Lance Morton, Rich Gehring, and Sam Edwards are among former San Diego prep athletes who  recently passed away.

Morton, 81,  a founder of the Brigantine Restaurant chain, was a second team all-City Prep League  end on the 1951 Point Loma squad that finished with a 6-2 record, losing only to San Diego, 15-6, and La Jolla, 21-14, teams that tied for CPL championship.

Morton also was a standout in track and field and held the Pointers record in the shot put for several years at 51 feet, 3 1/4 inches.

Rich Gehring, 80, had bests of :15 in the 120-yard high hurdles and :20 in the 180 lows and was a double winner for Escondido in the 1953 Metropolitan League track finals.

Gehrig, also played end on the Cougars’ football team and was the leading scorer in the County with 443 points in the 1952-53 basketball season.

The 6-foot, 5-inch Gehring was an important member of the 1955-56 San Diego State basketball squad that advanced to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championship tournament in Kansas City.

Gehring later was head track coach at Sweetwater High and Southwestern College.

Sam Edwards, 74,  was an end and defensive end on the 1958 San Diego High team that posted a 10-1 record, scored 457 points, and was one of the premier teams in Southern California.

Edwards, all-City  on defense for a team that allowed 57 points in 11 games, caught 4 of quarterback Ezell Singleton’s 28 touchdown passes and was one of nine Cavers who scored at least four touchdowns.

Their story could have been inspiration for “The Grapes of Wrath,” because Bill Nettles and younger twin Wayne lived the life of John Steinbeck’s poor and displaced.

Teenagers, age 16,  caught in the poverty of Oklahoma’s depression-era Dust Bowl, sought a way out.

With the spirit and optimism of youth, the youngsters decided to make their way West.

The twins hopped a passing freight train near Claremore, Okla., when their mom, the widow Pearl, wasn’t looking, according to John Nettles, Bill’s oldest son.

Armed with a roll of salami and a long loaf of bread, Bill and Wayne rode the rails that followed the route of the highway U.S. 66.

Trouble loomed when the twins became separated during a stop near Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“Wayne was out looking for around for food when he was discovered by one of the bulls,”  said John Nettles.

The bulls were the feared railroad security guards.

Wayne was forced to return home, but a couple weeks later he caught another freight and soon was reunited with his brother. Bill had reached  relatives in Flinn Springs

A PLACE TO STAY

The Nettles’ cousins, Ernie and Joe, lived in Flinn Springs. a tiny, unincorporated community east of El Cajon and west of Alpine.

That’s where the boys found a home and a promising future.

They soon would enter high school.  The closest was Grossmont, about 11 miles away.

It was August, 1932.

The Foothillers of coach Jack Mashin were enjoying the most successful era in school history, posting a record of 35-5-2 from 1931-35 that included a streak of 23 wins and one tie.

(“We have a wide-awake club, a bunch of boys who take advantage of every break,” Mashin explained of the Foothillers’ success).

Bill Nettles played end and Wayne was the center.

Mashin’s squad was assured its second straight 9-0 season when Bill out-jumped three Coronado defenders to catch Ben Reynolds’ pass for a touchdown on fourth down and 18 to give Grossmont a 7-0 victory.

The win wrapped up another Metropolitan League championship and Bill Nettles was one of the leading scorers in the County with 8 touchdowns and one PAT for 49 points.

Pearl Nettles’ sons had made a name for themselves and then moved on to Glendale Junior College.  They closed out their collegiate careers in 1938 as members of San Diego State’s Southern California Conference champion.

TRUE STORY

The brothers bore such striking resemblance to each other that Bill once mistook himself for Wayne.

For a game at Fresno State, Bill was part of the first group of players traveling.  Wayne was to come with another group the next day.

When Bill entered his hotel room, he faced a full-length mirror.  “What are you doing here, Wayne?” I thought you were coming up tomorrow,” said a confused Bill as Bill looked at Bill.

NETTLES EVERYWHERE

It was their offspring that forged a family legacy.

Bill’s son, John, was an all-San Diego Section end at St. Augustine in 1961.

John’s younger brother, Tom, was a basketball star at Hoover, earned a letter as a javelin thrower at San Diego City College, and caught 68 passes for the 1968 San Diego State football team.

Tom Nettles was drafted by the NFL Kansas City Chiefs and played in the 1975 U.S. Open golf championship.

Wayne Nettles’ son, Graig, was an all-Southern California selection in basketball at San Diego High and is best known for a 22-season major league baseball career, including 11 with the New York Yankees and three with the San Diego Padres.

Graig was one of the key players in the Padres’ drive to their first National League pennant in 1984.

Jim Nettles, Graig’s younger brother, played basketball and baseball at Crawford High and six seasons in major league baseball.

AMBLIN’ AMBY

San Diego’s Ambrose Schindler, the leading scorer among major schools with 15 touchdowns and 90 points, was the Southern California player of the year.

The only other area athlete from a major school to match Schindler’s football honor was San Diego’s Charlie Powell in 1950.

Schindler broke long runs and ran with toughness.

No records for total yardage exist, but Schindler ran inside and outside.  In a 13-7 victory over visiting Pomona the product of San Diego’s Mission Hills community and Roosevelt Junior High rushed for 301 yards in 28 carries.

POLY RULES AGAIN

The Cavers were 16-3-2 in Schindler’s last two seasons but  couldn’t get past Long Beach Poly this year, losing 20-13, on the road, finishing second in the Coast League, and out of the playoffs.

Years later Schindler, who went on to star at USC, returned to the scene of his high school glory.

Schindler annually worked San Diego Chargers games in Balboa Stadium as a member of the American Football League officiating staff.

ADAMS RETURNS TO TROY

Nelson Fisher of The San Diego Sun broke the news that Hilltoppers coach Hobbs Adams was leaving to accept a line coach position at USC, his alma mater.

Adams had just been elected head of the San Diego County Football Officials’ Association at that group’s season-ending awards banquet at Plata Real in the U.S. Grant Hotel.

Adams told Fisher that “I haven’t heard anything official yet, but I’ve always had a somewhat hidden desire to get back there with (USC coach Howard) Jones.”

Adams was 41-11-3 in six seasons with the Cavemen and took the 1933 team to the Southern California finals.

The former Hilltoppers player and San Diego native was 2-4 against arch-rival Long Beach Poly, all of the losses close and all almost impossible to swallow.

BRODERICK GETS POST

Early speculation on Adams’s successor centered around Bert Heiser, coach at Chaffey Junior College in Ontario, and Leo Callan, a Hilltoppers alum who was head coach at the University of Idaho and a former USC all-America.

San Diego principal John Aseltine stayed at home, elevating Glenn Broderick, who was on staff and had served as head track coach and Class B football coach.

AMBY TO NAVY?

An announcement by Hobbs Adams late in the season revealed that Schindler had been accepted at the Naval Academy and would enroll after his midterm graduation in February, 1935.

Schindler would play for coach Tom Hamilton, a former Navy all-America who had connections in San Diego and had just finished his first year as the Midshipmen’s coach with an 8-1 record.

Schindler never made it to Navy.  He changed his mind.  Perhaps it was coincidental with Adams’ change of address, but Schindler landed at USC.

It was a good move for Adams and Schindler and for Howard Jones.  Schindler played on USC’s Rose Bowl-winning squads in 1939 and ’40 and was most-valuable player in the 1940 Chicago All-Star game against the NFL champion Green Bay Packers.

Schindler was a 13^th-round selection of the Packers and the 119^th player in the 1940 draft but opted for coaching on the high school and junior college levels.

RISING IN THE EAST

Hoover was in its fifth year and ambitious.

The East San Diego school had dropped out of the City Prep League after the 1932 season and, as an independent, sought a stronger schedule and more recognition.

A game with San Diego High, first earned in 1933, was only part of the plan.

The Cardinals celebrated the opening of their turfed, 4,000-seat stadium this year.  With financial help from the school faculty (encouraged/pushed by principal Floyd Johnson), Hoover was the first area high school to also have lights.

La Jolla and Coronado followed Hoover with lights later in the decade.  Balboa Stadium wouldn’t become illuminated until 1939.  Navy Field, to become known as Sports Field, had temporary lights in 1930 but was essentially void of seating.

FUTURE COACH SIDELINED

Roy Engle, a junior who would become one of the Cardinals’ best players and later a legendary coach, was sidelined for six weeks after he sustained a broken collar bone in the Reds-versus-Whites, preseason, intrasquad scrimmage witnessed by virtually the entire student body, approximately 1,300.

BITING OFF A BIG CHUNK

Cardinals coach John Perry continued to upgrade his team’s schedule, but a road game at Santa Barbara was a disaster, after the Cardinals had shut out their first five opponents.

A 41-7 loss, in which the Cardinals scored only on a blocked kick recovered in the end zone and were outgained, 461 yards to 117, began with a daunting logistical challenge.

The game at Santa Barbara’s Peabody Stadium was about 210 miles from the Hoover campus, where 25 players plus supernumeraries caravanned in automobiles on Sunday evening.

The players spent the night at the YMCA in downtown Los Angeles and were joined by coaches John Perry and Bill Bailey the following morning for the 70-mile ride to the stadium on the Dons’ campus.

TEAMS CLOSE?

The Cardinals arrived a couple hours before the Armistice Day kickoff for a matchup that San Diego sportswriters had determined as being “pretty even.”

According to “The Punter,” a nom de plume used by the prep writer of The San Diego Sun, “It was all Biff McLaughlin’s fault.”

McLaughlin passed for two touchdowns and ran for one as the Dons took a 21-0 lead in the game’s first seven minutes.

According to The Punter, McLaughlin was going to quit school the next year to sign a Pacific Coast League baseball contract.

The Santa “Barbarians” were made up of players “19 to 20 years old and none of them weigh less than 190 pounds,” wrote The Punter.

Hoover’s day was not over.  The team would arrive back on campus late in the evening, so the players could attend classes Tuesday morning.

ANOTHER STRANGE TWIST

Hoover had another tough opponent scheduled four nights later against visiting Los Angeles Loyola. The loss to Santa Barbara, leaving the Redbirds with a 5-1 record, had apparently eliminated them from playoff consideration.

A rainy week in San Diego prompted a weird response from Loyola officials.  They canceled the game, 24 hours before kickoff, allegedly declaring they did not want to soil their new uniforms on a muddy field.

Speculation was that the Cubs were locks to make the playoffs and didn’t want to risk a possible road loss.

Floyd Johnson was miffed.

The Hoover principal had a sympathetic ear from CIF bossman Seth Van Patten, who ordered Loyola to play the game the following week.

Oh, and while we’re at it, we’ll make this a first-round playoff, said Van Patten.

The Cardinals were assuaged.  They got the game and the promise of a solid financial return and they also were in the postseason.

The Cubs spoiled the evening, defeating Hoover, 14-7.

The Cardinals dropped a 14-0 decision to San Diego the following week in the second annual Elks Charity game and flattened out to a final, 5-3 record  as San Diego rushed for 283 yards to 125 and Schindler scored on a 52-yard run.

But Hoover was getting closer to the Hilltoppers and it looked with confidence to the 1935 season.

STRANGER THAN FICTION

Hoover scored all its points in the first eight minutes of a 15-0 win over Point Loma.  The Cardinals blocked two punts in the first quarter, Bob Summers covering one of blocks in the end zone for an apparent third touchdown.

The jubilant Summers hurried to the Hoover bench, but the whistle had not blown.  Point Loma covered the ball for a safety.

The newspaper account doesn’t make sense, but that’s how the final score was recorded. An accurate score probably was 13-2.

STRANGER THAN FICTION II

Army-Navy’s Harry DeVenny hit an Oceanside receiver so hard that the Pirates’ receiver fumbled and then punched DeVenny.

Referee Glenn Broderick ejected the Oceanside offender, at which point Pirates coach Bob Carpenter, either upset with the player or referee Broderick, or both, pulled his  team from the field.

Two seconds remained in the half.

After much cajoling, Carpenter finally agreed to send out his third and fourth stringers for the second half, which was limited to five minute quarters.

Army-Navy’s scored all of its points in the first quarter of the 17-0 victory, twice on blocked kicks and once on a bad Oceanside snap from center that resulted in a safety.

HOOVER GETS LIGHTS

The Sports Field will be an “Eastern San Diego Community Center,” according to Cardinals principal Floyd Johnson.

Large headline in The Cardinal, weekly official publication of the Herbert Hoover Senior High School, shouted, “Lights Will Blaze on Hoover Field” and “Big Educators Will Congratulate Hoover Only Lighted Field.”

What the second headline meant was that Hoover would be the only school in the County with illumination for football games.  And principal and master of ceremonies Johnson had lined up City Schools honchos to mark the occasion.

Speakers at the dedication game with the Riverside Sherman Indian squad would be Dr. Chester Webber, president of the San Diego Board of Education; Will C. Crawford, superintendent of schools, and Jack Ryan, president of Hoover’s previous June graduating class, which contributed $243 to the project.

Hoover’s girl tumblers would entertain at halftime and the 40-member Hoover band would play, with  yell leaders and  song leaders following their cues.

Hoover won the inaugural game, 26-0.

SCARY BUS RIDE

The bus taking Coronado footballers to their game at Grossmont was moving along El Cajon Avenue when the driver noticed an oncoming car weaving in and out of traffic.

The bus suddenly veered to avoid the car and ran off the road, sheering a telephone pole, and coming to rest near the intersection of College Avenue and El Cajon Avenue.

All passengers were shaken but okay.  Grossmont officials then sent a bus for the Islanders.

POSTSEASON NIXED

Grossmont could afford  transportation for the Coronado team, but expense apparently was the reason the Foothillers opted not to enter the Southern Section playoffs for the second season in a row.

The Foothillers were undefeated for the second consecutive season but school principal Carl Birdsall believed it cost too much to bus the players to the Los Angeles area for a game.

Birdsall, citing financial concerns, also  announced that the 1935 edition of the El Recuerdo yearbook would be eliminated.

The yearbook staff and class advisor raised enough money to ensure the annual’s publication.

Times were tough during the Great Depression.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES 

Two burglars, apparently well into the sauce, gained entry to the Fox Theater at Seventh Avenue and B Street, at 2 a.m. and forced the night custodian to take them to the office safe.

John Thompson convinced the inebriated crooks that he didn’t know the safe combination.  The pair staggered out of the theater with no money but took an evening dress used by Miss Dixie Barnes, theater hostess.

SWEETWATER GENERATIONS

Lyle and Leon Finnerty were important contributors to Sweetwater’s 6-1-1 record, the Red Devils’ best since 1926.

Lyle was the second-highest scorer in the County with 73 points (San Diego’s Ambrose Schindler had 90) and his son, Jim, was a three-sport star at Sweetwater in 1964, leading the Red Devils to a 6-3 record and passing for 15 touchdowns.

HONORS
San Diego’s Ambrose Schindler was the only first-team, all-Southern California choice.  Tackle R.C. Moore of San Diego made second team.  End Cozen of Oceanside was on the third team.  Hoover nemesis Harry (Biff) McLaughlin of Santa Barbara was on te second team.

TRUE GRID

San Diego was unsuccessful in scheduling a post season game in Nevada against the Las Vegas Wildcats…as writer Nelson Fisher said, “It would give the Hilltoppers a pleasant trip and a chance to see Boulder Dam”…the Cavemen also were unable to get a game with Inglewood, which upset San Diego in the 1933 Southern California finals…San  Diego’s itinerary to its game at Phoenix Union:  Buses left school at 7 .am., lunch in Yuma, Arizona, arrived in Phoenix at 6 p.m. and practiced at 8…game the next day…proceeds from the Hoover-San Diego Elks Charity Game provided grocery baskets for San Diego families…attendance for the San Diego-Hoover game was 12,000, double the turnout for Santa Ana-San Diego…Army-Navy’s all-Metropolitan League halfback Norm Montapert had been all-City at Los Angeles Belmont in 1933…a pool of 38 officials worked 96 San Diego County games…Grossmont’s Jack Mashin sent prospective members of his 1935 squad to a game with the Green Valley Falls Civilian Conservation Corps team at the end of the season…La Jolla students and town folk wanted to see more of coach Lawrence Carr’s Vikings, who had enjoyed a 6-1-1 season, best in school history…Carr prevailed on San Diego coach Hobbs Adams  to bring his junior varsity to La Jolla for a season-ending game…La Jolla won, 34-0….

If the state track meet were  tomorrow, instead of in two weeks, San Diego Section girls would have a chance to win possibly three events.  The boys, none.

In one of the most disappointing seasons in several years, San Diego girls are represented in seven of the 16 events in the state’s top 10 and the boys in five.

It’s been a woman’s world this year.

Suzie Acolatse of Mission Hills is a contender in the 100 and 200 meters and Cathedral’s Hana Labrie-Smith has run as fast in the 300 hurdles as the season’s state leader.

Acolatse’s wind-aided :11.46 100 and legal :23.69 rank third in the state.  Her 200 is sixth in the nation and fourth all-time in San Diego.  She negotiated the 200 time in Saturday’s San Diego Section trials at Mt. Carmel, where Acolatse also logged a legal :11.53 to move to No. 4 all time in San Diego.

Labrie-Smith is fourth in the state at :42.62 in the long hurdles, but ran :41.97 in 2014 which matches the 2015-leading performance by Jasmyne Graham of Corona Eleanor Roosevelt.

Several other girls also could contend for medals, including Cathedral’s Dani Johnson, who set a San Diego Section record of :14.12 in the 100 hurdles in the section trials but ran :13.81 and :13.99 with wind in her two state meet races in 2014.

The allowable wind limit is 2.04 meters, or, in old parlance, 4.447 miles an hour.

LENFORD IMPRESSES

Most impressive among the boys has been Oceanside junior Charles Lenford, third in the state shot put at 61 feet, 8 inches, and ninth in the discus at 180-10.  The  shot put will be loaded, headed by the 71-11 1/2 of Bellflower St. John Bosco’s Matt Katnik, but Ledford seeming has not hit his ceiling.

Lenford teached 50 feet as a sophomore and qualified for the state finals with a 166-4 effort in the trials discus and was 12th in the finals at 155-7.

Lenford started this  season with a 54-10 3/4 effort in an indoor state meet in Clovis and has gradually gone up the ladder.  His 61-8 is 16th all-time in San Diego.

OCEANSIDE STUNG IN PASSING TOURNAMENT

How will Oceanside fare with coach John Carroll taking retirement?

It’s a long way to the fall, but the Pirates did not fare well in the recent San Juan Hills “Gunslinger” passing tournament against top Northern squads.

Oceanside was outscored by St. John Bosco, 52-6, Huntington Beach Edison, 42-2, Westlake Village Oaks Christian, 30-12, Santa Ana Mater Dei, 48-6, and San Juan Hills, 12-6.

Teams play 7 players against 7 players, with only passing plays.

San Diegans in state Top 10  as of Sunday, May 24:

GIRLS
[easytable class=”table table-condensed” style=”font-size: 10pt;”]
EVENT,NAME,SCHOOL,MARK,STATE,NAME,SCHOOL
100,Acolatse (3),Mission Hills,:11.46w,:11.38w,Williams, Westlake Village Oaks Christian
200,Acolatse (3),Mission Hills,:23.69,:22.68w,Williams
800,Akins (9),Rancho Bernardo,2:11.1,2:08.44,Smith,Clovis North
300H,Labrie-Smith (4),Cathedral,:42.62,:41.97,Graham,Corona Roosevelt
,Molter (8),Valhalla,:42.91,,,
4×400 Relay,,Cathedral Catholic (9),3:51.55,3:46.24,,Corona Roosevelt
Shot Put,Laulauga Tausaga (5),Mount Miguel,46-1,50-2 1/4,Bruckner,San Jose Valley
Discus,Tausaga (3),,156-7,182-8,Bruckner,
[/easytable]
BOYS
[easytable class=table table-condensed style=”font-size:10pt;”]
EVENT,NAME,SCHOOL,MARK,STATE,NAME,SCHOOL
Shot Put, Lenford (3),Oceanside,61-8,71-11 1/2,Katnik,Bellflower St. John Bosco
Discus,Lenford (9),,180-10,194-8,McMorris,Santa Ana Mater Dei
Long Jump,Tanner Battikha (5),St. Augustine,23-8 3/4,24-10 1/2, Vann,Oxnard Rio Mesa
Triple Jump,Miller (7),Oceanside,47-7 3/4,49-3,Smith,Moraga St. Mary’s College High
Pole Vault, Zawadski (7T),Patrick Henry,15-7,16-3 1/4,Lauf,El Dorado Hills Oak Ridge
[/easytable]

John Carroll’s retirement from Oceanside earlier this year has been followed by the departure of two other, successful, veteran San Diego Section coaches.

John Morrison, who took his 18 Francis Parker teams to 18 playoff berths, and Bill Dobson, whose 2011 team tied a Mountain Empire record for most wins in a season, also are leaving.

Other changes so far, according to John Maffei of UT-San Diego, include University City’s Charles James moving to San Diego, Patrick Coleman taking over at Del Norte, Will Gray at Kearny, and Rone Torres at Calvary Christian San Diego in Chula Vista.

Additional appointments have Roger Engle and Mikel Moran serving as co-coaches at Scripps Ranch and former Scripps Ranch coach Sergio Diaz becoming the new boss at Serra, where Brian Basteyns exited after 11 seasons.  Nehemiah Brunson is new at Army-Navy.

Morrison ranks 15^th among San Diego Section coaches with 146 victories and his .686 winning percentage, is 16^th among those with at least 100 victories (see link on website home page).

MORRISON MADE MARK 

Morrison took over at Parker in 1997 and built the program into one of the finest among California’s smaller schools (500 or less enrollment).

The Lancers won five league titles, 3 San Diego Section championships and made eight San Diego Section championship game appearances.

Parker lost an epic battle, 44-40, to Modesto Christian in the state small schools title game in 2009.

Dobson was 29-16 (.644) in five seasons at Mountain Empire.  The Redhawks were 9-2 in 2011, tying a school record for victories set by the 1983 squad.

The Pine Valley school, which opened in 1925 in Campo, earned one Manzanita League co-championship and was 5-0 in the “Battle for the Nest”.

A perpetual trophy goes to the winner of the annual Laguna Mountains bragging rights game between the Redhawks and Julian Eagles.

Diaz was 41-47-1 from 2002-09 at Scripps Ranch, but had a 34-25 record in his last five seasons.

NFL BECKONS

Joe Cardona, a long snapper at Navy who attended Granite Hills, was selected in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL draft by the New England Patriots. Cardona was the only player chosen from the San Diego Section.

QUICK KICKS

Brian Basteyns’ record at Serra from 2005-14 was 49-67-1 but included four league championships and a 9-3 record in 2012…D.J. Walcott has been serving as interim coach at Francis Parker…Dave Rodriguez, a former Oceanside player and assistant coach, replaced Carroll, who retired with 248 victories, second most in the San Diego Section to Herb Meyer’s 339…Charles James was 11-12 in two seasons at University City…Engle was Scripps Ranch’s first baseball coach and is the son of Roy Engle, who starred as a player at Hoover in the 1930s and was the Cardinals’ head coach from 1955-77…Calvary Christian Vista is said to be closing….

Retired after an honored career in the Marine Corps, Robert E. (Bull) Trometter took a high school job.

Trometter could employ a figurative steel fist while upholding the meaning of semper fidelis (always faithful, always loyal) as head coach at the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot in 1947-48, at Camp Pendleton in 1949, and at MCRD from 1953-59, but Trometter also would need a velvet glove at University of San Diego High.

The man used both, with aplomb.

Trometter took over the second year school with no tradition and less-than-adequate facilities in 1960 and went to playoffs, finishing 3-4.  He was 4-3 in 1961, then 5-2-1, and 6-2-1 in succeeding seasons.

Year 5 started badly against the strongest schedule in school history.

The Linda Vista school dropped a 19-13, opening game to Lincoln and then was run off the field in a 39-0 rout by Morse.

“If you’re going to play football, you might as well play good teams,” Trometter told Harlon Bartlett of the Evening Tribune.  “I don’t know how much harm or good it’s done; it remains to be seen.”

DONS LEARN HARD WAY

Trometter then got to the meat of his message.  “I know one thing, this is the first time a team has quit on me.

“I don’t think my kids know how to tackle.  We started knocking heads yesterday and we’ll keep at it all week until I find out who wants to play.  If we’ve got enough players left, we’ll play.  If not, we’ll forfeit.”

Uni lost its next game, 14-12, to Madison, then won its last seven, including a 40-0 destruction of Carlsbad in the Class A finals.

Trometter explained the Dons’ success after an Avocado League-clinching, 34-0 win over Vista. “We put in a boom series,” said Trometter.  “The Boom Series is when you block people.”

Trometter also begged off a trip to the showers from his exulting players.  “I have only one suit,” he pleaded.

Uni’s success would have an impact in the future.  The Dons would move from Class A to AA in 1965.  Trometter coached through the 1970 season, with a career record of 63-37-2.

EARTH TO EASTERN LEAGUE: WE’RE WAITING

How difficult is this?

About  60 teams annually make the San Diego Section playoffs in the 21st century, selected and seeded efficiently (if not agreeably) almost as soon  as the final whistle is heard in the regular season.

Granted, computers ensure a fast, handy set of brackets.

But go back to this year  and to a cantankerous Eastern League as it tried to determine one playoff spot out of a field of two.

That’s two, as in this shouldn’t be difficult.

San Diego and Lincoln tied for first place in the Eastern League, each with a 4-1 record.  Lincoln lost to Crawford, 25-7, while San Diego defeated Crawford, 21-19.

However, Lincoln  edged San Diego, 14-12.

Solution seems fairly simple.

Lincoln won the head-to-head, so it was the logical choice.

But the Hornets’ playoff selection wasn’t made until the next evening, 24 hours after a 13-0 victory over St. Augustine had clinched a share with San Diego of Lincoln’s first title since it began playing in 1954.

DIVINE INTERVENTION

By comparison, the Grossmont League resolved its playoff question less than two hours after Helix and Granite Hills came to the finish line with 4-1-1 records and in a tie for first.

Bob Divine, Monte Vista’s vice principal and retired Helix basketball coach, conducted a telephonic poll among the six other league representatives and got the issue settled in Helix’ favor.

But the Eastern League was slow to respond.

No reason was given for the delay, but that circuit long had a quasi-fratricidal history, dating to 1950, when city schools broke from the Coast League and formed the City Prep.

There was no love lost.

News accounts seemed more attuned to the quick and professional response by the Grossmont group.

AA BRACKET IS 4  TEAMS

Lincoln eventually would be aligned in the AA  first (semifinals) round against Kearny, the Western League champion and defending San Diego Section titlist.

Helix got Castle Park, a second-year Metropolitan League school that had improved from 1-7-1 to 6-2-1.

San Diego High was unhappy, believing it was the league’s strongest entry.

The Cavemen closed strongly with 4 straight wins and their 7-2 record was the best since 1959.

San Diego suggested that open voting in lieu of a telephonic poll would eliminate politics and perceived bias.

SLATER WEIGHS IN

Kearny coach Birt Slater got involved.

“I’m unhappy with the whole situation,” said Slater.  “You’d think there’d be a better way to run an election.  I called fifteen people Sunday morning and couldn’t find anyone who knew anything.”

Slater was miffed because he had summoned assistant coaches to his residence in Lemon Grove to plot a game plan.

Instead, the Kearny staff was forced to game plan for two teams, said Slater, wasting valuable time.

“Most of the schools were represented at the Lincoln-Saints game; they could have voted then,” the Kearny coach scoffed.  The head coach, however, sprung for the cold cuts, chips, and sodas.

A parting shot by Slater and echoed by most interested others was why would the CIF have a first round pairing of city versus city and county versus county?  Why not the other way around?

The CIF generally was tone deaf to anything other than the establishment of rules and the prosecution of violations.

IMPROVES ON ’63 MARK

Kearny (11-0) actually improved on the 10-1 record of the powerful 1963 club, defeating Castle Park, 34-19 in the finals and extending its winning streak to 21 games.

Kearny returned just 2 starters, all-Western League lineman Dan Fulkerson, end Frank Oberreuter, and only seven lettermen.

“I knew this would be a good team some day, but at the start of the season I thought it was a year away,” said Slater.

KOMETS RUN AND RUN

The Komets thrived on a rushing attack that was unrelenting and varied.

Fullback Jim Townsend (he became known as Jamie Townsend in college at San Jose State) had 801 yards, averaged 6.7 yards, and scored 80 points.

Junior Bobby Johnson, leadoff man on the Komets’ 880-yard relay team that ran 1:27.5 in the 1964 state meet, averaged 7.2 yards for 102 carries and scored 50 points.

The apple of Slater’s eye was junior quarterback Billy Bolden, who averaged 5.1 yards for 99 attempts and had a 52 per cent completion average and 738 yards passing. Bolden’s emergence was such that he was  San Diego Section player of the year.

Lincoln had no chance, bowing 26-7, as Townsend rushed for 89 yards in 18 carries, Johnson 70 in 14, and Bolden 39 in 8 as all three scored touchdowns before a crowd of 7,000 in Balboa Stadium.

Kearny was outgained, 316-298, and outdowned, 19-11, by Castle Park,  but Bolden and Johnson scored 5 touchdowns between them and the Komets raced to leads of 20-6, 26-12, and 34-13.

CASTLE WHO?

Johnson, scoring on runs of 83 and 51 yards, and Bolden accounted for all but 66 of Kearny’s total yardage.

Second-year Castle Park was the most surprising team in the County, riding out of the South Bay on the passing arm of 5-foot, 7-inch junior Billy Miller, who was intercepted three times by Kearny but was a tough and fearless leader of the emerging Trojans.

The Trojans made their intentions known early in a 27-0 victory over Chula Vista in a game that was Castle’s gain and the Spartans’ loss in more ways than one.

Art Gawf,  6-foot, 3-inch, 190-pound halfback,  pierced Chula Vista for 172 yards in 37 carries and scored one touchdown.  “I went to Chula as a sophomore,” said Gawf.  “I wanted this game more than any I’ve ever played.”

HIGHLANDERS LAID LOW

Castle Park shocked Helix, 26-20, in the first round as Miller threw for touchdowns of 71, 45, 37, and 52 yards after winning the Metropolitan League in a showdown with Sweetwater before an overflow crowd of 5,000 at the Red Devils’ Hudgins Field.

Three points after touchdown were the difference in the Trojans’ 21-19 victory at Sweetwater.  The winning conversions came on a seven-yard halfback pass from Doug Grace to Art Gawf after a penalty, on a Gawf plunge, and on an another pass, Grace to Tommy Bullis.

Grace also passed for 25 yards and a touchdown to Gawf.

SLOUGH’S JOURNEY

Point Loma manfully battled Kearny to a 13-13 tie entering the fourth quarter, despite losing its best player, fullback Greg Slough, controversially ejected for fighting in the first half.

Two Kearny touchdowns, the last a 38-yard scramble by Bolden with 34 seconds left, delivered a 26-13 victory.

This was not the last heard from Slough.

After playing at San Diego City College, Slough enlisted in the Army and did battle in Viet Nam, then returned to school, started at linebacker at USC and was drafted in the sixth round in 1971 by the Oakland Raiders of the NFL.

Slough left football after a third season with the L.A. Rams and one with the World Football League Hawaiians.

DISCRETION TRUMPS VALOR

San Miguel School coach Mervin Houston declined a small schools playoff bid against Carlsbad after the Knights had posted a 6-3 record that included a 12-7 win over a Mountain Empire team that qualified for the Southern Section small schools playoffs.

“We are just too small to compete with Carlsbad,” said Houston, who also cited a litany of bumps and bruises to his squad of 15 players. “We could probably stay with Carlsbad for 10 minutes.

BREITBARD FORMAT CHANGES

The 16^th annual College Prep All-star game now featured San Diego City vs. San Diego County.

From 1949-55, the game matched Southern California all-stars versus all-Los Angeles City. The contest was all-Los Angeles vs. all-San Diego from 1956-63.

Before the game, which the City won, 20-0 before 11,218 persons in Aztec Bowl, a moment of silence was observed for F.W. (Bill) Whitney, the executive director of the sponsoring Breitbard Athletic Foundation since its inception in 1946.

Whitney, who served as game managing director since 1949, passed three weeks before this year’s game.

The San Diego businessman, who was a volunteer foundation employee (he received a token payment of  $100 a month), also served for many years as San Diego’s only voting representative on the Helms Athletic Foundation all-Southern California selection committee.

The Southern California squad had a record of 5-2 against the L.A. City entries.  All-Los Angeles held a 5-3 edge on all-San Diego.

FOOTHILLS FAVORITES

Olander was a big name for a decade in the East County foothills.

Grossmont’s Roger Olander was one of the leading pole vaulters in the nation in 1958,  with a career best of 13 feet, 5 ¾ inches, before the revolution of technology in the pole vault.

Rick Olander cleared 14 feet, 7 inches, 10 years later at Helix.

In between Roger and Rick was Byron, who set records at Helix with a :09.6 100-yard dash and :21.4 220 in 1965.

Byron also was a standout on  coach Warren Vinton’s 6-2-1 football Highlanders, who were  surprised in the playoff semifinals, 26-20, by Castle Park.

Olander scored 12 touchdowns, had a 10-yard rushing average and was the most dangerous open-field runner in the County.

CLAIREMONT’S DON STEPS DOWN

Don Henson, 25-37-6 in six seasons at Kearny and Clairemont, stepped down as head coach.

“I guess the nervousness and tension caught up with me,” said Henson, a former University of Arizona player who was an assistant at Hoover, 1953-55, head coach at Kearny, 1956-58, and started the Clairemont program in 1959.

The Chieftains were 6-4 in Henson’s only winning season in 1962, led by the Western League’s player of the year, Bill Casey, who quarterbacked the Chiefs into the San Diego Section finals before they bowed to Escondido, 28-14.

WILD FINISH

Madison players rushed the field after Brandt Crocker’s 20-yard field goal with six seconds seemingly clinched a 3-0 victory over San Diego.

But the Warhawks then  unconventionally tried an onside kick and San Diego took over on  its 40-yard line with time for one play.

Quarterback Michael Marrs dropped back to pass, but was cornered.  Marr pitched to halfback Dennis Maley, who drilled a spiral downfield to Alex Dantzler.

Dantzler had two blockers in front of him when he caught the ball, but one  was an ineligible receiver.  Penalty, game over.

RED DEVILS’ LEGACY

Sweetwater’s Jim Finnerty  jogged the memories of longtime National Citians.

Finnerty’s father, Ralph, was a standout athlete and member of  the 1930 Sweetwater squad. Jim’s twin uncles, Lyle and Leon, starred on the 6-1-1 team of 1934 and Lyle was the County’s leading scorer with 73 points.

Jim more than honored the Finnerty name.  He set a school record with his 15th touchdown pass and was a standout in basketball and baseball.

TRUE GRID

El Cajon Valley won the Grossmont League junior varsity title with a 20-19 win over Helix in the final game…the loss snapped a Highlanders JV winning streak at 47 games…Crawford sophomore Bob Petretta ran 20 yards for a touchdown on his first career carry…Coronado improved its all-time series record to 26-16-4 with a 41-20 victory over Escondido and snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Cougars, dating to 1955…the Islanders first played Escondido in 1914….Hoover and Kearny had to move their season opener to Hoover from Westgate Park, because the baseball Padres were in the Pacific Coast League playoffs…Mountain Empire’s 6-1 regular season record was the best in school history, but the Redskins made an early exit from the Southern Section small schools playoffs, ushered out by Lake Arrowhead Rim of the World, 48-12….

Things perked up from 1-7 to 3-6 at Mission Bay, where coach Gerry Spitler outlined a play for Rick Tauber, Craig Sisson, and George Davis (from left).

John J. Montgomery High’s football history does not require an encyclopedic tome.

A few pages would be more than enough.

Most of those pages would be devoted to the 1982 season.  Coach John DeVore’s Aztecs posted a 9-2 record, the best in their history and one of the few winning seasons since the  Otay Mesa school opened in 1970.

Poets and rhapsodic observers might be moved to exclaim that Montgomery’s success under DeVore not only was rare, it was kismet.

The DeVore name resonates in the South Bay region.  John followed a path similar to that of Chet DeVore, his legendary father, who is remembered for football success at Chula Vista and for a long and respected tenure in administration.

When he retired in 2010, John DeVore had been principal at Sweetwater Union district schools Southwest and Olympian and had posted the best record ever for a Montgomery coach.

DeVore was the third head coach in Montgomery history.  His won-loss record of 49-35-5 from 1976-83 has not been approached.  Julio Alcala’s 35-47-1 is next.

MONTY’S YEAR?

Big enough, fast enough, and fairly deep, Montgomery was 6-0 in nonleague games and went to 9-0 overall and 3-0 in Mesa League play with a dramatic, 20-17 victory over visiting Castle Park.

Behind for the first time all year, the Aztecs had the ball on the 16-yard line of Castle Park and trailed, 17-13.  Quarterback Bernardo Vasquez scrambled and hit Joe Clifton for the winning score with a minute left in the game.

Clifton was the fourth or fifth receiver on Vasquez’ progression list.  Star wideout Art Ramsey was roughed up out of bounds at the end of the first quarter, then was ejected for retaliating.

SWEETWATER PREVAILED

Victory over the traditionally difficult Trojans was a formidable achievement, but not enough. Old nemesis Sweetwater won the league championship the following week by defeating the Aztecs, 20-6.

Montgomery didn’t give in to James Primus, the County’s leading rusher, who scored 6 touchdowns and rushed for 305 yards in his previous game.

The bigger Red Devils came at their lighter opponents with repeated student body power sweeps, but Primus had to work, rushing 29 times for a hard-earned 115 yards and one touchdown as Sweetwater broke a 6-6 tie in the fourth quarter.

Montgomery’s season ended when Morse, another rugged squad, took a 13-12 decision in the first round of the San Diego Section AAA playoffs.

Misfortune struck the Aztecs on the second half kickoff when Darryl Rosette ran 90 yards for a touchdown and a 13-6 Morse lead after Montgomery had outplayed the Tigers throughout the first half.

PRACTICE NOT PERFECT

The Aztecs practiced kicking away from the dangerous Rosette all week, and then unintentionally kicked to him.

Monty struck back with a 14-play, 69-yard touchdown drive but a two-point conversion attempt was unsuccessful and a bad snap from center aborted a late field goal attempt that could have the won the game.

“Most teams didn’t throw,” said DeVore, who played quarterback in high school at Hilltop.  “We had a good quarterback, a good offensive line and really strong wideouts.

“Beating Castle Park before a sold out stadium was a real high point.  I think the difference between us and Sweetwater is that Sweetwater had been in that type of game and we hadn’t.”

JOHN J. WHO?

Montgomery High is named after a Northern California aviator who became airborne two decades before the Wright brothers.  Montgomery piloted a glider from a hill on Otay Mesa in 1883, near where the school campus sits today.

As there were no independent observers of Montgomery’s flight some aeronautical historians doubted the feat. It was not recognized until 1894.

According to historian Donald Harrison, aviation pioneers conducted their tests in great secrecy in order to be the first to bring their inventions to the patent office, so only relatives claimed to be witnesses to Montgomery’s 600-foot flight in a flying machine with curved wings.

Montgomery was killed in 1911 in a crash of another glider and is buried near San Francisco.

Several schools here and the Montgomery airport on San Diego’s Kearny Mesa honor his name. The wing of a World War II era plane stands upright on the hill in Otay Mesa, where John J. was said to have taken flight.

WRITER CALLS TIME

Visiting San Pasqual and Torrey Pines were earnestly going at it early in the season’s opening game.  A late arrival was The San Diego Union reporter Steve Brand, who looked at the scoreboard and noted that 12 minutes, 30 seconds remained in the first quarter.

As the Evening Tribune’s Bud Maloney explained, “In the tenor of ‘What’s going on here?'” Brand quizzed colleagues on the field, who hadn’t noticed.

Brand continued to pose the question as he watched the teams play a 15-minute quarter, okay for college and pro games but 3 minutes more than for high school.

The scoreboard clock lined up at 15:00 when the second quarter started.

Brand couldn’t stand it any longer.

COACH SURPRISED

The veteran scribe made his way into into the Torrey Pines bench area, seeking out Falcons coach Ed Burke.

Brand, voice rising:  “Are the high schools playing fifteen-minute quarters now?”

Burke, puzzled by Brand’s presence and by what the coach considered a peculiar question:  “Ah, no, we still play twelve minutes.” Brand:  “Well, you’ve just played a fifteen-minute quarter and it looks like you’re going to play another.”

Burke blinked as he looked at the scoreboard clock, then hailed the closest official and pointed to the scoreboard. Arm-waving and more pointing continued as other officials and San Pasqual coach Bob Woodhouse joined the conversation.

IRRIGATION SYSTEM PART OF PLAY

The game timekeeper was summoned and an official conference was called. There was discussion about a nine-minute second quarter but agreement was finally reached on the regulation 12 minutes for the last three quarters.

As if on cue, water sprinklers came on just before halftime, adding to a comedic scene.

Fortunately the teams were at the other end of the field and a valve was shut off before the contest had to be stopped.

San Pasqual won the 51-minute game, 21-16. One of  the longest regular-season, non-overtime high school contest in San Diego history.  Quarters were 15 minutes for many years decades earlier.

NEW CENTURIONS AND OTHERS

University City High, which opened in 1981, played a varsity schedule for the first time.  Mission Bay High played games on a home field for the first time since the school opened in 1953.  New lights were in at Fallbrook and “not quite” in at Southwest.

Sixty-four light banks, at $315 each, were needed to illuminate the field at Fallbrook.  Twenty-thousand dollars was raised as the money was collected in shares of $315 each.

JUST FINE, THANK YOU!

The question was posed to Helix coach Jim Arnaiz:  “What’s life like without Jim Plum, Allan Durden, Karl Dorrell, and Dan Hammerschmidt?”

Helix answered with an opening, 30-6 win over Patrick Henry and rolled to a 12-1 record, and topped Mt. Carmel, 10-6, in the 3-A championship at Southwestern College.

The Highlanders weren’t rebuilding but reloading.

Arnaiz’ big four led Helix to a combined 29-4-1 record in the last three seasons, but Scott Webb, who replaced Plum at quarterback; running back Steve Webster, receiver Tony Necoechea, and defender  Chuck Cecil, among others, stepped up.

Cecil, also a dangerous kick returner, transferred in the previous winter from the Central Section’s Hanford in the San Joaquin Valley.  Cecil’s hard-hitting reputation followed him to the University of Arizona and into the NFL, where he played and coached.

SCOTS’ SCOTT

Scott Webb’s point after and field goal were the difference as the Highlanders won their 51^st game (against 7 losses and a tie) in the last five seasons, defeating Mt. Carmel, in San Diego Stadium.

Webb stepped in at quarterback this season after sitting behind Jim Plum since Scott was a freshman and directed the Scots to a dozen wins, many of which positioned by his solid leadership and by his kicking leg.

Webb scored 3 touchdowns, 41 points after, and 12 field goals for 95 points, fourth in the San Diego Section. He set a Section record with 5 field goals (plus two extra points for a record 17) in a 29-0 victory over Granite Hills.  Webb’s career totals included 120 points after and 29 field goals.

NOT DECLAWED DESPITE RECORD

Coach Dick Haines’s Vista Panthers were only 4-6 but they scored one of the biggest victories in program history, knocking off the state’s third-ranked team, Huntington Beach Edison, 6-0, in Week 2.

A crowd of 8,000 at Vista watched as Scott Black kicked 47- and 43-yard field goals in a span of 49 seconds in the second quarter to end the Chargers’ 36-game, regular-season winning streak.

Five of Vista’s six losses were to teams with a combined record of only 24-29-2, but the Panthers also defeated Morse, a 8-4 playoff semifinalist, 23-14. They lost to 2-A champion El Camino,12-0, and 3-A finalist Mt. Carmel, 27-10.

FLAT FINALE

When regulation play ended and Point Loma and El Camino were tied, 6-6, in the 2-A championship, the 6,000 fans in attendance at Mt. Carmel High expected an overtime session and let their displeasure be known when CIF commissioner Kendall (Spider) Webb declared the teams co-champions.

Playoff rounds through the semifinals have overtimes because one team has to advance.  Fans were expecting a tie-breaker, although no provision had been made for one. It was the second championship tie in the 23 seasons of the CIF San Diego Section.  Escondido and San Diego deadlocked at 21 in 1969.

WIN ONE FOR THE BENNIE

His coaching career at Point Loma was in season number 28 and Bennie Edens said he’d never witnessed anything like the Pointers’ big Western League win over Clairemont.

“I told the kids at halftime that whether we won or lost I was prouder of them than any team I’ve ever coached,” said the Bennie.  “I’ve never seen anything like it, being hit like we were and then coming back to win.”

Clairemont scored on the first two plays it possessed the ball, Chris Hardy running 71 and 49 yards for touchdowns.  The Pointers fought back, going 58, 76, and 58 yards for a 19-13 halftime lead. The lead switched twice more before Clairemont etched a tie at 27 with eight minutes left in the game.

After Eric Allen ran 67 yards to the Chieftains’ 9, Point Loma’s David Rod kicked a 25-yard field goal. Rod’s kick gave the Pointers a final, 30-27 advantage as the teams, apparently spent, did not score in the final 7:06.

CAVERS LEGEND FEELS PAIN

One week after the crushing loss to Point Loma, Clairemont took out its disappointment on San Diego, 76-6, prompting a call from writer Steve Brand to retired Cavers coach Duane Maley.

The Cavers were 97-19-2 under Maley from 1948-59 but their program had not been the same since.

“It’s incredible that it could happen to a school with such a rich history,” said Maley.  “I believe the type of athlete attending Sn Diego High has changed.  It’s sad the program has slipped to that level.”

Maley did not point a finger.  “I know (Clairemont coach) Steve Miner and he purposely wouldn’t run the score up on anyone.  He’s a fine young man.”

The widest margin of victory for a Maley-coached team at was in a 59-0 victory over La Jolla in 1958.

“It’s foreign for a coach to tell his players not to play hard,  to tell a fourth stringer to ease up,” said Maley.  “We tried to let everyone play when the game started to get out hand, and we had more players then.”

POINTERS, SUNDEVILS, AND NFL

Probably 300 to 400 San Diego-area preps have landed on active rosters in the NFL or other pro football leagues, beginning with San Diego’s Brick Muller with the 1926 Los Angeles Buccaneers and Russ Saunders with the Green Bay Packers in 1931.

Few have surpassed the career of Eric Allen, a standout on Bennie Edens’ 11-0-1 Pointers and  a second-round draft choice out of Arizona State, the 30^th player selected in the 1988 NFL draft by Philadelphia.

Allen played 14 seasons for three teams, is in the all-time top 15 with 54  pass interceptions, with eight touchdown returns; earned 6 Pro Bowl berths, and played in 214 of a possible 217 games.

TRUE GRID

The 3-A championship was played in the afternoon at Southwestern College…high rent costs forced the 3-A and 2-A  games out of San Diego Jack Murphy…El Camino coach Herb Meyer called his team the “Dirty Thirty”…the Wildcats never dressed out more than 30 players and sometimes less…a week after resigning at the end of the season  to spend more time with his family, Patrick Henry coach Dale Twombley was replaced by longtime assistant Walt Baranski…Baranski was a Hoover graduate, class of 1957;  Twombley was Hoover, ’63…Edens on  the 2-A tie:  “I would have loved to win and of course Herb feels the same way, but perhaps a tie is fitting; we had a great game between two great teams”…Meyer:  “A tie is what we deserved, as bad as we played”…Edens was the Section’s senior coach, followed by Meyer (24 seasons), La Jolla’s Gene Edwards (23), and Vista’s Dick Haines (13)…Point Loma went undefeated in the regular season for the first time since 1939…Ronnie Lewis was successful on Morse’s first field goal attempt since 1977, a 26-yarder in the 10-6 win over Madison…Monte Vista standout Herb Duncan showed some of the moves that reminded Chargers fans of his dad, the great punt returner and defensive back Leslie (Speedy) Duncan…Morse and Serra played in the second annual Friendship Bowl and were the only city schools playing 10 regular-season games…Bennie Edens of Point Loma and John Shacklett of Morse started the series in 1981…Morse topped Serra, 20-7….

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