Preseason games don’t have the import of regular-season contests, which carry the prestige of potential league championships and playoff seedings, but the early intersectionals have their own realities.

Do well in these games and gain ratings.

Have high ratings and increase the possibility of state playoff invitations.

Many intersectionals will be played the week of Aug. 29, with Oceanside, Cathedral, and Eastlake serving as sites for the annual Brothers in Arms carnival.

One of those first week attractions sends St. Augustine to Oceanside in a battle of San Diego Section powers who were a combined 21-5 last season. Oceanside won the 2013 matchup, 47-28.

TEAM 2013 OPPONENT 2013 SITE Carlsbad 9-3 Temecula Great Oak 6-5 There Cathedral 11-2 Folsom 14-1 Home Cathedral 11-2 Westlake Village Oaks Christian 8-3 Oceanside Cathedral 11-2 Newbury Park 5-5 Away Christian 12-1 San Luis Obispo Mission Prep 11-3 Away Eastlake 10-2 Mesa Desert Ridge, Arizona 11-2 Home Eastlake 10-2 Los Alamitos 9-3 Away Francis Parker 10-1 Honolulu Arthur Radford 7-3 Home Helix 9-3 Ventura St. Bonaventure 8-4 Cathedral Helix 9-3 Loomis Del Oro 13-3 Oceanside La Costa Canyon 7-4 Corona del Mar 16-0 Cathedral La Costa Canyon 7-4 Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills 6-4 Home Mar Vista 4-6 Santa Cruz Harbor 2-8 Away Mar Vista 4-6 San Gabriel Gabrieleno 7-4 Away Mission Hills 12-2 Provo Timpview, Utah 13-1 Cathedral Oceanside 10-3 Mission Viejo 11-1 Home Oceanside 10-3 Temecula Chaparral 8-4 Away St. Augustine 11-2 L.A. Loyola 4-6 Away St. Augustine 11-2 Murrieta Vista Murrieta 12-2 Away Santa Fe Christian 6-5 Santa Barbara Bishop Diego 10-3 Away Torrey Pines 6-5 Pleasant Grove, Utah 9-3 Eastlake Valley Center 3-7 Redwood City Sequoia 5-5 Home Westview 2-9 Avondale Westview, Arizona 10-1 Away COACHING  CHANGES Not all returns are in, but at least nine coaches will be debuting with their teams when presesason games begin Aug. 29. There has been one head coaching switch.  Ron Gladnick  left Clairemont to head up the Torrey Pines program. NAME SCHOOL REPLACED Drew Westling Chula Vista Judd Rachow Joe Kim Clairemont Ron Gladnick Jon Goodman Classical Jon Burnes John  Roberts El Camino Pulu Poumele Tyler Hales La Jolla Country Day Jeff Hutzler Lance Christensen Otay Ranch Anthony Lacsina Jason Patterson Orange Glen Kris Plash Ron Gladnick Torrey Pines Scott Ashby Scott Catlin San Ysidro Tyler Arciaga

 

They could have asked Bennie Edens.

Writers and prep experts comprising the selection panel for The San Diego Union weekly Top 10 may well have consulted the Point Loma coach.

No one could have offered more expert testimony than Bennie.

The peninsula wise man coached his 38^th team at the Chatsworth Boulevard enclave and lost to the No’s. 1, 2, 3, and 7 teams this season.

Add another defeat to University City, which was 9-1 and didn’t make the Top 10.  The Pointers were beaten by five clubs with a combined record of 47 wins and three losses.

Poway, which eliminated the Pointers, 14-10, in the first round of the playoffs, finished with a 10-4 record.

Six teams at a combined 57-7!

The final Union regular-season poll:

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	POINTS
1.	Morse	10-0	39
2.	Helix	10-0	36
3.	El Camino	9-1	32
4.	El Capitan	9-1	28
5.	Mt. Carmel	8-1-1	21
6.	San Pasqual	9-1	20
7.	Kearny	9-1	13
8.	Orange Glen	7-3	11
9.	Torrey Pines	8-2	7
10.	Castle Park	8-2	5

St. Augustine was another 9-1 team looking up at the Top 10, as was Poway, 7-3 in the regular season.

MORSE CODE UNBROKEN

John Shacklett’s tiger had different spots this season but still claimed its second 3-A title in three seasons in its fifth trip to the finals in the last six.

The Tigers of Morse were ranked fourth in the country by USA Today in 1990 when they outscored 14 opponents by an average of 46-13.

Shacklett’s 1992 squad wasn’t as explosive, averaging 29 points in another 14-0 season but allowing only an average of 6.

Crushing defense and tough, slashing running by Archie Amerson (675 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns in one three-game stretch and 3-A offensive player of year) and three-year veteran Conan Smith (defensive player of the year)  were staples of Shacklett’s  squad, which won a fourth  championship in six tries.

TORREY  COMES OUT OF WEEDS

El Camino was looking for its fourth straight 2-A title but its 15-game playoff winning streak was broken, and convincingly, 38-13, by Torrey Pines.

The Falcons survived a season in which their quarterback, Ryan Lynch, was involved in a one-game suspension controversy and was lost with an injury in the middle of the 27-21, semifinal victory over San Pasqual.

BOWS TO BURKE

Torrey Pines’ Brian Batson spoke of coach Ed Burke:

“I can’t say enough about him and what he’s done for this football program.  It used to be all we’d think about on Friday nights was where the party was after the game.”

Burke, who coached the Falcons from 1980-84, returned this season and inherited a 4-6-1 team.

“I’m still in a state of shock,” said Burke, who led a program that until four weeks before  never had won a playoff game.

“This is El Camino,” Burke said to writer Ed Graney.  “This is no run-of-the-mill program.  These are people we’ve admired for a long time. To win is great.  To win this convincingly is overwhelming.”

GROSSMONT INFERS

One victory in 15 seasons against a neighborhood rival that is your essential progeny can lead to indigestion.

Two  fourth-quarter touchdowns that led to a 14-11 loss to Helix stirred acid reflux in Grossmont coach Judd Hulburt, whose postmortem included a sour observation:

“I like to refer to them as the East County All-Stars,” said Hulburt.

“They have players from (Canyon Country) Canyon, Mount Miguel, and other areas.  It’s hard to recruit speed and they certainly have it.”

Teneil Ethridge, a transfer from Mount Miguel, rushed for 74 yards in 16 carries and scored the Highlanders’ first touchdown on an eight-yard run. Quarterback Jeremy Gottlieb and Marc Baskin teamed on a 25-yard scoring pass for the winner.

COACH BACKS OFF

“Well,” Hulburt said to writer Jim Trotter two days later, “if I’m going to be on the record, I’m going to be very careful about what I say.”

“I’m just saying it looks really strange that Helix gets good athletes in its program year after year.”

Hulburt denied accusing the Helix coaching staff of recruiting but said something about Helix parents and boosters proselytizing off-the-books.

ARNAIZ SCRATCHES HEAD

Highlanders coach Jim Arnaiz was nonplussed.

“I just don’t know where he’s coming from,” said the 20-season mentor of the Highlanders.  “I know what I’ve done, what our staff has done, and I know how we handle our program.  We have nothing to be embarrassed about.

“We have been known statewide as a good athletic school as well as a good academic school,” Arnaiz added.  “Yes, we’ve had some good fortune of having great players show up on our doorstep, wanting to be part of a winning tradition.”

As an example, Arnaiz noted that when Chuck Cecil’s dad was job transferred from Hanford in the San Joaquin Valley to San Diego “he researched East County.  That’s how Chuck ended up at Helix in 1982.”

Cecil’s fierce play as a linebacker and safety led the Highlanders to the 3-A championship in 1982.  He went on to play and coach in the NFL.

Arnaiz had amassed 147 victories and was 12-6-2 against the Foothillers from the time of his appointment as the Scots’ coach in 1973 and 12-2-2 since 1977.

COUNCIL GOES AGAINST BOARD

The San Diego Section coordinating council unanimously voted, in the middle of the season, to return to a 16-team playoff bracket after the Section board of managers voted to reduce the number of playoff teams to 12 for this year.

The 16-team format had been in effect since 1989.

The board’s decision had met with criticism, partly because several concerned groups, including the coordinating council, had no opportunity to discuss the proposed reduction.

GO WEST, WILDCATS

An obscure but telling statistic to come out of the 2-A playoffs involved El Camino and its 24-14 victory over Kearny in the quarterfinals.

The win was the Wildcats 12^th in a row over a Western League squad in the playoffs, dating their 39-28 win over Kearny for the 2-A title in 1976, the year El Camino opened after splitting from Oceanside.

“I know (Western League) coaches get tired of hearing this, but we play tough football in the Avocado League,”  said Wildcats coach Herb Meyer.

COMES IN THREES

Chula Vista means beautiful view, but the Spartans’ view was anything but on a particular Friday night after a galling, 22-19 loss to San Diego Southwest.

–The Spartans surrendered the Metropolitan League championship after four consecutive titles.

–This, after their 36-game, league unbeaten streak came to an end the previous week in a loss to Castle Park.

–The Spartans were beaten by Southwest for the first time in seven years.

CATCH OR…?

Chula Vista coach George Ohnessorgen saw a fumble; the officials saw a completed pass.

Southwest faced a fourth-and-five midway in the fourth quarter at the Chula Vista 10-yard line. Raiders quarterback O’Brien Woods passed to Tony Diaz, who caught the pass at the three and was hit by J.J. Rosier. The ball came loose.  Southwest’s Danny Lim recovered.

Chula Vista celebrated, thinking the pass was incomplete. Game officials ruled that Diaz caught the ball and that Diaz’ feet hit the ground before before he fumbled, making the pass a completion.

Southwest scored on the next play.

“I’m sorry for the kids that the game had to be taken away on a bad play,” Ohnessorgen said to writer Tom Shanahan, “but we made some critical mistakes and Southwest did a good job of coming back (from deficits of 13-0 and 19-14).”

Raiders coach Alan Kaylor didn’t exactly have a straight face when he told Shanahan, “It was a catch.  We’ll have to look at the films.”

WHY BECOME A COACH?

“Sometimes I have no idea,” said Ed Burke.  “Unfortunately for me, I’m one of the weirdos who chooses to do this.”

The legendary Torrey Pines coach was addressing the question posed by Ed Graney of The San Diego Union.

Long hours, myriad logistics, and problems with players and parents are only part of a high school coach’s job.

“It gets to a point where you are validating your lifestyle around how determined 16- and 17-year-old kids are at winning football games,” said Vic Player of Lincoln.

“We sat down once, figured out how many hours we spent during the season, and the pay (actually a stipend) came out to something like 12 cents per hour,” said San Pasqual’s Mike Dolan.

The three coaches may at times have had a love-hate relationship with their profession, but they couldn’t resist the lure.

Together the three won more than 500 games.

KICKOFF CLASSIC

Four of the County’s most renowned coaches got together in the spring and came up with the idea for a season-opening doubleheader. Vista was the venue, with Herb Meyer’s preseason No. 1 El Camino squad meeting No. 2 Point Loma and John Shacklett’s No. 6 Morse Tigers taking on Craig Bell’s No. 4 Rancho Buena Vista Longhorns.

An added fillip was Meyer, the County’s winningest coach (243) against Edens, No. 2 (211).

The buildup was greater.   El Camino stifled Point Loma, 20-0, and Morse ran away from RBV, 45-29.

CALL THIS A SOFT OPENING

Morse actually began the season 2,600 miles away several days earlier in Hawaii, marking its eighth consecutive lid-lifter in the islands.

The Tigers were joined by three other San Diego Section teams that took part in a 10-team carnival at Aloha Stadium.

The surfeit of games honored Shawn Akina, a 19-year-old Honolulu Punahou graduate who died of a heart ailment at the University of Utah, where he was going to play football.

The Tigers defeated Kamehameha, 22-15, in the third and final game on a Friday evening card that ended well after midnight.

Kickoff for the first game was at 6:30 p.m., Kaneohe Castle defeating Monte Vista, 6-2.

Orange Glen’s 22-20 victory over Punahou began at 9 p.m., followed by Morse at 11:30.

Lincoln fell behind, 21-0, and came up short, losing 34-24 to Kahuku the next evening.  Mountain View of Mesa, Arizona, and Honolulu St. Louis appeared in the final contest.

EAGLE LATE TAKING FLIGHT

Someone was snoozing.

San Pasqual’s 34-20, quarterfinals playoff win over Santana was notable for a  very slow- developing touchdown.

The Golden Eagles’ David Villa intercepted a pass by Santana’s Doug Schultz five yards deep in San Pasqual’s end zone. Villa tucked the pigskin under his arm and began moseying off the field to give the ball to an equipment man for safekeeping.

“I was thinking about keeping the ball as a memento,” said Villa.  “But then everyone started yelling at me to run with it.”

Run Villa did, 105 yards for a touchdown and a 19-10 Eagles lead at halftime.

FOOTBALL FOR FEMALES

Addie Jacobs, a second-team, all-San Diego Section choice in girls’ soccer last year, kicked an extra point for Madison in the Warhawks’ 14-7 loss to Patrick Henry.

Jacobs is believed to be the second young lady to appear and score for a local squad, joining San Diego’s Mia Lebowitz, who kicked a field goal as San Diego defeated St. Augustine, 3-0, in 1988.

Jacobs wasn’t the only female on the Madison squad.  Dawn Collins also kicks for the Warhawks, as does Sheila Walsh for Clairemont.

BEST IN WEST(BROOK)

El Camino’s Bryant Westbrook was one of three players to get all ten Pacific 10 head coaches’ votes for the Long Beach Press-Telegram’s annual “Best in the West” team.

Westbrook, who also was the San Diego Section 2-A defensive player of the year, was joined by running back Lawrence Phillips of Baldwin Park and quarterback Pat Barnes of Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills.

The coaches may have viewed game film of Westbrook in El Camino’s 14-0 victory over Carlsbad.

A  205-pound defensive back, Westbrook intercepted a pass, returned a fumble recovery for a touchdown, forced a fumble, and caught a touchdown pass against the Lancers.

Westbrook was known as a big-hitting cornerback at the University of Texas and was the fifth selection in the first round by the Detroit Lions in the 1997 NFL draft. He played seven seasons.

Westbrook was the latest future NFL standout that Herb Meyer coached at Oceanside and El Camino.

The list also included Willie Buchanon, Dokie Williams, Darron Norris, and Jayice Pearson.

‘VILLE’S VIKINGS VICTORIOUS

Holtville, 44-7-1 since 1987, won its fourth straight 1-A championship in its fifth title game in a row.  Anthony Iten passed for three touchdowns as coach Sam Faulk’s Vikings topped Mountain Empire 41-6.

QUICK KICKS

Conana Smith scored 22 touchdowns and 132 points and was third in the San Diego Section in scoring but was not even the leader on his team…running back mate Archie Amerson had 23 touchdowns and 138 points…Kearny’s James Curtis was first with 144…San Diego’s star was quarterback-defensive back Jacque Jones, who went on to play 10 seasons in the major leagues with 165 home runs and a  career .277 average…Tommy Casper, the son of legendary golfer and former U.S. Open winner Billy Casper, was a starting tackle for Bonita Vista and also a member of the Barons’ golf team…Grossmont’s six wins in  its 6-5 season were against teams collectively 13-39, none witha winning record…San Pasqual defeated Lincoln, 28-22, for a 4-1 postseason record against the Hornets after the teams met  for the fifth time in six postseasons…Julian whipped Francis Parker, 37-20, in the final regular-season game, then turned around the next week to defeat the Lancers, 34-14, for the 8-Man championship…San Diego High athletic director Allan (Scotty) Harris touted safety Marlin McWilson as the first Caver in 18 years to bid for a college Division I scholarship…McWilson went on to play at California…Cavers Michael Hayes (USC) and Frankie Wilson (UCLA) won schollies after the 1974 season…a preseason publication rated Lincoln’s Akili Smith among  the top 13 quarterbacks in the nation…Linebacker Tom Stehly was the seventh brother to play football at Orange Glen…one more was coming, sophomore Pat, who was on the junior varsity…the 34 career field goals by Rancho Bernardo’s Nate Tandberg stood as a state record until 2010, when a kicker from Upland completed his career with 39…attendance for the championships at Jack Murphy Stadium was 8,182….

Successive records of 4-7, 0-10, and 6-6, had turned whispers into shouts at Vista. Had Dick Haines, borrowing baseball parlance, lost the hop on his fastball?

Two state No. 1 rankings, three San Diego Section titles, and 11 league championships were a distant memory until the Panthers shot down Morse, 21-7, in the season’s third week, erasing 57-14 and 48-14 losses to the Tigers in 1990.

Morse came into the game No. 1 in San Diego County, No. 2 in Southern California, No. 3 in California, and No. 20 in the country.

From that redeeming moment the rebuilt Panthers went all the way to 13-0 before losing to Point Loma, 14-0, in the Section 3-A title game.

It may have been Haines’s finest hour.

Vista’s retreat in the late ‘eighties was traced to the school district’s arbitrary and perceived gerrymandering of enrollment boundaries that favored newcomer Rancho Buena Vista.

The fledgling Longhorns won section titles in two of their first three seasons, corresponding with Vista’s decline.

Cries of political wheeling and dealing were heard.

REVENGE BY HIGHER-UPS?

Haines, often feisty and confrontational, wasn’t the most popular employee in the Vista School District.

“Dick felt very slighted after the split, “said Morse coach John Shacklett.  “Maybe if someone was doing something just to get him, I don’t know.”

Shacklett, speaking with Ed Graney of The San Diego Union, was a fan of his coaching rival.

“No matter what kind of talent he has been dealt, he always gets the most out of his kids,” said Shacklett.   “He loves to win but is gracious in defeat.  He certainly has been a force.”

Haines’ son, Rik, a head coach at Redmond in Washington State and former Torrey Pines head coach, may have put it best to Graney: “Really, he’s about as steady as rain in Seattle.”

MORE OR LESS FOR MORSE?

Morse was 3-0 with 17 consecutive victories after a 30-18 win over Carson, an L.A. City Section power that was ranked fifth in the state.

Gary Taylor, who was the state’s Junior Player of the Year, in 1990, rushed for 153 yards, gained 253 all-purpose yards, and scored three touchdowns.

The Tigers appeared positioned to make a second straight championship run, but they fell to Vista the next week, stumbled in Week 5 against Lincoln, 34-28, were shocked by Mira Mesa, 31-13, in Week 8, and shut out by Point Loma, 16-0, in Week 10.

The Tigers still were explosive, averaging 33.2 points and scoring 398 points in 12 games, but their season came to an end in the San Diego Section quarterfinals.

Vista did it a second time, eliminating Morse, 17-10.

IRON GLOVE(R)

La’Roi Glover was destined to play at Point Loma High, almost from the first day he boarded a bus in the Skyline District that took him to his kindergarten class at Silvergate Elementary on the peninsula.

The youngster graduated to Collier Junior High near Ocean Beach and arrived as a freshman at Point Loma, at 14 too young to play varsity but  teamed on the defensive line with his older brother, Darcel, as a sophomore.

AWARDS AND TITLES

Glover’s career at Point Loma included two San Diego Section co-player-of-the-year awards  and it was Glover’s presence in the middle of the Pointers’ defensive line that propelled coach Bennie Edens to his third championship in six tries.

The 13-1 Pointers allowed only 88 points, an average of a touchdown a game.  No team scored more than 14.

Glover also lettered in wrestling and track and field and his football accomplishments were such that Glover’s jersey number 76 was retired at Point Loma, joined only by Marcel Brown’s 22 and Eric Allen’s 25.

The 6-foot-2, 290-pounder was a fifth-round draft choice of the Oakland Raiders out of San  Diego Sate and went on to play 13 NFL seasons, mostly with New Orleans, and with Dallas and the St. Louis Rams.

Glover earned six Pro Bowl invitations and was the NFL’s 2000 defensive player of the year.  He had 84.5 career sacks after posting 44.5 tackles for loss in four seasons at San Diego State.

LANCERS WILL MISS THEM

Hilltop wistfully waved good bye when Jorge Munoz, Bobby Lugo, and the seniors on the 8-3 squad moved on.

Although beaten by Morse, 44-22, in the first round of the playoffs, the Lancers’ record was their best since the Stan Canaris-coached squads were 8-2 and 9-1 in 1978 and ’79.

If they’d known what the future held there might have been a move afoot to change some birthdates and grant additional eligibility for Munoz and pals.

Just kidding, but there would be no replacing Munoz, who finished runner-up to Helix’ Jim Plum in career passing with 5,712 yards.

Munoz threw for 298 yards and 3 touchdowns in the loss to Morse and finished a great senior season with 25 touchdown passes and 2,543 yards.

Lugo took in 9 of Munoz’ aerial darts for 226 yards and three touchdowns against Morse and led the San Diego section with 64 catches, 1,295 yards, and 12 touchdowns.

The Lancers began a 11-42 funk in 1992 that lasted until 1995, and then fell off the grid with a 47-99 stretch from 1997-2010.

DIRTY TRICK?

Castle Park won a contentious Metropolitan League game at Sweetwater, 25-20.

Cue a substance hitting the fan.

Leading, 19-14, early in the third quarter, Castle faced a fourth and five at its 45-yard line.

Scott Whitman, in punt formation, took a snap from center but did not launch a kick, instead passing toward the Trojans’ sideline, where receiver Dujuan Franklin stood, 20 yards from the nearest Red Devils defender.

Franklin caught Whitman’s spiral and hustled 55 yards for a touchdown and 25-14 lead.

Sweetwater coach Gene Alim was outraged.

Alim claimed that Franklin came off the sideline onto the field of play, undetected by game officials and the Sweetwater defense.

“You have to be within 15 yards of the huddle,” said Alim.  “It’s a heckuva way to lose a game.”

COACH CONTRADICTED

“He came from the huddle,” retorted Castle Park coach Alan Duke, denying subterfuge.

But Daniel Bean, The San Diego Union correspondent, spoke with Franklin, who didn’t identify Duke or a particular member of Duke’s staff,  but said,  “The coach told me to step off the sidelines.  I never went into the huddle.”

HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL

Such could have been said of Chad Davis, who brought an accurate passing arm to Mira Mesa, his third high school in four years.  Davis previously was at Palm Springs and Torrey Pines.

Marauders coach Brad Griffith hired Chad’s father, Bob Davis, as offensive coordinator. Bob Davis had been head coach at Torrey Pines in 1989-90.

Davis an outstanding passer with a strong supporting cast paced by future NFL running back Mike Pittman, led Mira Mesa to the 3-A semifinals and a 9-4 finish.  Included was a 31-13 upset at Morse.

Davis kept Morse off balance  with rollouts and steady passing, completing 12 of 19 passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns.  The Marauders’ defense almost shut down Gary Taylor, who was held to 60 in 17 carries.

Davis eventually bettered the national career passing  record of 9,182 yards, set by Capistrano Valley’s Todd Marinovich, although controversy seem to follow the youngster and his coach father.

The elder Davis periodically was accused of calling plays that allowed Chad to pad his stats and that many his completions came on low-risk  “shovel” passes.

ANOTHER GOOF 

Davis was involved as a defensive player in the most pivotal moment of Mira Mesa’s 15-14, quarterfinals playoff  win over Orange Glen.

Patriots quarterback Omar Navarro, after a 48-yard Hail Mary pass was tipped by Davis and caught by Orange  Glen’s Chris Buddin, had his team on the Marauders’ 12-yard line with less than a minute to play.

As Mira Mesa coaches attempted to call timeout, Chad Davis noticed that there were 12 Marauders on the field.

Davis backed up, exited through the end zone and off the field, a clear violation. Players must exit the field to their sideline.  No flag was thrown.

Navarro was intercepted on the ensuing play.  Ball game.

GILSTER STIFFED

“Everyone in the stadium saw it,”  Orange Glen coach Rob Gilster  explained later to Steve Brand of  the Union.  “The Mira Mesa coaches will tell you the same thing,  It’s right there in the films.”

Gilster said he tried to get an explanation from the game officials.  “I asked them afterward and they just ran away.  It’s very frustrating, but I’d never protest something like that.”

Mira Mesa’s run ended the next week in a 21-14 loss to Vista.  Davis’s stats were the poorest of his four prep seasons, 2  completions in 7 attempts for 17 yards.  He scored both of his team’s touchdowns on runs of 6 and 1 yard.

MOVING AGAIN                                                                          

Chad and Bob Davis returned to their roots in Oklahoma after the stay at Mira Mesa. Chad enrolled at Oklahoma University for one year before transferring to Washington State.

Davis was the Cougars’ starting quarterback for most of two seasons, until replaced by Ryan Leaf.

TOP THIS ONE

Pressed into service as a return man, University City’s Deranzol  Sheppard returned a punt 96 yards for a touchdown with 36 seconds left in the game, then passed to Ed Miller for a two-point conversion to give the Centurions an 8-6 victory over Madison.

TOP THIS, TOO

Seemingly destined to tie Clairemont, 7-7, Coronado had the ball on its 16-yard line with three seconds remaining in the game.

The snap from shotgun formation by Islanders center John Files eluded quarterback Chris Bright, who scrambled and kicked the ball out of the end zone.

Safety, two points and a 9-7 win for Clairemont.

AND THIS ONE

Grossmont quarterback Tom  Karlo scored a touchdown with 13 seconds left to tie Santana, 13-13.

But the point after kick was blocked and Grossmont’s undefeated season now included a tie at 7-0-1.

CAN’T TOP THIS

Writer Ed Graney said it best:  “It was arguably the greatest single-game, high school performance that nobody saw.”

Fog blanketed the field at Torrey Pines High, but that didn’t stop (or maybe helped) La Jolla’s E.J. Watson, whose team held on for a 50-49, semifinal AA playoff victory over San Pasqual.

Watson rushed for an 11-man record of 369 yards in 22 carries, surprassing the 366 by Rancho Buena Vista’s Scott Garcia in 1988.

Watson tied a record with seven touchdowns on runs of 2, 15, 39, 48, 72, and 75 yards, and on a 92-yard kickoff return.  He also scored on a two point conversion, had a pass interception and a fumble recovery.

Watson’s 44 points broke the single-game high of 38 by Chula Vista’s Jim Baldwin in 1965.

What would Western League champions be without Watson, who lived in the Madison district but chose to attend the seaside school?

“At home turning in their gear and we’d be playing this week,” said San Pasqual coach Mike Dolan.

The Eagles had a chance to win the game after scoring a touchdown with 27 seconds left, but failed to convert a two-point conversion attempt.

La Jolla, coached by Dick Huddleston, a standout on Escondido’s 1960 championship squad, was beaten in the AA final, 29-7, by El Camino.

SEEDINGS UPROAR

The refrain is similar each year at playoff time when seedings are announced.

–“We got shafted; we really got shafted,” St. Augustine coach Joe Medina told writer Steve Brand.

The Saints, 6-3-1 winners of the Harbor League, drew 9-1 Western League runner-up University in the first round of the AA tournament.

“It would have e been better to lose the league,” said Medina.  “How else can you explain Santana (4-5-1) playing Escondido (5-5)?”

“Yes, the Harbor League is weak,” admitted Medina, “but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one good team in the whole league.”

University, a 28-0 winner over its Catholic rival in Week 4, eased into the second round with a 31-14 victory.

PAIRINGS PAIN HAINES

Dick Haines was okay with his top-seeded and 10-0 Vista drawing 4-6 Sweetwater in the first round. But Haines didn’t like being in the half of a bracket in which the Panthers could meet Morse (6-4) or Hilltop (8-2) in the quarterfinals.

“I don’t know what happened,  but I was supposed to  be on that committee…the league voted me in ,” said Haines of the playoff selectors, who met for more than two hours to fill the AAA and AA, 16-team brackets.

“I know this,” Haines told Brand, “the team we beat last night (Torrey Pines) has a better seed than we do.  That doesn’t make any sense.”

One season Haines didn’t show for the meeting and his team was not chosen.  The committee indicated that Haines, by his absence,  didn’t care if his team was invited.

Haines hollered that he didn’t think it was necessary to attend.

–When 6-3-1 Christian was left out despite having a better record than seven invited teams, the Patriots’ coach, Dale Peterson, threatened to “start a new 1-A league,” so that Christian would be treated with more respect

COPS & COPPER

Police were looking for a thief or thieves who stole electrical copper cables that created a lighting problem at Montgomery.

A least 1 ½ of six light banks did not work, because someone had broken a bolted electrical ground box and hauled off 200 feet of copper cable, valued at $2,000.

Buster Olney of The San Diego Union reported that the heist meant the Northeast section of the field would be in darkness by the fourth quarter or earlier of games.

Cable for all six light banks had been ripped off several months earlier, meaning a loss of about $27,000 to the Sweetwater Union School District.

“It’s not that bad; we have enough lights to play,” said Aztecs coach Steve Summers on the eve of a game with Moreno Valley Canyon Springs.

Canyon Springs saw the light, rolling over Monty, 40-0, as David Dotson scored five touchdowns and rushed for 396 yards.

Five weeks later, the days and visits of sunlight much shorter, the Aztecs switched their league game with San Diego Southwest to the Raiders’ field.  Montgomery won, 20-0.

NORSEMEN FIGHT AGAIN

Valhalla was banned from the playoffs and forfeited a victory over Las Vegas Cimarron for starting full contact drills a day early and being in pads two days early.

Section commissioner Kendall (Spider) Webb backed conference officials who dropped the hammer on the Norsemen, but Valhalla principal Robert Avant appealed to a three-person committee put in place by the CIF.

The committee, chaired by Escondido superintendent Jane Gawronski, let the forfeit stand but erased playoff penalties and made the Norsemen give up two days of practice this season and start two days later than other schools in 1992.

Valhalla, 3-4 at the time of the legislation, did not make the playoffs, finishing with a 3-7 record.  A new head coach would be in place in 1992.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Mike Fouts, nephew of the Chargers’ Hall of Fame quarterback, tossed a couple touchdown passes in Torrey Pines’ 18-13 win over Fallbrook after replacing the injured Tom Luginbill, son of the San Diego State coach.

John Allred caught one of the touchdown passes for the winner with 1:08 left in the game.

Allred’s dad played at the Univerity of Arizona and was a Santa Barbara High teammate of  longtime NFL coach Ernie Zampese.

John Allred later played at USC and was drafted in the second round by the NFL’s Chicago Bears

QUICK KICKS

Francis Parker’s Scott Schneider passed for a San Diego Section 8-man record of 504 yards and 8 touchdowns in a 67-21 victory over The Bishop’s… the game was called with four minutes to play…Bryn Spradling of Parker tied a CIF record with 4 touchdown receptions…Point Loma blanked Morse, 16-0, to clinch the Eastern League title and deal the Tigers their first shutout since 1986, a span of 59 games…El Camino quarterback Noel Prefontaine went on  to a legendary kicking career in the Canadian Football League…”It was 619 versus 213 and 619 won,” chortled Lincoln linebacker Michael Brown, citing area codes and not cities after the Hornets topped Los Angeles Dorsey, 12-6, at Mesa College…Akili Smith, transfer from Madison and a future No. 1 NFL draft choice by Cincinnati, quarterbacked the Hornets….

 

Fullback Eddie Silva, who passed away recently in San Diego, where he was born, was the leading scorer in the County in 1949 and Point Loma won a championship.

Silva and Marshall (Scooter) Malcolm were touchdown twins for coach Don Giddings’ squad, which posted a 9-1-1 record and rolled to the Southern California minor division championship.

Silva scored 13 touchdowns and 78 points in 11 games. Malcolm added 11 touchdowns as the Pointers raced through the Metropolitan League, stopping only for a 13-13 tie with rival La Jolla.

Point Loma then swept through the playoffs, defeating San Dieguito, 48-7, San Jacinto, 42-12, and Bonita, 27-13.  Silva scored 4 touchdowns in the three playoff games.

The Pointers’ only loss was 28-13 in the season opener to San Diego.  Silva scored one touchdown and passed to Malcolm  for the other in that game.

Silva scored twice as Point Loma beat Oceanside, 26-6, in its Metro League opening game and his 50-yard dash opened the scoring for the Pointers in a 47-7 win over Kearny.

After a 27-0 victory  over Coronado, Giddings spoke of his deep, talented team’s  two-platoon system: “Each player can concentrate his talent on either the offensive or defensive phase of his position. For this reason, twenty-two first-string players are twice as happy and fresh as eleven.”

Gene Earl of The San Diego Union offered an enthusiastic endorsement:

“The Pointer backfield of quarterback Jim Dible, backs Marshall Malcolm and Ed Perreira, and fullback Ed Silva, rolls like a well-oiled gyroscope, never a miss as they repeatedly reverse the pigskin three times from the single wing formation before stepping through the yawning holes opened by the Lomans’ forwards.”

Silva earned all-Metropolitan League and all-Southern California honors.

John McFadden’s  announced decision to step down as head coach at Eastlake leaves  nine active San Diego Section coaches with at least 100 victories.

McFadden became the Titans’ head coach in 2000 and posted a record of 120 wins, 42 losses, and 4 ties in 14 seasons.

McFadden’s  .735 winning percentage is third only  to the active John Carroll of Oceanside (234-74-6, .755) and the late Birt Slater of Kearny (134-41-9, .753).

Duane Maley of San Diego was 97-19-2, .826, from 1948-59, when County schools were in the  Southern Section.

Other 100-game winners still  listed as active heading into the 2014 season: Rob Gilster (183),  Willie Matson (166), Sean Doyle (145), John  Morrison (140),  Gary Blevins (129), Chris Hauser (115), Matt Oliver (115), Jerry Ralph (111), and Mike Hastings (111).

McFadden’s teams won eight Mesa or South Bay League championships, tied for another, and earned two San Diego Section championships.

His replacement has not been  announced but John Maffei of U-T San  Diego reported that Lee Price, a longtime assistant at Eastlake, is McFadden’s likely successor.

Price was 6-5 and won the Harbor League championship at Coronado in 1992.

A complete list of 100-game winners can be accessed by linking to “Football” and Coach 100 Club on the drop down menu.

With training camps still  weeks away, eight new head coaching appointments have been announced:

NAME	SCHOOL	REPLACED
Drew Westling	Chula Vista	Judd Rachow
Joe Kim	Clairemont	Ron Gladnick
Jon Goodman	Classical	Jon Burnes
John Roberts	El Camino	Pulu Poumele
Tyler Hales	La Jolla Country Day	Jeff Hutzler
Lance Christensen	Otay Ranch	Anthony Lacsina
Jason Patterson	Orange Glen	Kris Plash
Ron Gladnick	Torrey Pines	Scott Ashby

 

The result of the Eastern League’s vote to determine its champion after a three-way tie for first was considered by some so egregious that even the coach of a potential playoff opponent led the shouting.

San Diego High was the selection of the league’s principals after the Cavemen finished with a 5-1 record, same as St. Augustine’s and Patrick Henry’s.

That the Cavemen were in the playoffs for the first time since 1960, following a 2-7 season in 1968, should have been enough for a collective doffing of headwear to Allan (Scotty) Harris.

Harris, a retired major and former coach of the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot team, took over the Cavers’ program in 1968 and the team found its stride after a 2-3 start this season.

San Diego won the renamed City Conference playoffs  and went on to tie County Conference titlist Escondido, 21-21, for the AA title, but not before critics, including Kearny coach Birt Slater, were heard, loudly.

REPRESENTATIVES SWAYED?

One complaint was that San Diego’s closing run of victories over Crawford (57-6) and Hoover (56-7) gained too much currency with the league’s voting representatives.

Another was that the Eastern League schools, by choosing the Cavers, “were punishing St. Augustine” for unproven charges of misconduct.

St. Augustine virtually had to shoot its way into the City Prep League in 1957 and some schools still chafed at the Saints’ perceived advantages of recruiting and in eligibility.

The most vocal beef was that St. Augustine’s head-to-head victory over San Diego and the Saints’ superior team statistics were dismissed.

The issue even got the attention of the San Diego Section board of managers, made up of district superintendents or their appointees.

The CIF bosses had been fielding their own dose of criticism from coaches, fans, and media about  another subject, the short, two-week football playoff.

The bosses finally extended the postseason one week for the first time this season, allowing the two conference champions to play in a winner-take-all, AA title contest.

The ruling body of the San Diego Section also hung with the Eastern League, citing Article 24 of the CIF bylaws.

The article states…“leagues shall determine their own champions in any way they see fit, provided their methods are not contrary to the rules of the San Diego Section.”

THREE-WAY LOSSES

San Diego entered the playoffs with a 6-3 overall record and with a 21-14 victory over 6-3 Patrick Henry but with a 24-21 loss to St. Augustine, which was 8-1 and with a 7-0 loss to Henry.

The eight playoff teams, four in each conference, posted a combined record of 62-11.

Escondido (9-0) was the County’s top seed. Kearny (9-0) was the City’s top seed and would play a lower-seeded, at-large team, one that was to be added to the bracket after league winners were positioned.

SLATER CODE RED

Kearny suddenly was forced to the take on at-large St. Augustine in the first round.

Birt Slater fumed. He figured his first opponent would be San Diego, a team the Komets whipped, 21-7, early in the season.

“There is no question which team proved itself this season,” Slater told Bill Finley of the Evening Tribune. “It would (even) have made more sense to choose Patrick Henry than San Diego.  At least (Henry) was good enough to beat San Diego.”

Slater compared the San Diego selection to a student who “flunks the first half of the semester, then passes the second half.  You don’t give him an ‘A’.”

RURALS DISTRUSTFUL?

Slater veered direction.  “The reason we have two separate playoffs (since 1967) is because the County has always distrusted us.  This is why.”

The Kearny mentor, a former San Diego High assistant, was referring to a selection process the County felt always favored the city schools.

Slater, never one to duck controversy, railed that the “democratic” league vote was faulty because “there’s too much self-interest.”

The coach’s solution was a “dictatorship”.  He favored allowing CIF commissioner Don Clarkson to  select the teams. “He’d be fair and this type of thing wouldn’t happen.”

Kearny was flushed out by St. Augustine, 14-6, and San Diego had the last laugh.  The Cavers, behind the thrusts of Robert Jones, cousins Lee and Paul Davis, and Arnold Miller, rushed for 321 yards and ran St. Augustine into a 31-7 submission in the City final.

Four running backs!  Shades of the Duane Maley Cavers of the ‘fifties.

The Eastern League had gotten it right.

SEA OF WHITE

Greg Durrant was a fledgling teenager and his parents helped guide Greg’s passion for football, taking the youngster to all 11 Castle Park games.

According to Durrant, citing the Castle Park Trumpet newspaper, the Trojans were the first high school team in the country to be outfitted with white shoes, joining the pros’ Joe Willie Namath and Fred (The Hammer) Williamson as history makers of this color footwear.

When Castle Park came out on the field for the pregame warmup before their kickoff against Morse, the Trojans were in all white.

“Morse thought Castle Park was wearing only socks,” remembered Durrant.

The Trojans scored a 24-0, opening game victory in a battle of 1968 conference champions, then ran off nine more victories in a row.

COUGARS CLAW BACK

Escondido  fell behind, 27-14, in the second quarter but finally knocked out Castle Park, 35-33, in the County final at Aztec Bowl.

Escondido coach Chick Embrey called a quarterback sneak as the San Diego Section championship ended before 13,572 at San Diego Stadium.  This after the Cougars had tied San Diego with 2:09 remaining.

“Sure, I’d be in favor of sudden death,” said Embrey, fearing the worst after a series of mishaps leading up to the last play, “but it’s unfair to say we were playing for a tie.”

The 21-21 deadlock was only the third in Embrey’s 14 seasons and 136 games as Escondido coach. San Diego had a 17-7 advantage in first downs.

“A” GETS SQUARED AWAY

For the first time since 1966 the Southern League was able to formulate a true playoff bracket.

The eight-team circuit (three would be added for other sports) was divided into two divisions, with each division’s winner meeting in a championship game.

La Jolla Country Day, San Miguel School, Army-Navy, and San Diego Military were in the Coastal Division and Borrego Springs, Mountain Empire, Julian, and Ramona comprised the Mountain Division.

Ramona (6-3) topped Army-Navy (3-5), 32-0, for the title.

FOR ONE OR FOR TWO?

That was a new and often anxious decision awaiting coaches.

Eleven years after the colleges, nine years following the American Football League, and 25 years before the NFL, the nation’s high schools, including the 48 football-playing squads in the San Diego Section, opted for the rule allowing the two-point conversion try following touchdowns.

Football scientists over the years determined that the 2-point option probably is successful 50 to 55 per cent of the time, depending on time and situations in the game.

Accordingly, San Diego Section teams attempted 22 two-point attempts and converted 12 on the first weekend of games.  The success rate was 52.2 per cent.

PASSES MORE SUCCESSFUL

Teams were good on 7 of 10 passing attempts and 5 of 12 running attempts.  None of the successful two-pointers played a direct role in the outcome of the game.

The traditional, one-point kick still was en vogue.

Mission Bay’s Mike Marquez, who scored touchdowns on runs of  six and nine yards, booted two points after  to give the Buccaneers a 14-13 victory over Mar Vista.

MORE PLACEMENTS?

Kicking also was going to become more optimal, suggesting a long-delayed acknowledgement of the vintage and mostly unused field goal.

Goal posts were being widened from the existing 18 feet, 6 inches, to 23 feet, 4 inches, in compliance with National Collegiate Athletic Association guidelines.

Football cleats also would be reduced from 7/8-inch to ½-inch in an effort to decrease knee injuries. The goal posts and cleats would be implemented gradually but become mandatory by 1971.

‘SIXTIES FAVORITES

Kearny’s season came to an abrupt end but the Komets and Escondido, completed the first decade of the CIF San Diego Section as the preeminent teams from 1960-69:

TEAM	RECORD		COACH
Kearny	68-23-5	.719	Birt Slater
Escondido	67-29-3	.687	Bob (Chick) Embrey
Oceanside	64-26-5	.692	Herb Meyer
Helix	62-25-2	.701	Dick Gorrie, Warren Vinton, Al Hammerschmidt
Lincoln	61-27-4	.677	Shan Deniston, Earl Faison
University	56-29-5	.640	Robert (Bull) Trometter
Grossmont	55-25-1	.688	Ken Maynard, Sam Muscolino, Pat Carroll, Pat Roberts
St. Augustine	55-33-3	.636	Tom Carter, Ed Doherty, Joe DiTomaso
Point Loma	54-32-6	.607	Bennie Edens
Carlsbad	53-35-3	.592	Sveto (Swede) Krcmar

GROSSMONT ROLLS NINE

A state CIF decision near the end of the summer allowed the Grossmont League to count its preseason carnival as a scrimmage.

District schools now were allowed to schedule a ninth regular-season game. The ninth annual Grossmont League carnival, which spun off the original Metropolitan League carnival that began in 1956, attracted almost 12,000 persons to Aztec Bowl.

SOUR ON CARNIVAL

But the carnival “leaves most of the league’s coaches cold,” said the Evening Tribune’s Jack Williams.  “I’d play my JV if I could get away with it,” said one coach.

A complaint that dated to the City Schools’ carnival in the 1940s was that teams often had to play full games the next day in order to fill nonleague schedules.

Coaches worried about the quick turnaround and carnival injuries and deplored the interruption of season preparation.

CITY RESET?

A City Schools carnival comeback?

No, but it was under consideration because of the rising cost of athletic programs.

The City Schools carnival, a September fixture since the second carnival in 1940, was discontinued after the 1962 contest when schools asked for, and were granted, the option of scheduling a ninth game, according to Bill Center of The San Diego Union.

But a strong contributing factor to its demise was that the carnival also had become a hot potato for city honchos as rowdiness and violence in and around Balboa Stadium seemed to occur each year.  

The carnival had been under the lights since its origin at the end of the 1939 season until moving to the afternoon in 1959. Program costs were such that  numerous budget measures were on the table, including, but not confined to, the scary idea cutting of coaches’ game film and equipment.

STARS AND SONS

Castle Park standouts included future NFL first-round draft choice Steve Riley, a tackle out of USC, and future Metropolitan League coaches George Ohnessorgen and Andy Sanchez.

Another lineman was Coronado’s Ken Huff, who did not make the all-San Diego Section team but became a first-round selection after playing at North Carolina. Coronado’s quarterback was George Murphy, son of a former USC player and longtime NFL game official.  

Fallbrook quarterback Eddie Feigner was the offspring of the world-famous fast-pitch softball star of the same name.

 

Point Loma tight end Peter McNab was the son of San Diego Gulls hockey coach Max McNabb and a future, 15-season NHL player.

Mar Vista quarterback and all-purpose Gene Alim, who went on to dominate the 1980’s as head coach at Sweetwater, may have intercepted as many as 12 passes from his safety position.  Years later Alim was reported to have ended his career with a CIF record-tying total of 22.

Alim’s three field goals, from 15, 21, and 17 yards, were enough for Mar Vista to defeat Coronado, 9-7.

Kearny wide receiver Dwight (Shaky) McDonald went on to play at U.S. International in San Diego.

McDonald’s senior season was across town at San Diego State. Dwight  led the nation with 86 catches in 1974 and caught the eye of NFL scouts.

He signed as a rookie with the San Diego Chargers and played four years with the local pros.

David Plaut was the student representative from Patrick Henry High, reporting on Patriots games to the Union. Plaut followed a journalism path at Northwestern University and  enjoyed an award-winning career as a writer and director for NFL Films in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey.

HIATUS FOR PALOMAR

The unwieldy Palomar League, featuring Marian in South County, Ramona in the East County, and Army-Navy and San Marcos in North County, shut down, to return in a subsequent year.

While Ramona and Army-Navy stayed together in the Southern League, in separate divisions, Marian found residence in the Metropolitan League and San Marcos in the Avocado.

HENRY JOINED BY PARKER

The Patrick Henry Patriots played a complete varsity schedule in their second year and in the school’s first year with sophomore, junior, and senior classes.

The Francis Parker Lancers teed it up for the second time in the school’s 57-year history, playing a junior varsity schedule. The school, then located in Mission Hills, played an abbreviated schedule in 1924.

MIKE’S NO FAKE

Sweetwater’s Mike Faketty, a 6-foot, 2-inch, 220-pound tackle, recovered a fumble, sacked the quarterback twice, blocked a punt, was in on 11 tackles, and provided the essential block on a touchdown run.

“It was the finest game I’ve seen a linemen play in the four years I’ve been here,” said Red Devils coach David Lay.

Faketty’s fury was directed at Mount Miguel, a 30-0 loser to Sweetwater.

In the Red Devils star system, which awards outstanding performance, Faketty received five stars. “Nine or ten is the most we’ve had, in a whole year,” Lay told writer Jack Williams.

WELL TRAVELED

Marian’s new coach, Bill Craven, was at Buena Park High in 1968 after stops at Norwalk Excelsior, Artesia, San Juan Capistrano (now San Clemente), and Garden Grove Bolsa Grande.

Craven moved on again following the overmatched Crusaders’ 0-9 debut in the Metropolitan League.

QUICK KICKS

When you’re winning you can say almost anything, witness Grossmont coach Pat Roberts’ description of his  linemen for Union writer Bill Center:  “We’re so slow we’d drown in a car wash”…Hilltop’s A.J. (Art) Sisk resigned about a week before the season to take a job in the publishing business…Byron Meyers replaced Sisk, who was 29-24 in six seasons…coach Scotty Harris on San Diego High’s  defense, to Bill Finley:  “They don’t  care about their lives.  They just throw their bodies at the ball”… Helix coach Al Hammerschmidt estimated that quarterback Steve Coover threw almost 3,000 passes since the end of the 1968 season and before the start of September practice…La Jolla fans were cheering hurrah when Jim Harrah was on the field…the riffs in the Sweetwater offense were orchestrated by sophomore quarterback Steve Riif…Brad McRoberts went from being a quarterback at El Cajon Valley in 1968 to a tailback-linebacker at Santana this season…Mount Miguel coach Ben Cipranic listed nine assistant coaches on his staff, including Duane Freeman, a star on the 1960 team…after a 0-0 first quarter, Castle Park savaged Marian, 54-0, setting a school record for most points and amassing 524 yards in total yards…three Castle touchdowns were called back by penalties…Coronado’s 63-0 victory over Army-Navy represented the most points by the Islanders since a 73-6 win over La Jolla in 1929….