An outstanding run by Sweetwater, starting in the 1960s, actually was just beginning.

The Red Devils went 12-1, won a championship for the first time since 1972 and launched a 36-game winning streak.

They would claim another title in 1985 and posted an ’80-’87 record of  80 wins and 11 losses, 73-9-2 under coach Gene Alim.

Starting in 1968, David Lay’s second season as head coach, the Red Devils compiled a 20-season record of 172-40-6 an .803 winning percentage.  Between Lay and Alim, Al Jacobus was 23-7 from 1978-80.

Alim retired after the 1987 campaign and later came back to coach at Sweetwater, Eastlake, and Otay Ranch.  His success at Sweetwater from 1981-87 is unparalleled in San Diego Section history.

The 1983 season was Alim’s third.  He was 10-1-1 in each of his first two, knocked out in the playoff semifinals each year.
Alim, a 1970 Mar Vista graduate whose 22 pass interceptions tied for the career high in San Diego Section history, was not the most popular coach, but he commanded a grudging, sneering respect and usually was a step ahead of his competition.

Alim didn’t push the envelope.  He  shoved it.

BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU SAY

A possible, 37-game Sweetwater winning streak was short circuited in the opening game.  The Red Devils defeated Morse 10-0 but had to forfeit because of an improper residential transfer, also known as the “dreaded administrative glitch.”

Morse quarterback Carlos Siragusa transferred to Sweetwater during the 1982-83 school year and was quoted in newspapers after the opener as saying he was better suited to the offensive system used at Sweetwater, rather than the predominant wishbone of Morse’s.

Siragusa’s remarks caught the attention of San Diego Section commissioner Kendall (Spider) Webb.  “I mentioned to Gene that even if he had changed schools for the reason he mentioned, it didn’t look good to say so,” Webb told Steve Brand of The San Diego Union.

Alim’s conversation with Webb begged a question, usually posed only in situations involving interscholastic athletics:  Did Siragusa’s family move with him?  “It turned out there was a violation of rule 218 in the CIF green book,” said Webb.

Siragusa, according to Webb, was living with his mother and brother in the Sweetwater district, but the father remained at a residence in the Morse district.

Morse is a city school, Sweetwater a county school but they’re barely five miles apart, a quick ride up and down Sweetwater Road.

“We’ll take it to court if Carlos is ineligible, or if we’re forced to forfeit the Morse game,” Alim huffily told Steve Brand.  “We know we won.  The County knows we won.”

Webb said that although Siragusa would be eligible as soon as his father established Sweetwater district residence, the forfeit would stand, because legal residence had not been established before the Morse game.

Siragusa was declared clear to play later in the week.

MAD MARIAN

Three games later the Red Devils were working on their fourth straight shutout.  They led Marian 47-0 after three quarters when Marian coach Bill Kinney  raised the white flag.

Kinney still was furious with Alim three days after the game:  “I’ve never been in a situation where one team was 40 points ahead and didn’t play the reserves,” said Kinney.

“I can understand him playing his first-string defense,” Kinney said.  “They hadn’t allowed a point all season, but he had two fourth-and-long situations in the third quarter and he passed. I’ll never play him again.”

Sweetwater was in the 3-A Mesa League and Marian was in the 2-A  South Bay League.  As part of the Metropolitan Conference the Mesa and South Bay leagues annually scheduled interleague games.

Marian and Coronado wanted the right to decline a game with an 3-A team.  Metro Conference bosses voted down the two schools but the San Diego Section board of managers sided with Marian and Coronado.

Kinney stepped down at the end of the year and Sweetwater and Marian went on hiatus.

Sweetwater was 15-0 against the Crusaders since Marian joined the Metropolitan League in 1967.  Marian didn’t play the Red Devils again until 2000, when it went on a four-year rampage, punishing its old antagonists,  35-27, 44-6, 48-13, and 60-17.

Coronado  and Sweetwater had played 64 games in a rivalry that started in 1914, but the Islanders had not been competitive since Harry Truman was president, losing 35-0 this season and having gone  1-20-1 since 1952.

Few people remembered but Coronado once dominated the rivalry and knew about piling on, a point brought home in 1929 by Frank Greene’s 11 touchdowns and 14 extra points in a 108-0 Islanders victory.

POLITICAL ROAD TO STADIUM

The San Diego Section was in a financial fourth and long.  It cost money to play the football championships in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The rental fee and assorted expenses were beyond the CIF’s reach in 1982 and the 3-A and 2-A championships were played at Southwestern College and Mt. Carmel High, respectively.

“We saved $10,000 in expenses,” said Kendall Webb.  That was the good news, quickly followed by the bad news. “We simply did not get the gate receipts,” Webb said of attendance at the smaller venues.

The rental free was $5,000 at the Stadium, but other costs, for ushers, ticket takers, lighting and scoreboard use would bring the total to than $15,000.

The 1983 playoffs would present the same problem.  Webb went to the Stadium Authority, a board made up on local businessmen-sports fans, and asked for the stadium rental fee to be waived.

The Sports Authority, not the most powerful entity, was sympathetic but declined, saying it did not want to set a precedent.

The CIF geared up for a stronger push and found an ally in Councilman Ed Struiksma, who was able to place the CIF request on a City Council meeting agenda.

Webb marshaled support from the media, had the mother of Marcus and Damon Allen prepared to read a letter to the Council from Marcus, and was supported by numerous ex-athletes and burgeoning politicians, including ex-Charger Mike Garrett, who along with the supporting Bob Filner, was seeking a Council post.

The Council was proactive.  In chamber, before the scheduled Oct. 1 meeting, the policy-making group voted to support the CIF and underwrite the Stadium rent fee for the next five years.

GOOD MORNING, VIET NAM!

Ba Ly, a general in the South Vietnamese army, ordered his family to leave four days before Saigon fell during the war with North Viet Nam in 1975.  Ba Ly stayed behind.

The general’s son Chau Ly, was 10 years old, did not speak English and had never seen or heard of American football when he relocated that year with his mother and siblings in Carlsbad.

Two years later Chau signed up for Pop Warner, mainly because of his newfound friends.  Three years of Pop Warner and a year each of freshman and junior varsity competition took the 5-foot, 5 ½-inch, 135-pound junior to the Lancers’ varsity as a running back and cornerback.

“I love the contact,” said Ly.  “I love to run with the ball and I love to hit.  Even when I get hit I get a good feeling.”

Ly caught three touchdown passes in the first two games, threw a 33-yard pass completion to set up the winning touchdown in the third game, and ran 80 yards for a touchdown against El Camino in the fourth game.

Carlsbad’s 3-1 start translated into a 7-3 finish, third behind playoff powers El Camino and San Pasqual.

“If I had 11 Chau Lys  I wouldn’t care about their size.  We’d do all right,” said Carlsbad coach Mel Galli.

Ly’s father still was held in a North Vietnamese prison.  Chau sent his dad a photo that the father did not receive, but Chau reported that his father was allowed to write occasionally and to receive mail.

THE VAQS ARE BACK

Snow on neighboring El Cajon Mountain, better known to locals as El Cap, was becoming more common than victories over Helix and winning seasons at El Capitan High.

The Vaqueros had one victory in 1982, no winning seasons since 1977, and five straight losses to Helix, during which they had been outscored 139-13.

So East County rodeo buffs, 4-H aspirants, and state highway 67 commuters took notice along with the rest of the Grossmont League when the Vaqueros beat Helix 20-7 to open the season 4-1.

El Capitan would run the table with an 8-0 league record.  The Vaqueros’ overall, 8-2 mark tied the 1963 San Diego Section finals team for best in school history.

Running back Allen  Murray scored 102 points, second in the County, and reminded Lakeside denizens of the Friday night exploits of former Vaqs  Dave Duncan and Bill Fudge.

Guided by ex-Helix standout Joe Rockhold, in his second tour as head coach, the Vaqueros lost only their opener, 21-7,  to Mira Mesa, which advanced to the 3-A finals, and to Castle Park, 34-21, in the 2-A quarterfinals.

NEIGHBORS AT A DISTANCE

Lincoln and Morse, not more than 2 miles apart, got together at Mesa College, 15 miles away.

Morse, which won the 3-A title in 1979, then fell back, would emerge again in what would be a great last half of the decade for John Shacklett’s Tigers.  Declining enrollment and optional school choice would continue to bedevil Lincoln.

Shacklett had begun to discard his traditional wishbone offense for a straight, power I.  The Tigers put a 57-25 whipping on the Hornets, equaling the most points ever scored by Morse, tying a similar outburst against Hoover in 1975, and the most ever allowed by Lincoln.

Darrel Rosette ran 60 and 10 yards and returned a punt 62 yards for first-half touchdowns as Morse opened a 40-13 lead.  A rare, official counting of the house took place at Mesa, where the attendance was announced at 4,457 persons.

In an era when you actually had to be a good team to earn a playoff bid, the Tigers were 8-2 with 262 points against 134, but finished third in the Eastern League and out of the postseason.

SCOTT WHO?

It didn’t take long for Helix to find a successor to graduated record-breaker Scott Webb.  Joe Nikodem kicked field goals of 20, 37, 40, and 37 yards and 1 point after for all of the Highlanders’ points in a 19-19, opening-game tie with Montgomery.

GOT YOUR BACK, COACH

“Chula Vista coach George Ohnesorgen prepared to inspire his unranked, 2-0 team as the 2-A squad took on 3-A power and neighorhood tough Castle Park.

“They wouldn’t let me say a word,” said Ohnesorgen, a former San Diego State star who, in 1970, scored 21 touchdowns for his alma-mater, Castle Park.

“They were all shouting, ‘This game’s for you, coach!'”.  I couldn’t respond. I guess I really didn’t have to say anything.”

Bud Maloney wrote in the Evening Tribune  that “Ohnesorgen probably came as close to giving into his emotions as he ever will.”  The coach tightened up and his voice was hushed as he described the pregame moment after Chula’s 21-9 victory.

“This is the best win I’ve been associated with anywhere any time,” Ohnesorgen managed to say.

Ohnesorgen may have changed his mind after the season’s final game, a 17-13 victory over El Camino for the 2-A championship.  The Spartans’  12-1 season was  stalled only by a 20-14 loss to Sweetwater in the 37^th  meeting between the backyard rivals.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Port District commissioners granted amnesty to taxi drivers, who had been given almost 300 citations in the last 13 months for illegal parking at Lindbergh Field…a driver in downtown San Diego sported a “Don’t let San Diego become another Waikiki” bumper sticker but also was wearing a Hawaiian aloha shirt…condos were priced from $71,000 to $142,000 in “North City West.”

 QUICK KICKS

Brothers Kevin (senior) and Terry (sophomore) Rodgers scored all of Sweetwater’s points in the 20-0, 3-A semifinal win over San Pasqual…Kevin returned a kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown, shades of his Heisman Trophy-winning father Johnny Rodgers… San Diego failed on two field goal tries in the final 3 seconds against Kearny…a 35-yarder missed, but the Komets drew a penalty… the second attempt was botched by a bad snap from center… Crawford opened 4-0 for the first time since 1973 (and 1972 and ’71)  when the  Colts’ Alex Bolden intercepted a blocked pass and Crawford drove 95 yards in the last three minutes to beat Kearny 14-7…Point Loma had a 14-game winning streak snapped by Carlsbad,13-10…the Pointers were 16-0-2 from 1938-40… Lincoln forfeited two games with uncommon scores, 26-4 over Inglewood and  8-8  with Madison… the Hornets overcame a third and 10 to go 98 yards and top Hoover 13-7 in the final three minutes… Lincoln went 66 yards to beat Crawford 19-13 in  the final 13 seconds… Pro Football Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff was assisting Paul Moyneur at Orange Glen and ex-Chargers tight end Pat Curran helped Lynn Cole at Grossmont… Tom Pack’s passing game, orchestrated by guru Jack Neumeier, was in full bloom at Fallbrook, with junior varsity graduate Jaime Miramontes at quarterback, brothers Kirk and Erik Hanson as flanker and slot receivers, and Paul Newlan at running back… the Union’s Steve Brand said Fallbrook’s passing game made the Chargers’ Air Coryell look like a commuter airline… Fallbrook scored 327 points in a 10-1 season, ended by a 24-21 playoff quarterfinals loss to Mira Mesa… Sweetwater and Chula Vista each was 6-0 when they kicked off, the latest since the 1953 season that both teams were undefeated….

Business has picked up at Kearny, where the Komets have won three in a row and can finish the regular season with their best record since 2011.

Takoda Browne, who has scored touchdowns by running, receiving,  kickoff, punt, and pass interception returns, and two-point conversion attempts,  leads the San Diego Section with 23 touchdowns and 142 points in eight games.

Kearny is 4-5 and can clinch the Central League championship in two weeks against Clairemont. The Komets have as many victories this season as they had during a 4-24 stretch that began in 2012 after an 8-3, league-championship 2011 season.

AIR CORYELL?

Not quite, but Mike Lewis, the executive director at Helix who stepped in when head coach Troy Starr was forced to withdraw from Friday’s game because of a health issue in his family, is the son-in-law of the late and iconic San Diego State Aztecs and Chargers coach Don Coryell.

Lewis, who had previous assistant coaching experience in the Grossmont League,  guided the Highlanders to a 42-14 victory over Valhalla.

QUICK KICKS

Oceanside’s three-game losing streak is the longest for the Pirates since they dropped three in a row in the middle of the 2005 season…Carlsbad’s 21-6 triumph was its first over Oceanside in 10 years and clinched at least a tie for the Avocado West title…the Lancers are 3-0 in league play and 5-3 overall…Helix’ Nate Stinson is second in the San Diego Section to Takoda Browne with 114 points…St. Augustine’s Elijah Preston follows with 110…Valley Center’s  28-17 win over Rancho Buena Vista gave Jaguars coach Rob Gilster 193 career wins, tying Gilster with Dick Haines for ninth place…Christian’s double-overtime, 13-6 win over Morse clinched a tie for the City League championship….

Week 10 poll, after nine weeks of games:

Action above, including Long Beach Poly’s 52-6 loss to Concord De La Salle, has resulted in Mission Hills and Helix getting another boost in Cal-Hi Sports newsletter’s unofficial, weekly state rankings by division.

Mission Hills is 10th and Helix 11th in Division I, partly because Poly dropped from eighth to 13th.  The Grizzlies and Highlanders were 12th and 13th, respectively, last week, and have been inching up almost each week for the last month.

Other San Diego Section teams:

D-II

St. Augustine (6-1) remained sixth.  Cathedral (4-3) is 11th, and Westview  (7-0) 12th. Idle last week, Cathedral dropped from 10th and Westview rose from 15th.

D-III

Mission Bay (7-0) is on the bubble.  The rankings for D-III and lower are 1 through 10, with bubble teams following.

D-IV

Mater Dei, 7-0 on the field but 6-1 legislatively after losing a game because of a player’s ineligibility, and Santa Fe Christian (6-1) are on the bubble.

D-V

La Jolla Country Day (6-1) moved from fourth to third.  Simi Valley Grace Brethren (7-0) and Temecula Linfield (6-1) rank 1-2.

Division nomenclature is different in the San Diego Section, i.e., Mission Hills, Helix, Westview, Cathedral, and St. Augustine are in I, Mission Bay in  II.  The teams in IV and V are slotted the same by the newsletter.

 

 

Losing had become an unshakable habit for Coronado.

It had come to this for the Islanders:  Point Loma essentially begged them to play a scheduled game.

Outscored, 104-0, in the season’s first four games, down to maybe 17 able-bodied players, and facing a strong city school, Coronado was thinking long and hard about exposing its athletes to another gridiron slaughter.

Pointers coach Bennie Edens made an offer.

Edens assured Islanders athletic director Ernie Dickerson that Point Loma would play no starting seniors, provide a running clock in the second half of the game, and halt the contest at anytime if Coronado did not feel it was safe to continue.

Point Loma won, 36-0.

Four games later, staring at a South Bay League game against powerful Chula Vista, the Islanders forfeited and ended their season with a 0-9 record and a scoring total of 6 points, with 242 against.

It was the culmination of 18 losing seasons in the last 22.  The nine losses tied a record set by Islanders teams of 1953, ’65, ’75, and ’81.

NO ROOM FOR GROWTH

With an enrollment of just over 700 and surrounded by water, Coronado was a small fish in a big pond, with virtually no immediate chance of increased enrollment or improved  talent level.

The Islanders once were a viable and competitive member of the Metropolitan League, annually jousting several of the teams that now are members of the South Bay League.

Coronado won a league championship with a 7-0 record in 1951 and were 8-2 overall after advancing to the Southern California lower division playoff semifinals.

But successive seasons of 3-5-1 and 0-9 made it easier to merge the Islanders into the new Avocado League in 1954.

When the Avocado, with most of its members located in North San Diego County, began to expand, the Islanders bounced back to the Metropolitan League in 1963.

COAST NOT CLEAR

A 15-49-2 Metropolitan League record from ’63-’72 prefaced another move to the new, seemingly more palatable Coast League, which disbanded after three years, not before Coronado posted a 2-15 loop record.

The Islanders were headed  back to the Metropolitan League, promising more pain.  They were 15-22-2 with two winning seasons from 1976-80. The Metro, with 10 schools, was forced to split.

The Islanders found themselves in more deep water.  They were 5-31-3 in the Metro South Bay circuit from 1981-84.

Survival necessitated another change.

The Islanders would move to the 1-A Mountain-Desert league for the 1985 season.

DREAM GAME A DREAM

What better than a matchup of the best, from far reaches of the San Diego Section?

El Camino of Oceanside was 12-0 and Sweetwater, 51 miles South in National City, was 12-0.

El Camino had outscored its opponents 377-31 and Sweetwater, working on a 24-game winning streak, had 420 points to its opponents’ 52.

It was the first time since 1970, when Grossmont (11-0) met St. Augustine (11-0) that two unbeaten, untied teams had reached the finals.

A dream game in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium?

Problem. Sweetwater was in the 3-A final, facing Vista (10-2) and El Camino was in the 2-A championship, meeting Chula Vista (11-1).

Still,  an outstanding doubleheader matchup that drew an announced attendance of 16,911.

The four teams came into the Stadium with a combined,  45-4  record,  better than any grouping in the 25-season history of the San Diego Section, and the geographical divide ensured a North County-South County, bragging-rights twin bill.

There was no mistaking that the best teams were in the finals, although Mira Mesa gave No. 1-ranked Sweetwater an argument before bowing 16-6 in the semifinals. Vista routed Mount Miguel 35-0.  Chula Vista thumped Kearny 42-14, and El Camino defeated Clairemont, 42-0.

Sweetwater’s record,  24^th consecutive victory,  28-13,  over Vista repeated a 20-0, semifinals win over  Vista in 1983  and that win was followed by a 21-13 championship triumph over Mira Mesa.

But the second straight 3-A title was more rewarding than the first for a pair of Sweetwater’s less heralded players, seniors Ronnie Cortell and Rolando Jarin.

The pair still was on the field an hour after the game, kneeling at the 50-yard line and taking in the moment. Cortell probably still was catching his breath.

CORTELL ALL-AROUND ‘DEVIL

A 5-foot, 9-inch, 160-pound running back and linebacker who would go on to a fine career at Colorado  State, Cortell concluded his season by being named San  Diego Section defensive player of the year and was a repeat,  first-team all-Section choice at linebacker.

The wiry, heady  inspiration of coach Gene Alim’s defense, Cortell made 10 tackles, had two pass interceptions, and scored on a fumble recovery to give Sweetwater a 28-7 lead.

Cortell also made his weekly contribution on offense, gaining 37 yards in seven carries and scoring the ‘Devils’ first touchdown.

Cortell, who returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown during the regular season, took over when Terry Rodgers left the game early with a sore ankle and complemented running mate Martell Black, who rushed for 139 yards and 2 touchdowns.

“If he doesn’t make All-World off this game, nobody will,” said Alim.

Sweetwater would enter the 1986 season with a 25-game winning streak, longest in California.

UNCOMFORTABLE BROGANS

“I’d hate to be in our shoes,” said George Ohnesorgen, who must have meant he would have been happy to be in El Camino’s shoes.

The Chula Vista coach figuratively was wearing a pair of 11s but needed 12s.

“This is their third straight championship game and the third time is a charm,” the coach said of the Spartans’ opponent, which  tied Point Loma, 6-6, in 1982 and was beaten by Chula Vista, 17-13, in ’83.

Ohnessorgen’s feet must have been killing him.

El Camino defeated the Spartans, 24-17.

For awhile it looked as if Herb Meyer’s Wildcats would come up short again, trailing, 17-7, at halftime.  But the El Camino defense, which had pitched nine shutouts in its last 10 games and had given up only 31 points in the first 12, gave the offense field position.

El Camino’s two, second-half touchdown drives started at Chula Vista’s 42- and 33-yard lines.

THE RIVALRY

Sweetwater of National City and Chula Vista were both undefeated for the fifth time when they matched up in their 38^th consecutive  regular-season game since 1947.

The Red Devils and Spartans, both 8-0, never had played each other with clean records this late.  Chula Vista was 6-0 and Sweetwater 5-0-1 in 1953 and there were three years in which each team came into the game at 3-0.

Sweetwater, closing in on the County record for most consecutive victories, increased its lead in the series to 28-10 with a 24-8 victory before a packed house at Chula Vista’s Chet DeVore Stadium.

The win was Sweetwater’s 21^st a row.  They tied the 24-game, unbeaten streak of 1932-35 Grossmont and 1963-65 Kearny with a 16-6 win over Mira Mesa in the 3-A semifinals.

“We don’t even talk about winning streaks,” head coach Gene Alim told Steve Brand of The Union. “Maybe in thirty years I‘ll look back and it’ll mean something, but not now.”

After stopping Vista for No. 25 and  the 3-A title the following  week, Alim showed more interested in Sweetwater’s place in history. “This shows our program is an ongoing one, not just a one-year thing,” said the coach.

OOPS

When Mira Mesa and Patrick Henry tied 14-14 in the opening Eastern League game, the schools were supposed to use the California tie-breaker to determine a winner.

Coaches Walt Baranski (Henry) and Brad Griffith (Lincoln) and game officials didn’t remember.

“Everyone just  forgot,” said Wayne DeBate, secondary athletic consultant to San Diego City Schools.  The rule, in use for playoffs, was adopted as a regular-season measure by city schools the previous spring for the ’84 season.

The tiebreaker allows each team to put the ball in play for four plays beginning at the 50-yard line.  The team that has the most yardage or outscores its opponent wins.

“Nobody remembered until it was too late,” said DeBate.

The unintended consequence was that if Mira Mesa and Patrick Henry tied for first or second in the league they’d be at the mercy of a vote for playoff consideration.

Not to worry.  Mira Mesa finished first with a 4-0-1 record and Patrick Henry was  third at 3-1-1, making a vote unnecessary.

WHO, US?

El Camino took a 33-0 drubbing from Fallbrook in Week 3 of the 1983 season but gave an  indication of what to expect this season when the Wildcats suffocated the Warriors, 23-0, in Week 3.

An aroused El Camino held the Warriors to zero first downs until the last minute and half of play.

Fallbrook rushed for minus 24 yards and sophomore quarterback Bill Dunckel might have considered taking up another sport, or changing positions.  Dunckel completed 1 of 23 passes for 3 yards, with 4 interceptions.

Herb Meyer was asked if his team was in a pay-back mood.  “We don’t point for games and if we did we wouldn’t point for a nonleague game,” said Meyer.

Dunckel recovered.

He scored 166 points as a kicker-wide receiver two years later as Fallbrook won the 3-A championship.

FALSE ALARM

“El Cajon Clears First Rebuilding Hurdle” shouted the headline in The San Diego Union.

The Braves had beaten Coronado 27-0 in the season opener the night before.

El Cajon Valley coach Gene Watkins talked about players lifting weights at 6 in the morning, enthusiasm on campus, and the good thoughts all around the Madison Avenue school.

The Braves’ victory ended a 21-game losing streak, but they started another, dropping their next nine.

DEFINITELY WURTH IT

Monte Vista’s Tom Wurth set a San Diego Section record with a 54-yard field goal in a 35-3 win over Valhalla.

Wurth was successful on two other field goal attempts but missed two points after.

One of the extra point failures was from 47 yards, after a series of penalties.

Another twist to Wurth’s season came in the opening game when his 50-yard field goal gave the Monarchs a 3-0 win over Mira Mesa.

Ten weeks later Wurth toed a 48-yard field goal on the Monarchs’ first possession, but Mira Mesa won the quarterfinals playoff, 30-3.  Marauders quarterback Ricky Joseph, recovering from shoulder surgery, missed the teams’ first game.

Healthy, Joseph marshaled the Mira Mesa attack and completed of 11 of 13 passes for 187 yards.

EIGHT-MAN AMBUSH

Francis Parker won a rematch with Borrego Springs for the Coastal League championship and was declared San Diego Section 8-man winner, then was added to the field of the Southern Section  8-man playoffs.

As was the case during this era, the San Diego representative usually was seeded last in an eight-team field.  The Patriots were beaten by Canoga Park Faith Baptist, 61-10, at Northridge State.

REMEMBER THE NAME

Choia Lin Liu staked his place in The Bishop’s history  when Lin Liu scored six touchdowns in the Knights’ 68-0 victory over Midway Baptist.

The win was The Bishop’s first ever in football after seven straight losses in 1983.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

“The Rock”, a monument to concrete on Pacific Highway, was going to undergo a $2.9 million renovation.  The consulting architect described the seven-story edifice as a fire hazard.

Erected in 1942 by Consolidated Vultee Aircraft (Convair) and now serving as headquarters for the United Port Authority, The Rock was built virtually without  windows, because Consolidated executive Reuben H. Fleet desired air conditioning, which was to  have been more effective without windows.

Panoramic views of neighboring Lindbergh Field and the Embarcadero exist only from the seventh floor and the only the first and seventh floors are used extensively. The third through fifth floors were to be sealed off.

SPIDER SCRAMBLES

San Diego Section commissioner Kendall (Spider) Webb changed kickoff times for the 3-A and 2-A championship games.

Not exactly a shout to stop the presses.

But it was the third time in three weeks that Webb was compelled to switch.  Spider’s problem had nothing to do with San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium availability.

It seems that bands from all contending teams had day gigs and would not have been able to make originally suggested starting times of 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Webb finally settled on kickoffs at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. after times of 5 and 7 also had been announced.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE…

Aaron Petrich, son of former Chargers linebacker Bob Petrich, kicked field goals of 33, 26,and 27 yards, as Granite Hills beat Helix, 16-0.

Ken Zampese, son of Chargers assistant coach Ernie Zampese, was a starting  wide receiver at University and Granite Hills’ leading rusher Bruce Weber was son of Chargers linebackers coach Chuck Weber.

Terry Rodgers of Sweetwater came from a family of football royalty.  Terry’s father, Johnny Rodgers, was the 1971 Heisman Trophy winner and a first-round draft choice of the Chargers in 1973.

QUICK KICKS

Kearny defeated Clairemont, 19-0, for its first Western league title since 1977… the shutout was Clairemont’s first since 1979, a span of 54 consecutive games…Patrick Henry’s game at  Inglewood Morningside Oct. 6 was canceled…the teams agreed to play before realizing that date was the evening of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur…there was a standing-room crowd of more than 4,000 when Henry turned on the lights in its football stadium for the first time in the school’s 17 years…Henry defeated Mt. Carmel, 21-7…Crawford’s 25-14 victory over Lincoln clinched the Central League championship on the last day and ended a Hornets league winning streak of 19 games…Vista, paced by Sal Aunese’s 132 yards and four touchdowns, rushed for 485 yards and had 496 total in a 40-8 win over Poway…El Camino’s Darron Norris was one of the state’s fastest with a best of :10.45 for 100 meters and played four years at Texas before becoming a ninth-round draft choice  of the New England Patriots…Francis Parker’s 22-7 loss to Borrego Springs was its first in three seasons in the Coastal League…when Borrego defeated Julian, 26-20, the Rams celebrated the Coastal title and their first championship in any sport…Parker turned the table the next week, defeating the Rams, 31-12. for the 8-man title…Carl Parrick continued to make a difference at Southwest, which was 7-4 after logging 2-7, 5-6, and 6-5 records in Parrick’s first three seasons as head coach…Stan Canaris stepped down at Hilltop after compiling a 44-33-3 record in eight seasons…Canaris’ neighboring colleague, Bob Korzep, called it quits at Castle Park, where Korzep was 31-18 in five seasons….

 

Sixteen teams, divided by two upper and lower brackets made for the largest postseason in San Diego Section history.

What had gotten into the CIF bosses?

They had repeatedly recited the dubious mantra that the playoffs made the season too long and were a “major” reason for bolting the Southern Section.

To win a Southern Section championship, teams would have to play as many as four playoff games, adding a month to the football season, although San Diego teams seldom played beyond the second round of games.

The most notable result of the San Diego Section’s formation in 1960 was that a champion would be decided in a postseason of two weeks. Four of 21 AA teams, 19 per cent, made the playoffs.

By 1965 only seventeen per cent of 35 AA clubs were in the postseason.  One playoff involving two teams decided the Class A winner.

Complaints from coaches, fans, and media grew, as many teams with good records were not invited.

MORE THE MERRIER?

The CIF began to fudge on its original argument.  Slowly the number of teams qualifying for the second season began to rise.

The bosses gerrymandered the final week of regular-season schedules in 1966 by having two teams compete in a “play-in” game, the winner going to the postseason, although playoffs remained at two weeks.

The CIF created the unpopular double champions format in 1967.  “Metropolitan Conference” and “County Conference” winners were crowned. Nine of the 37 AA schools, 24 per cent, made the playoffs. The postseason still was two weeks.

The two-conference format also was in effect in 1968 and 1969, but a third postseason week matchig the conference winners was added.  Escondido, 10-1-1, and San Diego, 8-3-1, tied for the championship, 21-21.

Champions from 1969 forward would play 12 games, the same as San Diego in 1916, ’55, and ’57 Southern California playoff seasons.

(The regular season in most leagues had gone from 8 to 9 games in 1964.  The Grossmont League stayed at eight until 1970, the schools in that circuit having played in the game-counting, money-making carnival through 1969).

BREAKTHROUGH THIS YEAR

By 1972 there were 51 football-playing clubs and the postseason included 8 of the 40 AA squads, still just 20 per cent.

The floodgates opened this year.

Sixteen teams, representing 35 per cent of the 43 AA teams went to the postseason.  A single contest decided the A champion.

Thirteen games and four weeks to decide a champion?  Things were back to the way they were.

CITY SETS PACE                                                                                                              

Seedings for the playoffs were done by a coaches’ committee and evoked none of the usual complaints.

The four semifinalists, Kearny, Patrick Henry, Sweetwater, and San Marcos, had a combined record of 38-3-2.

Kearny shut out Sweetwater, 34-0, in one semifinal and then took out Patrick Henry, 35-13, in the finals. It was the first time in eight seasons that Komets coach Birt Slater did not lose in the first round.

A 28-14 victory over Point Loma in the regular season was Slater’s 100^th.  He became the third, after Jack Mashin and Chick Embrey (see below), to reach that mark.

GROWTH=MORE LEAGUES

The Avocado and Metropolitan leagues were bulging.  The Eastern and Western leagues lacked symmetry, thus a new circuit, the AA Coast, was created.

The city’s Eastern and Western leagues now listed six teams each. The Avocado reduced from nine to seven and the Metropolitan from nine to eight.  The Grossmont League stayed at eight.

The Coast, with Coronado at the South end and San Dieguito and Poway in the North, would last only three years.

Coronado, buffeted by small enrollment for years in the Metropolitan League, now traveled 30 miles to Poway and 28 miles to San Dieguito and still faced schools with double its number of students.

How the changes went down:

Team	1973 League	1972 League
Coronado	Coast	Metropolitan
San Diego	Western	Eastern
Mission Bay	Coast	Western
La Jolla	Coast	Western
Poway	Coast	Avocado
San Dieguito	Coast	Avocado

DAY, YEA, NIGHT, NAY

San Diego’s population had risen from 573,000 in the 1960 census to about 735,000.   The County total was almost 1.4 million.  Twenty-one schools not part of the original San Diego Section football lineup were now in business.

The growth strengthened the CIF, but the bosses were having a difficult time getting their hands around a spike in rowdyism and violence at game sites.

Stop and frisk wasn‘t part of the solution, but, following the lead of other major cities, an unpopular decision was made.

“Night football and basketball games in the San Diego City School District will end with this season’s athletic schedules, school officials announced yesterday,” wrote The San Diego Union education writer Ray Kipp.

The vote of 4-1 gave school district superintendent Tom Goodman authority to schedule night athletic events to afternoon competition, wrote Kipp.

The reason was violence.

A specious argument was that the “growing unavailability of fields” and a desire to “conserve energy” influenced the board’s action .

(The long waits and gasoline shortage that hounded Americans in 1973 would be ended when the oil-rich middle east countries lifted a ban on oil exportation to the U.S. in March, 1974).

The night-games ban came despite protests by students and adults who opposed any change without in-depth studies and potential effects on school spirit, game revenues, and the opportunity to attend afternoon contests.

In response, tone-deaf school board member Louie Dyer said, “If people really want to go to an afternoon game, they will.”

Board member Richard Johnston voted against the measure, citing the punishment that would be inflicted on students by the action of non-students.

Only one of 12 speakers appearing before the board voiced support for the change.

PAOPAO AS IN POW!

Anthony Paopao would have been welcome in the company of Frank Gansz’ special teams players on the Super Bowl 34-champion St. Louis Rams of 1999.

Paopao embodied the espirit and toughness that Gansz, a Naval Academy graduate and pilot, rewarded on Mondays following games in that memorable season.

Make a play, show toughness and desire, and a deserving Rams player would receive a baseball cap inscribed “Warrior Elite”.

It was ultimate praise and those recognized wore the headwear with pride.

Gansz would have been a PaoPao fan.

Oceanside coach Herb Meyer continually called PaoPao’s number in the playoffs against Mission Bay and the 190-pound junior responded again and again on the soggy, rain-dampened Simcox Field.

PaoPao touched the ball on 68 percent of the Pirates’ offensive plays, scored from 18 and 15 yards, including the come-from-behind, 13-10 game winner in the fourth quarter, and rushed for 213 yards in 41 carries.

BUCCANEERS REVIVED                                                             The playoff loss was disappointing but didn’t dim a gratifying year for Mission Bay.

Three seasons and a 2-25  record that included 18 losses in a row were staring at coach Al Lewis when practice began at the Pacific Beach school in September.

Lewis, who started the football program at Point Loma’s Cal Western University in 1957, had succeeded Bill Hall at the Grand Avenue location in 1970.

It helped that the Buccaneers moved this year from the Western to the less competitive Coast League.

A 7-2 regular-season record tied the 1958 squad for the most successful in school history and earned the Bucs the first Coast League championship and their first playoff invitation since they first teed up in the 1954 inaugural varsity season.

Lewis was 31-50-2 overall but 29-25-2 from 1973 until he stepped down after the 1978 season.

EMBREY TIES MASHIN

Ladimir (Jack) Mashin, who coached at Grossmont from 1923-47, had held the County record for most coaching victories since he retired after the 10-1 campaign of 1947.

Mashin was 121-65-15 (.639) and figured at the start of this season to be caught by Escondido’s Chick Embrey, who had fashioned a 118-45-4 record since becoming head coach in 1956.

Embrey didn‘t catch Mashin until the Cougars’ eighth game and passed him in the final game of a 3-6 disappointment by defeating Fallbrook, 23-6.

Mashin, 75, whose record was later amended to 125-66-19 (.640),  still was active, assisting the weight men (shot put, discus) on the Grossmont College track team.  He expounded on the modern game.

“There are 4-4-2-1 and 4-5-2 defenses and you get stunting and all that which you never had when I was coaching.” Mashin told Will Watson of The Union.

“I wish I was coaching under the present system, where you could see games on TV. If I were a coach today I’d be glued to the TV.

“Of course,” Mashin added, “in my day there was no TV, so we tried to go to as many coaching clinics as we could.”

PERRY SUCCUMBS

John Perry, the 78-year-old former coach at San Diego and Hoover, died Oct. 21 from injuries sustained in an auto accident on Sept. 10 near his retirement home on San Diego’s Bankers Hill.

Perry, who never played football, learned the game by reading football books and printed pamphlets, and traveling hundreds of miles to attend clinics.

Perry coached at San Diego from 1920-26, winning a Southern California title in 1922 and earning a trip to the finals in 1925.

Perry left coaching but returned and built the Hoover program from scratch in 1930 and led the Cardinals to their first victory over San Diego in  1935.

“He was a great coach and a great personal friend,” Bert Ritchey, the star of the 1925 squad, told Bill Center of The Union. “We all knew he never played, but he was one man with no playing experience who could teach it.”

“He wasn’t only a coach, he was like a father to us,” said Roy Engle, who scored the touchdown in Hoover’s  7-6,  first win over the Cavemen .  “It was John who turned my eyes to a coaching career.”

Perry was 52-14-5 at San Diego and 40-34-6 from 1930-39 at Hoover.

MIKE MORROW, TOO

The San  Diego sports world was saddened again seven weeks later when Dewey J. (Mike) Morrow the nationally renowned San Diego high coach and peer of John Perry, passed away at 75.

Morrow coached 10 Southern California baseball championship teams and the only San  Diego County team to win a Southern California major division championship in basketball, in 1935-36.

QB AS SPORTS WRITER

Kearny junior Don Norcross, who led the County with 1,270 passing yards, was destined for a career as a sports staff ace for the Union-Tribune.

Norcross entered the season as the only question mark on a loaded Kearny squad.  “Sure, I felt the pressure,” he said. “It was like, ’If Kearny doesn’t make it, it will be Norcross’ fault.’”

SHORT BUT NOT SMALL

Player-of-the-year Ed Imo was the 5-foot-9, 230-pound  line-plugging nose tackle for the Komets’ defense.

Imo went on to star at San Diego State and later became the physical education/athletics department chairman in American Samoa,

“Had I played against him, I would have spent a lot of time face-first into the grass,” said Norcross.

Ed Imo had another distinction at San Diego State, the shortest name in Division I football, five letters.

RED DEVILS BEDEVILED

Sweetwater’s 27-game Metro League winning streak, which began in 1969 after a 41-0 loss to Castle Park, ended in a 12-8 loss to the Trojans.

AND BEYOND

Future NFL standouts included St. Augustine wide receiver Tim Smith, Kearny defensive back Lucious Smith, Castle Park defensive back John Fox, who became an NFL head coach; El Cajon Valley quarterback Mark Malone, and Hoover defensive lineman Bill Gay.

San Diego’s Michael Hayes, who led the County with 1,418 yards rushing, including 858 in his last four games, did not play in the NFL but was one of the all-time great San Diego running backs.

Hayes was just warming up.  He’d be the San Diego Section player of the year in 1974 and was named to the second all-time, all-County team in 2013.

CAVEMEN COLLAPSE 

Hayes was a one-man show against Point Loma, scoring three touchdowns and gaining 223 yards in 28 carries, but his team offered no defense against Point Loma.

The Pointers’ 54-28 victory over  San Diego represented the most points allowed by the Cavemen since a 56-0 loss to the Stanford University freshmen in 1923.  Point Loma’s John Finley  scored four touchdowns and gained 123 yards in 22 attempts.

QUICK KICKS

.Hoover coach Roy Engle had to devise a defense for the Crawford quarterback, the position played by his son, David…Carlsbad snapped an 0-6-1 stretch against Oceanside, 17-8…Lincoln did not kick a point after touchdown or field goal all season……Bill Casper, Jr., son of the former U.S. Open golf champion Billy Casper, was a star lineman  for Hilltop….

Valley Center’s Rob Gilster can tie Dick Haines this week for ninth place among the winningest coaches in  San Diego Section history.

The 32-21, Valley League  victory over Fallbrook last week was Gilster’s 193rd.  The veteran mentor moved from 11th to 10th place earlier this season when he passed Carl Parrick with victory No. 191.

Gilster is second to the 203 victories of Monte Vista’s Ron Hamamoto among active coaches.  Mission Bay’s Willie Matson is third with 177.

Gilster, in his 18th season with the Jaguars after nine at Orange Glen, has an all-time record of 193-120-5 for a .615 percentage. Haines, who also coached several years in Ohio, was 194-85-1 (.695) in 25 seasons at Vista.

Next up for Valley Center is a nonleague tussle Friday at Rancho Buena Vista.

GOLDEN YEAR FOR VALLEY LAYOUT

Granite Hills recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of Valley Stadium. When the facility was dedicated in October, 1965, the Eagles and Helix were the only schools with  lighted fields in the East County.

The Eagles defeated Castle Park, 33-7, in the inaugural game.  One of Granite’s standouts was George Brown, who scored a touchdown in that game and was one of the state’s leading shotputters during the spring track season.

Brown’s father, Dr. George Brown, a star at Hoover in the late ‘thirties and an all-America lineman at the Naval Academy before concluding his football career at postwar San Diego State, led the drive to build the facility.

Meanwhile, coach Kellan Cobbs’ 2015 team improved to  6-1, the best record since the 1994 team was 6-1 en route to a 9-3 finish.

GRIZZLIES MARCH ON

Mission Hills continues to hold sway in the weekly Union-Tribune poll. Westview now is fourth behind the big three of ‘Hills, Helix, and St. Augustine.  Madison and Mission Bay made their first appearances in the top 10.

Week 9 poll, after eight weeks of games: