Seldom was a defeat as disappointing as that which knocked out Hoover in the semifinals of San Diego’s swansong in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

The Cardinals sustained a numbing, 39-34 loss to Anaheim in the round of  four in a season when they were unbeaten for 26* straight games.

Coach Charlie Hampton had returned several key players from the 20-7 club of 1958-59, including twin towers 6-foot, 7 ½ inch Walt Ramsey and 6-5 Bill Wylie.

Ramsey and Wylie were joined again by John Bocko a sharpshooting 6-foot forward, and 6-foot, 1-inch Johnny (Bo) Williams, the glue in Hoover’s backcourt.

Baseball ace Dave Morehead moved up from the junior varsity and became the only underclass starter.

The Cardinals’ almost perfect season:

1—HOOVER 46, ALUMNI 42.

Unlike usually pliant, slightly out-of-shape graduates, the former Cardinals were competitive, losing, 46-42. Ramsey led the varsity with 19 points.

Norris Greenwood, who set a school single-season scoring record of 446 points in 1957-58 and had moved on to Cal Western University, played for the alums along with former first stringers Tommy Dobyns, Art Samuel, Wayne Britt, Harry Stadnyk, and Bill Lee.

 

2—HOOVER 48, GROSSMONT 32.

The Foothillers couldn’t find the basket and trailed, 25-5. at halftime. Ramsey scored 25 points.

3—HOOVER 61, HELIX 36, @San Diego.

Surprising, actually shocking, was this win over a team considered by some to be the best in the area.  Helix had all of its weapons intact, including high scoring Jim (Bones) Bowers and Clayton Raaka.   Ramsey (20), Bocko (11), Norm Potter (10) led the way.

4—HOOVER 57, @GLENDALE 49.

The Cardinals and San Diego High made December trips north for several years.  The favored Glendale Dynamiters featured 6-5 Tom Dose, destined to be Southern Section player of the year, but Wylie (20), Ramsey (17), and Bocko (14) kept the hosts and Dose (15) at a distance.

5—HOOVER 64, @GLENDALE HOOVER 51.

The Cardinals pulled away the next night after leading 39-33 at halftime.   Bocko scored 23 and Williams 19.

KIWANIS TOURNAMENT

6—HOOVER 72, MOUNT MIGUEL 15.

Hampton emptied his bench as 12 players scored and 14 saw action in the opening round of the 12^th annual event.

7—HOOVER 62, KEARNY 38.

The Komets’ Jim Johnson led all scorers with 19 points but that was offset by Ramsey’s 17, Bocko’s 15, and 11 by  Morehead.

8—HOOVER 39, HELIX 30.

The Highlanders switched gears and played a slow-down game, this after Helix set an Unlimited Division record with 99 points the day before.

9—HOOVER 54, CRAWFORD 34.

Crawford, in its first year under coach Jim Sams, who would go on to compile one of the San Diego section’s all-time coaching records, took an 8-1 record into the contest.

The Cardinals’ stiff, man-to-man defense kept the Colts scoreless from the field for more than 10 minutes beginning with the start of the third quarter.

In winning its first Kiwanis Tournament since the inaugural event in 1948, the Cardinals’ average victories were by a score of 54-29.

10—HOOVER 49, @POINT LOMA 34.

The Cardinals stepped into the Western League for their last pre-Eastern League competition.

As it had been most of the season the refrain of Bocko and Ramsey, Ramsey and Bocko was heard as John scored 20 and Walt 13.

11—HOOVER 47, LINCOLN 45.

The Cardinals opened the Eastern campaign against the 4-3 Hornets, a talented team that hadn’t lived to its so-called potential under first-year coach Warren Barritt.

In a gritty struggle, Hoover finally put Lincoln away on Williams’ 30-foot jump shot with 3 seconds left.

Williams scored 24 points as Hoover survived.  Bill Wylie was out with a leg infection.  Hampton was “barely audible” from effects of the flu, and Ramsey, battling the flu, played only one quarter and scored one point.

Norm Potter, 6-2, and Dave Sickels, 6-5, replaced Ramsey and Wylie.  Lincoln’s Joe Cisterna sustained a possible shoulder separation and was hospitalized.

The Cardinals made only 18 of 50 shots from the field for 36 per cent.  Lincoln, behind T.W. (Tommy) Bell’s 24 points, shot 43 per cent, 19×43.

12—HOOVER 66, @CRAWFORD 36.

The recovered Wylie led with 15 points and 10 other Cardinals scored.

*(Did Hoover finish the regular season with 24 consecutive wins, as has always been accepted, or was their total actually 23?

(The number appears to be 23.

(Published reports were that the 11-0 Cardinals were scheduled to play only Crawford in the second week of league play.   There was no record of a second game that week or a 13^th win.

(The San Diego Union’s weekly, Monday morning rundown of standings, however, listed the Cardinals with a 13-0 record, although the Union’s weekly individual and team statistics were for 12 games).

13—HOOVER 63, SAN DIEGO 44.

Biggest crowd of year, probably 1,600 including standees, at Hoover.   Hampton’s team collected its first victory over San Diego since 1956-57.  Williams and Bocko scored 18 points each.

14—HOOVER 47, @MISSION BAY 36.

The newspaper reported this as the Cardinals’ 15^th win in a row. The Union would be one game ahead of Hoover for the rest of the season.

15—HOOVER 59, POINT LOMA 44.

Wylie was picking up steam, connecting on 12 of 17 shots for 25 points and the Cardinals converted 23 of 43 shots for 53 per cent.  Walt Ramsey scored one point and fouled out with 5:25 left in the game.

16—HOOVER 85, @ST. AUGUSTINE 52.

Ten players scored, with Wylie (26), Bocko (17), and Ramsey (13) leading the parade.

17—HOOVER 57, @CLAIREMONT 50.

The Cardinals apparently were not excited at the prospect of playing a second-year school with a 6-9 record, in its first game in a new gymnasium, and in the afternoon.

The seemingly disinterested East San Diegans were guided by John Bocko’s 20 points. Ramsey added 17 and Wylie 15.

18—HOOVER 66, @LINCOLN 52.

The  Redbirds began the second round of league play with a convincing win at usually troublesome Lincoln. The Cardinals had beaten the Hornets five times by three points or less in the last three seasons.

Hoover converted only 37 per cent of field-goal attempts to Lincoln’s 40 but it commanded the backboards with 61 shots to 52 and with a 30-20 advantage in rebounds.

“Our all-around best effort,” said Hampton, who cautioned that if Hoover (6-0 in the Eastern) fell to San Diego in a couple weeks, “The race could end in a tie.”

19—HOOVER 60, CRAWFORD 36.

They were scoreless for the first four minutes and then solved Crawford’s zone defense, with all five starters scoring at least 10 points.

20—HOOVER 66, EL CENTRO CENTRAL 32.

Hampton picked up a late-season, nonleague game with the visitors from Imperial Valley.  All 12 players on each team saw action.

21—HOOVER 59, @SAN DIEGO 43.

The floundering Cavemen were never really in it, trailing 52-28 after three quarters. Hoover’s Big Three scored 48 of the 59 points.

22—HOOVER 74, MISSION BAY 33.

Kenny Hale, whom Charlie Hampton had replaced at Hoover in 1952-53, had retired  after beginning the Mission Bay program, and the Buccaneers, contenders in the previous three seasons, were not competitive.

Bucs coach Paul  Beck inherited a team minus such recent standouts as Doug Crockett, Frank Schiefer, Tom Tenney, Jerry Dinsmore, and Bill Cravens.

23—HOOVER 73, ST. AUGUSTINE 51.

“Unbeaten, untied, unawed,” wrote Jerry Magee of The San Diego Union of the Cardinals, who concluded an 8-0 league season and 23-0 regular season.

Hoover led, 35-12, at the half after  stunning the Saints with a 21-4 second quarter.

SOUTHERN SECTION PLAYOFFS

24—HOOVER 76, HILLTOP 58.  The first-year Lancers, coached by the taciturn Paul Pruett, who had success at San Dieguito, posted a 20-win season and won the Chino tournament.

The Chula Vistans were game but not ready for prime time.

Hilltop still was in the contest when it trailed, 61-50, midway in the fourth quarter, but the Cardinals eased to the win behind Ramsey’s 25 points, and 18 each by Bocko and Williams.

Writer John MacDonald, who seldom covered the high schools for the Union, identified the Hoover back court as “Don” Williams and “John” Morehead.

25—HOOVER 60, COVINA 50,@Walnut.

Writer Jerry Magee said the Covina Colts resisted like a young bronc at neutral Mt. San Antonio Junior College in nearby Walnut.

Shorter Covina (23-7), with no starter taller than 6 feet, 3 inches, were coached by the legendary Windorf (Doc) Sooter, who won 647 games from 1947-72.

The Colts took an early, 11-5 lead and battled the Cardinals throughout, but Ramsey hitting jumpers and scoring under the hoop, logged 22 points and kept the Colts reined in.

Hoover, knocking down 50 per cent of its shots in the late regular season, may have felt playoff pressure in the unfamiliar environment, converting only 19 of 53 shots for 36 per cent to Covina’s 18×54 and 30 per cent.

Covina set screens for jump shooter Jerry Barron.  Wylie sat with 4 personals with 6:13 left in third.

The story was similar to a 68-57, 1956 playoff loss to Montebello, when the Cardinals got into foul trouble trying to check jump shooting Jerry Pimm.

Hampton had to shift to a zone defense early in the third period. It was the first time this season Hoover had to abandon its favorite, man-for-man barricade.

Sooter wouldn’t say Hoover was toughest team he faced, “but they were toughest on the backboards.  They were too big for us.”

Hampton declared the contest was his team’s poorest effort of the season.  “Mainly because this was the best defensive team we had played.

“Our boys may have been scared,” added the surprisingly candid Hampton.  “I told them how tough Covina was so often I may have scared them.”

26—HOOVER 41, MONROVIA 33.

Monrovia, routed 53-0 by San Diego in the football finals, brought a 20-4 record and a loss to Covina to Hoover.

Hoover led, 12-4, at the end of the first quarter and scored only 11 points in the second and third.

Monrovia played at an agonizingly slow pace and the Wildcats’ 6-7 Les Christensen scored 15 points, controlled most of the tips, and held Walt Ramsey to 6 points.

Ramsey ran into foul trouble again, acquiring his fourth with 2:13 left in the half.   With the visitors pressing at 22-20 in the third quarter, Hampton called on Ramsey, went into a zone defense, and pulled away.

27—ANAHEIM 39, HOOVER 34, @Los Angeles State.

“A basketball team which has won 27 (sic) straight games can’t possibly be in a slump…” wrote Jerry Magee, but Hampton was worried.

“We certainly haven’t played as well in the playoffs as during the season, but I think it has been more of a mental thing than a physical thing,” the coach told Magee.

Hampton went on to say, “We weren’t up for Hilltop.  In the next two games (Covina and Monrovia) we were a little tense, more nervous than we should have been.”

Hampton concluded with “we’ve had two of our better practices.  The boys have acted a lot better the last two days.”

Sunset League champion Anaheim won its 29^th game against one loss in a 38-36 quarterfinals game against Santa Barbara that was decided in the last two seconds.  That win followed  a double-overtime, 50-49 victory over Montebello and a 50-47  triumph against Long Beach Wilson.

The Colonists, as they did versus Santa Barbara,  continued to  travel slowly but in style.

Magee wrote that “Hoover manfully struggled back (from a 25-12 halftime deficit) even with its 6-7 center, Walt Ramsey, out early in the third period with five fouls.”

With Wylie and Bocko scoring, Hoover pulled into a tie at 34 with 5:08 remaining.

But Anaheim continued its strategic pattern.  The Cardinals scrambled for possession and fouled.

The Colonists scored the last five points on free throws, winning, 39-34, and advancing to the finals and losing to Long Beach Poly, 46-39.

28–VENTURA 53, HOOVER 50, @Los Angeles State.

Beaten by Poly in the other semifinal, 65-56, Ventura trailed Hoover, 50-45, with 4:11 to go in the third place game the next evening.

The Cardinals went scoreless the rest of the way and dropped a 53-50 decision.

BE LIKE NBA?

Jerry Magee indicated that Hampton, in the coach’s playoff postmortem, seemed to suggest that a rule similar to NBA’s 24-second shot clock should be passed down to the high schools.

“There should be something that should make a team shoot,” said the coach.  “I wanted to go into a zone against Anaheim to protect against fouling but if I had I think Anaheim would have been content to just stand there.”

“Every coach thinks this, but I still think we had the best team,” said Hampton.

 

Baby steps to others are leaps and bounds at San Diego High.

Save for a 13-8-2 record by the Keir Kimbrough-coached squads in 2010 and 2011, the Cavers have endured stretches of apathy and losses that extend into the misty past.

San Diego is 32-109-3 since 2002 and have had 12 winning seasons in the last 48, dating to 1970.

Shan Deniston’s 1974 club, led by the great running back, Michael Hayes, was 6-3 and tied for the Western League championship with Clairemont.

The Cavers have not finished that high since.

Which gives rise to their 2-0 start this season under coach Charles James, who took over the downtrodden program and was recipient of several kicks to the pelvic region in the 1-9 and 2-8 seasons of 2015 and ’16.

SCOREBOARD BUSY

San Diego has scored 82 points in 28-7 and 54-7 wins over San Diego Southwest and Francis Parker.

Such offensive fireworks haven’t been witnessed since…better take a seat…since the heyday of legendary Duane Maley and the fearsome Cavemen of the 1950s.

Maley’s 1958 squad scored 84 points in its first two games, defeating Kearny, 25-0, and La Jolla, 59-0.

The 82 points in the first two games of the 2017 team have been bettered in only four other seasons by the squads originally known as the Hilltoppers, in 1945, 1925, 1920, and 1919.

The Cavers face 2-1 Montgomery this week in what looks like an even matchup, one more challenging than the first two.

Whatever lies in store for the Cavers and James, who has roots at University City and Morse, it’s still a nice way to start the season.

CHANGES

Parris Pisiona, 12-12 since 2015, is out at El Cajon Valley.  He was replaced by the school’s vice principal before a 32-21 win over Clairemont.

The mysteries surrounding the tenures of Jerry Ralph at El Camino and Hans Graham at Castle Park drag on as the coaches remain in limbo.

Neither Ralph nor Graham has coached a game this year.

QUICK KICKS

Beat Casteel High of Phoenix-area Queen Creek this week and Monte Vista coach Ron Hamamoto will tie Helix’ Jim Arnaiz for seventh place among all-time County coaches with 213 victories…Arnaiz held sway at Helix for 27 seasons, 1973-99…Hamamoto, beginning in 1985,  spent 11 years at University, 11 at Rancho Bernardo, 4 at Lincoln, and is in his sixth season with the Monarchs…Mission Hills’ Chris Hauser, who started at Vista in 2000, won his 144^th game last week over Desert Hills of St. George, Utah, and is tied with Escondido’s legendary Bob (Chick) Embrey for 18th…San Ysidro, 3-0 for the first time since the school opened in 2004, steps up in competition at Calexico Vincent Memorial, also 3-0 and 18-7 under David Wong since 2015…Damon Baldwin’s Ramona Bulldogs will try to become 4-0 for the first time since 2014 when they begin Palomar League play against visiting Rancho Bernardo….

The Union-Tribune Week 3 poll :

Rank	Team	2017	Points	Last Week
1.	Mission Hills (22)	2-0	274	2
2.	Madison (4)	3-0	247	3
3.	Helix (2)	1-1	244	1
4.	San Marcos	3-0	171	6
5.	Carlsbad	3-0	153	7
6.	Torrey Pines	2-1	101	9
7.	El Camino	2-1	76	4
8.	The Bishop’s	3-0	71	10
9.	Cathedral	1-2	50	NR
10.	Lincoln	2-1	49	5

 Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  Ramona (3-0, 44 points), La Costa Canyon (3-0, 44), Oceanside (2-1, 9) St. Augustine (1-2, 9), Christian (3-0, 4), Eastlake (2-1, 3), Grossmont (2-1, 1).

Voters (28 sportswriters, sportscasters, officials): John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI Chl. 51; Adam Paul , East County Preps.com; Ramon Scott, East County Sports.com; Bodie DeSilva, San Diego Preps.com; Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions; Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Jerry Schniepp, John LaBeta, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego; Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net; Montell Allen, MBASports-SDFNL Magazine; Bob Petinak,  1360AM; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9FM; Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, CIF Football Tournament Directors.

Palm Springs defeated Scripps Ranch, 42-35, in two overtimes and Army-Navy’s topped Perris Military, 21-20, in one overtime last week.

Both of those game results presumably were more easily reached than the first in 1976.

That was the year of imposition of the new “California Tie-Breaker”.

As noted by Steve Brand, The San Diego Union representative who covered the game:

“History-making events are supposed to be heralded with sounding trumpets and helium-filled balloons.”

But a 6-6, semifinals playoff tie between Morse and El Camino resulted in “disappointment and confusion,” all because of the new rule, wrote Brand.

The young scribe, on a morning newspaper deadline, was not a happy camper.

Brand, as one deadline after another was missed, described “a twenty-minute discussion between officials, coaches, players, and statisticians over first downs, penetrations inside the 20-yard line, and a mysterious stopping of the clock just before the game ended.”

The teams had tied with 7 first downs each and both had made two penetrations inside their opponent’s 20-yard line.  Those represented the first two elements of the new system.

Play resumed when the third tie-breaker kicked in.  Each team was given four plays from the 50-yard line.

Morse lost the coin toss and had first possession.

The Tigers had a net of minus two yards after four plays that included a 15-yard penalty. El Camino took over and essentially fell on the ball four consecutive plays, according to Brand.

The Wildcats were declared winners but the game went into the books as a tie.

Brand noted that the game was played at Vista, a technically neutral site, but the clock “inadvertantly” stopped as time was running out and El Camino close to what would be an eighth and tie-breaking first

What happens if there still is a deadlock after each team has had three possessions of the ball in overtime?

A touchdown and two-point conversion can send everyone home, as long as the other team doesn’t match.

There is no time limit and no finite number of overtime periods.

BEWARE

Earth to San Diego’s usually elite teams:  Give certain Orange County squads a wide berth.

But if you’re Helix, or Cathedral, or Mission Hills, you’re not afraid of challenges, even if the results haven’t always been positive.

Cathedral, the defending state Division 1-AA champion, ran afoul of the Trinity League’s Orange Lutheran last week in one of the Honor Bowl games.

The 37-0 loss was the Dons’ most decisive since a 40-14 defeat by another Trinity team, Rancho Santa Margarita, in 2015.

Helix had Santa Margarita neighbor Mission Viejo of the South Coast League on the ropes but a fumble with two minutes left opened a door through which the host Diablos scored a 32-28, Southern California playoff victory in 2015.

Mission Hills, which dropped a 35-21 decision to Mission Viejo in 2012 and now is No. 1 in the weekly San Diego Union-Tribune poll, is one of the handful of San Diego Section teams that annually schedule major intersectional opponents.

The Grizzlies have gotten off seemingly easy this season, defeating Paramount of the Southern Section, 41-14, in their opener and slamming Desert Hills from St. George, Utah, 42-7, last week.

Cathedral is ninth in the Union-Tribune voting after its second consecutive loss (Loomis Del Oro, a stout Sacramento area entry, won, 22-13, in Week 1) and Helix dropped from first to third when it was upended, 23-6, by Lancaster Paraclete in the Honor Bowl.

TRUE GRID

Mission Hills rose from 41^st to 23^rd and Madison  from 35^th to 27^th in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports’ poll…Helix dropped from 10^th to 29^th and Cathedral, St. Augustine, and Torrey Pines are on the bubble…all six Trinity League teams are in the top 25 and Orange Lutheran rose from 25^th to 14^th…Lancaster Paraclete moved from 32^nd to 21^st.

The Union-Tribune Week 2 poll :

Rank	Team	2017	Points	Last Week
1.	Mission Hills (20)	2-0	272	2
2.	Madison (4)	2-0	234	3
3.	Helix (4)	1-1	231	1
4.	El Camino	2-0	200	5
5.	Lincoln	2-0	154	7
6.	San Marcos	2-0	123	8
7.	Carlsbad	2-0	83	NR
8.	St. Augustine	1-1	65	4
9.	Torrey Pines	1-1	55	9
10.	The Bishop’s	2-0	54	NR

 Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  Cathedral (0-2, 49 points), Oceanside (1-1, 16) Eastlake (2-0, 13), Ramona (2-0, 10), Valley Center (2-0, 10), La Costa Canyon (2-0, 7).

Voters (28 sportswriters, sportscasters, officials): John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI Chl. 51; Adam Paul , East County Preps.com; Ramon Scott, East County Sports.com; Bodie DeSilva, San Diego Preps.com; Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions; Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Jerry Schniepp, John LaBeta, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego; Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net; Montell Allen, MBASports-SDFNL Magazine; Bob Petinak,  1360AM; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9FM; Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, CIF Football Tournament Directors.

Too early for trends, but Cathedral’s defending state 1-AA champion has some catching up to do and Helix is positioning itself to make a run such as the Dons’ in 2016.

The Highlanders, preseason ranked 12^th in Cal-Hi Sports’ overview, eased to a 35-0 victory over Utah’s No. 15 West Herriman, and moved up to 10^th in this week’s poll.

The competition revs a notch for the Scots this week, when they meet Lancaster Paraclete in an Honor Bowl game at Cathedral.

The Spirits, from Southern California’s Antelope Valley, 70 miles North of Los Angeles and 87 miles Southeast of Bakersfield, were an unknown quantity when they first faced a San Diego team in 2016.

Paraclete, 12-4, ushered undefeated and 13-0 Mater Dei out of the Southern California playoffs, 34-18, won the state D-III championship, and opened last week with a 48-24 win over Phelan Serrano.

Cathedral, Cal-Hi’s preseason No. 14, dropped to 22 this week after visiting Loomis Del Oro, near where the Dons topped Stockton St. Mary’s, 38-35, in Sacramento in the state final in 2016.

The Dons were tied, 12-12, in the third quarter but Del Oro, 13-3 a year ago, preseason ranked fifth in the Sacramento area, pulled away to a 22-12 victory.

Cathedral gets back into the fray this week in another Honor Bowl game at home against Trinity League toughie Orange Lutheran, which defeated La Mirada, 11-3 a year ago, 35-13 last week.

Mission Hills opened with a 41-14 yawner at Paramount and gets Utah’s St. George Desert Hills this week.

TRUE GRID

Grossmont was surprised, 22-13, by The Bishop’s and there was an online report that Foothillers coaches and players suffered from intestinal flareups after the team meal…coach Tom Karlo is 5-1 in openers at Grossmont and was 7-0 from 2005-11 at Mount Miguel…Crawford improved to 26-15 in its occasional rivalry that dates to 1958 with neighboring Hoover…the schools are only a mile and a half apart in East San Diego, but the Colts’ 31-0 victory was in their first meeting with Hoover since 2010 and the first over the Cardinals since 2003…Carlsbad’s 49-0 beatdown of Del Norte was the Lancers’ most one-sided win in an opening game since 54-0 over Hoover in 1980…football is not catching on at Del Norte…the Nighthawks are 27-50 all-time since 2010…Bonita Vista’s 39-7 loss to Poway marked the Barons’ poorest first-game effort in school history dating to 1967…Christian’s 60-38 win at Hurricane, Utah, was the Patriots’ seventh opener in a row without a loss and made coach Matt Oliver 12-1-1 in first games…Manuel Diaz, Sr., was 1-5 in openers at Clairemont from 1997-02…son Manuel, Jr., won the first game of his head coaching career, leading Clairemont to a 34-0 win over Orange Glen…what a difference year makes:  San Ysidro whacked Coronado, 41-14, after losing to the Islanders, 39-12 in 2016…Imperial beat Yuma Cibola of Arizona, 55-14, after losing to the same team,  33-27 last season…St. Augustine, despite a 51-12 victory over North Las Vegas Canyon Springs, dropped from 22 to 23 in Cal-Hi rankings.

The Union-Tribune Week 1 poll :

Rank	Team	2017	Points	Last Week
1.	Helix (28)	1-0	258	1
2.	Mission Hills	1-0	238	2
3.	Madison	1-0	209	4
4.	St. Augustine	1-0	200	5
5.	Cathedral	0-1	150	3
6.	El Camino	1-0	121	8
7.	Lincoln	1-0	86	9
8.	San Marcos	1-0	74	10
9.	Torrey Pines	0-1	45	6
10.	Oceanside	0-1	45	7

 Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  The Bishop’s (1-0, 36 points), Eastlake (1-0, 15) Ramona (1-0, 11), Carlsbad (1-0, 10), Valley Center (1-0, 6), Poway (1-0, 3), San Pasqual (1-0, 2), La Costa Canyon, 1-0), Valhalla, 1-0) 1 point each.

Voters (28 sportswriters, sportscasters, officials): John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI Chl. 51; Adam Paul , East County Preps.com; Ramon Scott, East County Sports.com; Bodie DeSilva, San Diego Preps.com; Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions; Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Jerry Schniepp, John LaBeta, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego; Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net; Montell Allen, MBASports-SDFNL Magazine; Bob Petinak,  1360AM; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9FM; Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, CIF Football Tournament Directors.

Enriched by the transfer from St. Augustine of running back-defensive back Isaac Taylor Stuart (a four- or five star recruit, according to  grading services), coach Robbie Owens’ Helix Highlanders begin the season as the No. 1 team in the San Diego Section, according to the 28-member Union-Tribune voting panel.

The Scots, 10-3 a year ago, received 19 first-place votes.  Cathedral, defending state D-1AA champion,  received seven, and Mission Hills and Lincoln one each.

Helix is 12th in Cal-Hi Sports‘ preseason, California top 50 poll.

Cathedral, 14, and St. Augustine, 22, are the other San Diego Section teams in Cal-Hi‘s first 25.  Madison is 36th, Mission Hills, 43rd, and Torrey Pines is on the bubble.

The state CIF has 1,587 schools, although many do not field teams..  The internet site Max Preps  lists 94 schools fielding teams of the 127 dues-paying members in the San Diego Section.

 

Rank	Team	2016	Points	2016 Final
1.	Helix (19)	10-3	258	3
2.	Mission Hills (1)	7-5	214	9
3.	Cathedral (7)	15-0	204	1
4.	Madison	13-2	198	2
5.	St. Augustine	10-3	178	6
6.	Torrey Pines	8-3	88	8
7.	Oceanside	8-3	76	NR
8.	El Camino	3-8	63	NR
9.	Lincoln (1)	7-5	58	NR
10.	San Marcos	7-5	49	NR

 Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  The Bishop’s (14-1, 24 points), Point Loma (5-7, 22), Mater Dei (13-1, 15), Rancho Bernardo (11-1,15), Grossmont (9-2, 14), Carlsbad (4-8, 13), La Costa Canyon (6-6, 13), Eastlake (2-9, 8), Olympian (8-5. 6), Valley Center (10-2, 5), Ramona (5-6, 2), Valhalla (8-3, 1).

Voters: (28 sportswriters, sportscasters, officials) John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI Chl. 51; Adam Paul , East County Preps.com; Ramon Scott, East County Sports.com; Bodie DeSilva, San Diego Preps.com; Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions; Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Jerry Schniepp, John LaBeta, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego; Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net; Montell Allen, MBASports-SDFNL Magazine; Bob Petinak,  1360AM; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9FM; Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, CIF Football Tournament Directors.

Name Hoover’s starting five in 1959-60 and Johnny (Bo) Williams probably would be the fifth to come to mind.

But Williams, a 6-foot, 1-inch guard, was an effective offensive player (269 points in 27 games) and outstanding defender for arguably the finest San Diego-area team before Bill Walton and Helix arrived a decade later.

Williams, 75, passed away recently at his home in Modesto, California.

The ’59-60 Hoover Cardinals were 23-0, the first major area team with an undefeated regular season, and the No. 1 seed in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

The Cardinals fell short, losing to Anaheim, 39-34, in a stunning upset in the semifinals round and to Ventura in the third-place game, 53-50.

The losses left Hoover with a final record of 26-2.

The Cardinals’ starting lineup also included 6-foot, 7-inch Walt Ramsey, 6-5 Bill Wylie, 6-0 John Bocko, and 6-1 Dave Morehead.

Morehead teamed with Williams in the backcourt, later signed a bonus baseball contract , and pitched a no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox in 1965.