Nice, but, hey, we’re used to being there, would be the reaction from Mission Hills, Calexico Vincent Memorial, Christian, Crawford, El Centro Southwest, San Marcos, and Calvin Christian.
All of those teams have reached the above juncture at least once since 2013.
Madison, La Costa Canyon, and El Centro Central have reason to feel more than nice.
Madison?
No, the Warhawks, despite winning state championships in ’12 and ’16, haven’t been 4-0 since 2011. La Costa Canyon last was 4-0 in 2009 and El Centro Central in 2008.
Which leaves two others from this eclectic group of 14. They wouldn’t know 4-0 from a leather football.
None of the 2017 University City or Mira Mesa players were around when their schools were unbeaten and untied at this point.
For U. City it hasn’t happened since 1992, when the Steve Vokojevich-coached Centurions finished with a 9-2 record, best in school history.
For Mira Mesa it was 1997, when the Marauders were 8-4 in Gary Blevins’ second season as head coach.
University City was 60-151-3 (.287) under seven different coaches from 1993 until 2014, when Charles James, now trying to rejuvenate San Diego High, was 7-5. The Centurions are 19-9 since 2015 under Ryan Price.
BLEVINS FOLLOWED BRAD
Blevins, in his 22nd season, is only the second head coach at Mira Mesa.
Brad Griffith ran the program from its start-up in 1977 until he retired after the 1994 season.
Try finding another of the 90-odd teams playing football in the San Diego Section with similar stability.
Over 196 games during Griffith’s 18 seasons, the Marauders compiled a 112-76-2 (.577) record, won two league championships, appeared in one San Diego Section title game, and got to the playoff semifinals four times.
Blevins reached game 196 in his 16th season in 2010 and was 120-73-3 (.620), had won or tied for 5 league titles and reached the semis five times and the championship game once.
Mira Mesa is only 28-39-1 since 2011 and their unbeaten start will be facing stiffer challenges, beginning this week against Steele Canyon, followed by Morse and Western League rivals Point Loma, Cathedral, St. Augustine, and Madison, opponents with a combined 11-8 record.
University City is not faced with such a daunting challenge as it prepares for City League play. Crawford, in Week 6, is the most formidable. Combined, Centurion opponents, also including Serra, Hoover, Patrick Henry, and La Jolla are 8-11.
The Union-Tribune Week 4 poll :
Rank
Team
2017
Points
Last Week
1.
Mission Hills (22)
3-0
274
1
2.
Madison (4)
4-0
249
2
3.
Helix (2)
2-1
242
3
4.
San Marcos
4-0
183
4
5.
El Camino
3-1
146
7
6.
Bishop’s
3-0
92
8
7.
Ramona
4-0
89
NR
8.
La Costa Canyon
4-0
71
NR
9.
Carlsbad
3-1
62
5
10.
Lincoln
3-1
53
10
Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
NR: Not Ranked.
Others receiving votes: Eastlake (3-1, 36 points), Torrey Pines (2-2, 30), Christian (4-0, 10), St. Augustine (2-2, 5), Oceanside (2-2, 1), Cathedral (1-3, 1), Olympian (3-1, 1), Point Loma (2-2, 1).
Voters (28 sportswriters, sportscasters, officials): John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI Chl. 51; Adam Paul , East County Preps.com; Ramon Scott, East County Sports.com; Bodie DeSilva, San Diego Preps.com; Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions; Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Jerry Schniepp, John LaBeta, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego; Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net; Montell Allen, MBASports-SDFNL Magazine; Bob Petinak, 1360AM; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9FM; Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, CIF Football Tournament Directors.
1959-60: Pointers Prevail After Others Falter
San Diego was leaving the Southern Section at the end of the school year but was going out with an unprecedented show of force.
Hoover was ranked No. 1 and Helix No. 2 in seeding for the 32-team major playoffs. Glendale, beaten by both Hoover and San Diego, was seeded fourth.
Hoover’s undefeated regular season and the high scoring Highlanders had earned the respect of Southern Section commissioner Ken Fagans, who’d won championships as coach of the Compton Tarbabes in the early ‘fifties.
But the Cardinals and their neighbors eight miles to the East in La Mesa were beaten by the two teams that would play for the title, third-seeded Anaheim (search 1959-60: Cardinals Come Up Short at Finish Line) and unseeded Long Beach Poly.
Helix was eliminated, 50-48, at Poly in the quarterfinals, bringing an end to a record-setting, 26-4 season and to the career of coach Bob Divine, who had announced in January that he was stepping down to go into administration.
Divine’s timing was curious, coming in the middle of the season (“This basketball can make an old man of you, the way I coach,” he explained). His team’s sometimes uneven play also was curious.
HIGHLAND FLING
–Helix set a County record by averaging 67.9 points a game, breaking the mark of 64.6 set by St. Augustine in 1957-58.
–They trailed host San Diego at the half, 36-13, and won, 52-50.
–They lost at Hoover, 61-36, the next evening.
–They switched gears after losing the pre-Kiwanis Tournament game to Hoover and poked along on offense so effectively that the score was 33-30 late in the fourth quarter before the Cardinals prevailed again, 39-30.
Coach Bob Divine’s high-scoring Highlanders, from left: Clayton Raaka, Larry Cook, Bob Mackey, Wally Hartwell, and Jim (Bones) Bowers.
–They topped Santa Barbara, 65-62, to win the 11th annual Fillmore Tournament in Ventura County after Christmas. Jim (Bones) Bowers scored 25 points and was player of the tournament. Teammates Bob Mackey, Wally Hartwell, and Larry Cook joined Bowers on the all-tournament team.
–They defeated 15-11 Chula Vista, 49-26, at home but had a 14-game winning streak snapped at Chula Vista, 55-46, depriving the Scots of what would have been a 16-0 run through the Metropolitan League.
Bowers led all scorers with 670 points,
Bowers, who led the area in scoring with a 22.9 average and 670 points in 30 games, set a school record with 44 points in a 98-54 win over first-year El Capitan.
Helix had other games of 99 and 94 points and set a County record when it shot 64 per cent from the field in a 114-65 romp over the Vaqueros as Bowers (34) and Clayton Raaka (24) set the pace.
FRUSTRATING ENDING
Helix defeated 13-8 Lincoln, 59-46, in the postseason first round and 16-11 Ontario Chaffey, 67-49, in the second round, played at Mount Miguel High. The crowd outside the gymnasium was almost as large as the standing-room gathering of 1,200 inside.
Helix took an 18-13 lead over Poly in the quarterfinals, but the resourceful Jackrabbits, a notoriously poor shooting team but quick and tough on defense, pulled ahead, 23-21, at the half.
After taking a 29-28 lead in the third quarter, the Highlanders “lost control of the boards and were shabby with their ball handling”, according to the Union correspondent at the game.
Bowers, who had scored 10 points in the first quarter, finished with 19. Poly defenders double-teamed Bowers and Raaka, who scored nine points, well below his average, and ignored the other three Helix starters.
The strategy worked.
Helix trailed, 49-48, with 30 seconds remaining, but the Jackrabbits’ Tom Sisk made one of two free throws to close out the win.
SCOUT STIFFED
Forces seem to have worked against Helix. Coach Bob Divine thought about complaining to Southern Section commissioner Ken Fagans after a Helix scout was denied entrance to Poly’s previous playoff game, a 70-54 victory at El Monte.
“I don’t want to be a cry baby about this,” Divine told writer Jerry Magee before the game against the Jackrabbits, “but we didn’t have room in our gym and we let all the scouts in.”
CAVALRY ARRIVES
After losing to Glendale Hoover, 51-40, on Friday San Diego recovered to defeat Glendale and CIF player-of-the-year Tom Dose the next night, 57-49.
Willie Bolton, Ernest (Moe) Watson, and Lou Scott, who had played in the Cavers’ 53-0, football championship victory against Monrovia the night before, made the trip north the next day and saw action that evening.
San Diego’s 11-10 record was its poorest since a 6-8 record in 1934-35, but the Cavers not only trimmed high playoff seed Glendale on the road but were ahead of CIF champion Long Beach Poly before losing in the final seconds, 40-39.
MELEE AVOIDED
San Diego overcame favored Lincoln with a 14-4 spurt in three minutes of the fourth quarter and defeated the Hornets, 64-59, in what Jerry Magee of The San Diego Union described as a “pell-mell” game in front of a shrieking crowd on the Hornets’ floor.
Kearny’s Jim Johnson dominated boards and averaged 16.4 points for the season but Point Loma won this Western League game, 39-30. Pointers’ Larry Moore (14) and Kearny’s Doug Ogilvie (53) are in the mix.
Alfred Willis, the younger brother of Cavers guard Albert Willis, came out of the stands and launched a punch at Lincoln’s Al Catlin, who had been aggressively guarding the older Willis.
Lincoln coach Warren Barritt rushed off the bench and literally back-pedaled Catlin to the end of the gym as referees Doug Harvey and Nolan Harvey sought to maintain order.
San Diego’s victory was achieved despite coach Dick Otterstad’s suspending leading scorer Ben Pargo, who was not at the game.
Football star H.D. Murphy and Watson each scored 17 points as the normally offensively erratic Cavers controlled the backboards and shot 44 per cent on 26×58 shooting. Lincoln was 23×44 for 52 per cent.
SCORING LEADERS
NAME
TEAM
GAMES
POINTS
AVERAGE
Jim (Bones) Bowers
Helix
30
688
22.9 (1)
Clayton Raaka
Helix
29
450
15.5
Larry Hancock
El Cajon Valley
22
421
19.1(2)
Robbie Hewitt
Hilltop
29
390
13.4
Steve Thurlow
Escondido
26
384
14.8
Charlie Schneider
Hilltop
29
374
12.9
Bob Hoss
El Cajon Valley
23
366
15.9 (5)
Jacob Crawford
St. Augustine
19
358
18.8 (3)
Walt Ramsey
Hoover
28
358
12.8
John Bocko
Hoover
28
356
12.7
Bill Wylie
Hoover
27
352
13.0
Gary Meggelin
Chula Vista
26
342
13.2
Larry Moore
Point Loma
25
326
13.0
Jim Johnson
Kearny
19
311
16.4 (4)
T.W. Bell
Lincoln
21
310
14.8
Tuttle
Clairemont
23
298
13.0
Brian Ross
El Capitan
21
290
13.8
Bob Wueste of Carlsbad was reported to score 404 points but Avocado League scoring was published only for the circuit’s 10 games, in which Wueste scored 231 points. Southern Prep and Avocado nonleague statistics often were unreported.
POINTERS TAKE ADVANTAGE
Western League teams were slotted into small schools playoff participation in all sports except football. Eastern League teams would compete with large schools for all postseason sports.
The positioning was result of the City Prep League’s dividing into two circuits after the 1958-59 school year.
Point Loma, with a 5-8 record at one point in the season and 12-10 after clinching the Western League championship, was the postseason beneficiary.
The Pointers rolled to five consecutive victories to claim the Class AA crown, along the way defeating Beaumont, 32-24, Yucaipa, 55-23, Rosemead Bosco Tech, 54-37, Lompoc, 54-40, and, finally, San Marino, 52-36.
As Jerry Magee wrote, paraphrasing Britain’s World War II leader Winston Churchill, “Winston (Winnie) Yetta enjoyed his finest hour, scoring 22 points…”
Point Loma players hoisted Yetta and coach Hilbert Crosthwaite and paraded them around the floor at the Los Angeles State venue.
Winston Yetta (left) and Don Sada both played quarterback in football, although Yetta was point guard for Pointers’ basketball team.
Yetta’s 10 field goals were reflective of the Pointers’ effectiveness. They converted 21 of 44 attempts for 48 per cent.
After two disappointing losses for San Diego teams in the semifinals, Crosthwaite admitted to feeling some pressure.
“We had everything to lose,” said the coach. “We couldn’t have walked out of here if we hadn’t won.”
FREE AGAIN
Helix’ Clayton Raaka was able to shed a cast on his broken left hand and burst out in a 68-38 win over Escondido. Raaka scored 15 points in the second quarter, had 20 at the half, and finished with 28.
ANOTHER BREAK
Lincoln’s Al Catlin was discovered to have played the entire season with a broken wrist on his right, shooting hand that he sustained during the football season. Catlin then was ruled out of the Hornets’ 59-46 playoff loss to Helix.
SURPRISING
Hilltop, a first-year school, emerged to post a 20-9 record and win the post-Christmas Chino Tournament and was runner-up to Helix in the Metropolitan League.
Hilltop’s 20-9 record was due to presence of Charlie Schneider, Butch Lorson, Robbie Hewitt, Gary Neal, and Don Enos (from left).
DREADED ADMINISTRATIVE GLITCH
San Dieguito, aided by some legislation, clinched the Avocado League championship with a 63-43 win over Carlsbad as John Fairchild, a 6-foot-7 sharpshooter up from the junior varsity, scored 15 points.
The Mustangs’ earlier, 64-54 loss to Oceanside had become a forfeit win after discovery of an ineligible Oceanside player and gave the Mustangs a one-game lead over Mar Vista.
MORE SMALL SCHOOLS PLAYOFFS
San Dieguito led until the final 56 seconds before bowing at Bing Crosby Hall in Del Mar to Orange, 46-45, in Class AA.
Orange was outscored, 24-18, in the fourth quarter but held on to defeat Kearny, 64-63, in a second-round game at Santa Ana.
Army-Navy’s Matt Burnett stole an inbound pass and scored with two seconds remaining to defeat Tustin, 42-40 in Class A. The Warriors then were eliminated, 60-38, by San Bernardino Aquinas.
Ramona was sidelined in Placentia by host Valencia, 62-39, the loss punctuated by a scoreless third quarter.
BOWERS HONORED, NO BONES ABOUT IT
Helix’ Jim (Bones) Bowers was an all-Southern Section, AAA first-team selection by the Helms Athletic Foundation. Teammate Clayton Raaka and Hoover’s Bill Wylie were on the second team.
Kearny’s James Johnson and Point Loma’s Winston Yetta earned first-team honors in the AA division and Carlsbad’s Bob Wueste made second team.
Al Catlin, T.W. (Tommy) Bell, and Ashley Joerndt (from left) comprised Lincoln coach Warren Barritt’s big three.
JUMP SHOTS
The Kiwanis Tournament individual scoring record was broken twice on the first night…Carlsbad’s Bob Wueste scored 40 in a 61-53 win over La Jolla…St. Augustine’s Jacob Crawford knocked down 42 points an hour later in an 83-40 win over Sweetwater…finals in the Unlimited and Limited divisions were held at one venue for the first time …Hoover was host and topped Crawford, 54-34, for the Unlimited and Mar Vista edged Oceanside, 51-49, for the Limited…for the first time there were no visiting northern teams in the tournament, only El Centro Central from the Imperial Valley… Helix’ 114-point game bettered the record set by St. Augustine in a 105-34 win over La Jolla in 1957-58…St. Augustine’s Jacob Crawford missed the team bus to Hoover, arrived late, and scored three points in the first half…the Saints, trailing, 35-12, at halftime made a game of it, outscoring Hoover in the second half, 39-38, and Crawford finished with 25 points in the 73-51 loss…Julian, scoreless until one minute remaining in the half, bowed to San Miguel School, 38-22…Fallbrook scored the first 22 points in a 51-18 win over University…Chula Vista received two technical fouls for not advancing the ball in the offensive court in its 49-26 loss to Helix…the Spartans trailed, 5-0, after one quarter and 16-1 at the half…the Spartans went into a freeze in their next game against Hilltop and got into a 15-2 hole…Hilltop won, 58-48…Mission Bay won a double-overtime, 57-55 game against La Jolla when a Vikings player was cited for goal-tending in the second, sudden-death period…Chula Vista moved out of the city’s Recreation Center into its own gym in midseason…Hilltop had a gymnasium when it opened its doors in September…Kearny coach Jim Poole, a 1950 Point Loma grad, was a national badminton champion and worked 20 years as an NFL game official…The Crawford-San Diego, Eastern League contest served as the preliminary to the San Diego Junior College-East Los Angeles Metropolitan Conference contest…the game at San Diego High featured ex-Cavers Arthur (Hambone) Williams and Edward Lee Johnson for the Knights….
