Horizon and Bonita Vista received grandfather exemptions from a new San Diego Section ruling that prohibits games more than one week before the scheduled season opening weekend for San Diego teams.

Area schools for years had played intersectional contests and games against Canadian and Hawaiian squads in August and early September. Bonita defeated Wailuka Baldwin of Maui, 41-24. Horizon stopped Maui Kahului Kaahumanu, 53-12.

I’LL PASS, YOU CATCH

Santana quarterback D.J. Busch and wide receiver John Fields set San Diego Section records that propelled the Sultans to a school record  10-0 regular season, just three seasons after a 0-10 finish.

Busch passed for 44 touchdowns, shattering the mark of 36 by Castle Park’s Gabe Lujan in 1996. Fields caught 21 touchdown passes to pass Fallbrook’s Bill Dunckel, who caught 18 in 1986.

Santana was 11-0 before losing to Oceanside, 49-40, in the D-II semifinals.

ARNAIZ PULLS PIN

Helix’ Jim Arnaiz ended an outstanding, three-decade career as the Highlanders’ coach, retiring with an 8-3 final season and maybe too soon.

Gordon Wood, the classy Arnaiz’ successor, was greeted with a program that offered a full pantry, headlined by up-and-coming sophomore Reggie Bush, to be joined  by Alex Smith.

Few could have known that Bush would provide more fireworks than Jason Van, who led the San Diego Section and averaged 208 yards rushing a game.

Van did his best to send Arnaiz (213-77-11) out with a victory, gaining 133 of his game 197 after the half as Helix battled back from a 28-7, third-quarter deficit to take a 31-28 lead, only to have Poway pull out a 35-31 playoff win.

OH, CANADA!

Coronado was such a good host that it played Churchill High of Calgary, Alberta, under Canadian football rules.

The Islanders gave up a point when they failed to return a punt out of their endzone, a play that is called a rouge (roos-zh) in Canada. (Most American women know rouge as a reddish cream used for facial makeup).

Coronado defeated Churchill, 28-7, for a 2-1 record and best start since 1994.

HERE  COMES UNI

University was confronting a daunting challenge, not just by moving from its Linda Vista location to a new and beautiful campus site in Carmel Valley.

The Dons lost their first five games and were outscored 124-50, but a 38-20 victory over Lincoln was their third in a row in the Western League and made them 4-5 overall.

Although Justin Green led the way with 156 yards in 33 carries, Carlos Quentin rushed 4 times for 24 yards, caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from Mike Kirsch, rushed for two others, and made two fourth-quarter tackles for loss.

Uni inconceivably won 8 in a row, climaxed by a 21-14 victory over Castle Park in the D-III championship.

Quentin, a future major league baseball slugger, stripped the ball from a Castle Park runner and returned the theft 75 yards for a touchdown and set up another TD with a 57-yard run.

CAN I HAVE THIS DANCE, AGAIN

Valley Center coach Rob Gilster and his Escondido counterpart Nick Ruscetta each needed a nonleague game to fill a 10-game schedule. Escondido and Valley Center are in the same league, the Valley.

How often have league teams played nonleague games against each other? It happened this season.  Valley Center won the unusual “home-and-home” double dip, winning the nonleague game at Escondido, 30-21, and repeating in league at home seven weeks later, 32-10.

There have been others of the above instance, one really unusual being in 1946, when Hoover defeated visiting Pasadena, 14-0, in a nonleague game, then turned around the next week, went to Pasadena, and won a Coast League opener, 14-13.

SCOREBOARD

On the same night: Fallbrook set a school scoring record in a 63-11 win over Hilltop;  Poway bombed Orange Glen, 60-7, for another record, and Torrey Pines came within a point of its school record in a 56-14 win over Sweetwater.

Four-hundred miles north, Concord De La Salle defeated Santa Ana Mater Dei, 41-0, for its 91^st consecutive win and 158^th in the last 159 games.

The teams drew a crowd of 15,819 to a neutral site at University of Pacific in Stockton.

DEFENSE, ANYONE?

There wasn’t any when Rancho Bernardo and West Hills chased each other in the  first round of the playoffs.

Coach Ron Hamamoto’s Broncos scored a 71-48 victory over the host Wolf Pack, which trailed 36-14 at the half, then matched Rancho Bernardo almost point for point in the third and fourth quarters.

Despite the outburst, Rancho Bernardo did not set a single-game scoring playoff record by a San Diego County school, although the 71 points were the most in an 11-man game since San Diego defeated Hoover, 72-0, and Escondido outscored Army-Navy by the same score in 1944.

The playoff highest score honor was reserved for San  Diego, which defeated Montebello, 81-0, in 1920. But Rancho Bernardo did set a postseaso record with a stunning 693 yards rushing and 784 yards total offense.

David Rhodes rushed for 324 yards in 15 carries and scored 4 touchdowns for the Broncos.  Sam Campanella had 223 yards in 24 carries and four touchdowns, and Austin Willenbring added 116 in 10 carries and caught a touchdown pass.

Hard to believe but Rancho Bernardo broke records that were only 10 weeks old.  Poway had rushed for 641 yards  and had 694 total in a 60-7 blowout of Orange Glen in Week 1.

RIPE AVOCADOS

Twelve of the 37 D-I scholarships awards to San Diego Section players went to Avocado League athletes.

Brandon Chillar was not a headliner, but the Carlsbad linebacker played four years at UCLA, then was drafted by the St. Louis Rams of the NFL.

Chillar played seven seasons, including the last three with Green Bay.  He was a member of the 2010 Packers team that won Super Bowl XLV, 31-25 over Pittsburgh.

KNIGHTS FALLS SHORT

Marian’s David Aguiniga’s 37-yard field goal on the last play of the game gave the Crusaders a 17-16 victory and ended The Bishop’s magic season.

The Knights finished with a 12-1 record and No. 2 ranking by Cal-Hi Sports among the state’s “smallest schools.”  The Bishop’s Tim Culver led the San Diego Section with 39 touchdowns and 234 points.

Aguiniga’s kick avoided the onrushing Culver and Shane Keeher and atoned for earlier misses from 32 and 33 yards.

QUICK KICKS–Other top programs in the decade of 1990-99 were Helix (88-25-5), Castle Park (88-32-2), and Morse (88-35-3)…Interstate 15 near Fallbrook is known as the Avocado Freeway…avocado trees cover about 36,000 acres in the area between Escondido and Fallbrook…Mira Mesa center Chris Blevins on 240-pound running back Amon Johnson:  “He almost blocks for himself…you can’t arm tackle him”…Amon and 6-foot, 7-inch, 245-pound  twin brother Teyo transferred to Mira Mesa from Everett, Washington…Mira Mesa won its first Eastern League championship since 1986…Morse (2-8) missed the playoffs for the first time since 1984…”He’s the best pure quarterback I’ve ever coached and I’ve seen some pretty good ones,” said Bonita Vista coach Carl Parrick of the Barons’ 6 foot, 3-inch, 220-pound Tyler Arciaga…Long Beach Poly’s 19-14 victory over Vista marked Poly’s first game against a San  Diego Section team since it defeated visiting San Diego, 26-18, in 1960…Ron Hamamoto of Rancho Bernardo became the 21^st County coach to win 100 games when the Broncos beat Temecula Valley, 26-14…Mission Bay coach Denny Pugh was 9-3 in 1989, took a 10-year-leave from the position and returned this season to post a 9-3 record…RB-LB David Mikaio became Mira Mesa’s first four-year letterman.

Wipeouts like these usually are reserved for the North Shore of Oahu.

San Diego Section boys basketball teams lost 10 of 11 games in the first round of the Southern California regional playoffs.

Girls teams helped ease the pain and won 6 of 14.

In four games in which San Diego boys teams had more favorable seeds their combined record was 1-3.

Mater Dei (29-2), the 4 seed in Division II, was the only area squad to win, defeating visiting Tustin (22-9), 59-50.

‘Dei will get a second home game Friday night when it takes on 5 seed Calabasas (28-5), which defeated Sylmar of the Los Angeles City Section, 57-54.

More negative reinforcement is expected Friday night when Open division play begins. No. 8 St. Augustine (29-3) is at 1 Santa Ana Mater Dei (31-0) and 6 La Costa Canyon (27-5) goers to Redondo Beach Redondo Union (24-5).

WOMEN PICK UP SLACK

No. 8 Mission Hills girls (23-8) won their 13^th in  a row, outlasting Alhambra Mark Keppel in Division-I, 54-50, and will move on with another road  game Friday at 1 Moreno Valley Canyon Springs (21-6), which outran Corona Centennial, 94-74.

Seven seed La Costa Canyon (26-3) is at 2 West Torrance (31-4) in D-II after a 53-51 win over Redondo Beach Redondo. The Warriors advanced with a 45-35 win over the L.A. City’s Bell.

Mount Miguel (26-5) will be home to 12 Selma (27-5) of the Central Section after the Matadors defeated visiting Yorba Linda, 52-45.  The 12^th-ranked Selma Bears upset 5 Inglewood, 58-53.

No. 6 Mater Dei (23-8)  moved on in D-IV to meet 3 Torrance Bishop Montgomery (24-8).  The Crusaders defeated 11 Fullerton Rosary (17-15), 48-44, and Bishop Monty blew out Exeter, 61-27.

D-V is a trip, if you’ll pardon the original 1960s expression.

Horizon, the 8 seed coming in with an 8-18 record, topped 9 San Bernardino Aquinas (27-3), 75-33.

The Panthers will meet the L.A. Ribet Fighting Frogs (22-8), the top seed.

The 5 seed Panthers dispatched 9 San Bernardino Aquinas (27-3), 75-33, while Ribet had a bye.

La Jolla Country Day (18-11), the Open Division winner last week in  San  Diego, was able to drop all the way to D-V and responded with a 63-19 victory as a 3 seed over L.A. Shalhevet (19-6).

The Torreys  have a 187-mile bus ride ahead before they can take on 6 Lancaster Edwards Air Force Base Desert (24-1), which ousted Lake Isabella Kern Valley, 35-11.

Yes, 35-11.