Four outstanding athletes who graced the San Diego sports scene were among those who passed in the past months.

HORACE TUCKER

He was late reporting for football practice at San Diego High in 1952, because Tucker and teammate Floyd Robinson were involved with the American Legion Post 364 baseball team that was runner-up to a Cincinnati squad in the national tournament.

Tucker’s .452 average led all batters in the event and he won the Louisville slugger award.

A year later Tucker was the Cavers’ leading scorer in football with 6 touchdowns and 4 extra points, his 40-point total setting the pace for 4 others Cavers who scored at least 5 touchdowns in the 7-3 season.

JERRY LIPSCOMB

Mount Miguel didn’t suffer the usual fate of first-year schools in 1957, posting  a 5-3 record and followed with another 5-3 mark in 1958..

Lipscomb was the Matadors’ starting halfback and became an immediate star for the new school.

Lipscomb scored 41 points in 1957 and 52 in 1958, earning all-Metropolitan League honors as a senior and an invitation to play for the San Diego team in the annual Breitbard College Prep game against the all-Los Angeles City squad.

CLAUDELL HOWARD

A three-sport letterman in the era of Ed Buchanan at Kearny, Claudell was one of the top broad jumpers in his class in Southern California.

Howard was the Class C champion in the 1957 finals at Ontario Chaffey with a leap of 21 feet, 6 ½ inches, finished second in Class B in 1958, and also played football and basketball.

BOB TOMLINSON

His 68-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage gave Sweetwater a temporary, 6-0 lead over the powerful San Diego Hilltoppers in 1945.

Tomlinson was the fourth leading scorer in the Victory League with 7 touchdowns in 6 games.  He trailed only behind only the San Diego’s Harry West, Cosimo Cutri, and Joe Adamo, who played nine games.

Tomlinson also was a standout at San Diego State and was the first coach when Hilltop in east Chula Vista broke ground in 1960.

San Diego continued to impress; coaches moved on leaders in all-time victories, and St. Augustine rebounded.

San Diego improved to 7-0 with a 34-7 over Kearny, which took a 6-0 record into the game, as big, fast Raiden Hunter rushed for 270 yards in 17 carries and scored two touchdowns.

An impressive Central League turnout of about 4,500 persons included a San Diego cheering section that filled the visiting stands.

A win over Patrick Henry this week would send the Cavers to 8-0, a feat accomplished by San Diego teams in 1916, ’25, ‘45, ’47, ’50, ’55, ’57, and ’58. Only the ’16 (12-0) and ’55 clubs (11-0-1) got to the finish line unbeaten.

San Diego has two games remaining after the Patriots, at Crawford and at Coronado.

UP THE LADDER

Monte Vista’s 24-17 win over Santana moved the Monarchs to 4-3 and gave coach Ron Hamamoto his 214^th victory, moving Hamamoto past Helix’ Jim Arnaiz into seventh place among San Diego County coaches.

Valley Center’s 37-21 victory against Rancho Buena Vista left the Jaguars with a 6-1 record and was the 213^th in Rob Gilster’s career, tying Gilster with Arnaiz for eighth.

Next up for Hamamoto and Gilster is Ed Burke, who won 215 games at San Dieguito and Torrey Pines.  Burke won another 40-plus at King City before coming to the San Diego area.

REVITALIZED

St. Augustine, beaten by Carlsbad, swamped by L.A. Loyola, and pushed around by Helix earlier in the season, knocked Madison from the ranks of the undefeated with a solid, 19-10 victory.

The effort of the Saints’ defense helped overcome the loss of star wideout J.R. Justice, who sustained what may be a season-ending leg injury the previous week.

By winning their second straight and moving to 4-3, the Saints are positioning themselves for the Catholic bragging rights battle with Cathedral in the season’s final regular-season game in three weeks.

QUICK KICKS

Lincoln (6-1) is off to its best start since the Tony Jackson-coached Hornets opened 8-0 in 2000…that Lincoln team finished 11-2, beaten twice by Mission Bay…a win over El Camino this week would give Mission Hills’ Chris Hauser his 150^th coaching victory, achieved by 14 others…the Grizzlies also advanced to 14^th in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports state rankings while Helix gained a notch to 29^th…La Costa dropped out of the top 50 and now has “bubble” status with Ramona, which is 7-0, off to its best start since 2013, and third in the Union-Tribune poll this week.

The Week 8 Union-Tribune poll:

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

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  El Camino (4-3, 16 points),  El Centro Southwest (7-0, 9),  , Valley Center (6-1, 2), Eastlake (5-2, 1), San Diego (7-0, 1), Carlsbad (4-3, 1).

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

The dateline said San Diego, not somewhere in the High Sierra or North Dakota.

Snow had forced postponement of two games.

In the dead of winter a couple high school basketball contests in San Diego County were called off because of the flaky white stuff.

Southern Prep League games sending Brown Military to Mountain Empire in Campo and Vista to Julian could not be played “because of bad traveling conditions,” according to The San Diego Union on Jan. 14, 1949.

“Five feet of snow in the higher elevations silenced rural telephone circuits so completely that the Police Department rushed a mobile radio transmitter to Julian to establish an emergency communications center,” the newspaper reported.

Down below the 4,000-foot elevation the coastline was hit with storm waves that caused damage to small craft and wreaked havoc on the beaches along U.S. 101.

San Diego rainfall totals were almost two inches above normal.

A view of the San Diego River from the Junipero Serra museum in Presidio Park showed water runoff to the ocean for the first time in three years.

BIG BROTHERS TAKE BACK SEAT

City schools Hoover and San Diego usually wielded the sharp end of the stick, but smaller schools, for the second year in a row, stepped up.

Coronado, from the mostly suburban Metropolitan League, and Vista from the rural Southern Prep represented the area in Southern California playoffs.

There was no minor division or small school postseason alignment, in which the Islanders and Panthers, with relatively paltry enrollment numbers, probably would have been included.

You make the postseason, be prepared to play anyone, size of school no matter. One bracket of 16 teams met on successive weeks, two days each, almost all games at Redondo Beach Redondo Union.

A Small Schools division for the postseason would not be in place until the 1949-50 season, according to CIF historian John Dahlem.

(Coronado likely would have enjoyed similar success in a group with more even student body numbers, as did the mid-1950s Islanders, who advanced to the finals two years in a row).

Thus, when Coronado thumped Inglewood, 46-28, in the first round, John De La Vega’s account for the Los Angeles Times began: “Little Coronado high school, unbeaten champions of the Metropolitan league in San Diego county, furnished the big surprise yesterday….”

The Islanders, coached by Keith Broaders, hammered the Bay League champions but were beaten, 39-29, by Ventura in the second round, closing out a 21-2 season.  Loyola earlier eliminated Vista (14-8), 48-24.

The exiting teams had faced the Southern Section’s premiere squads.

Loyola reached the round of 4 and defeated Coast League champion Compton, 34-33, and Ventura socked Alhambra, 58-41, for the championship.

UNNECESSARY LOSS?

Coronado’s record was listed as 21-1 in Bill Finley’s Evening Tribune High School Record Book 1945-69.

The obvious loss was to Ventura, but research showed that Broaders also scheduled a game in which he reportedly utilized only substitutes and the Islanders were upset by Brown Military, 29-27, in overtime.

Finley’s excellent publication reflected the difficulty finding complete, individual scoring statistics or total won-loss records from newspapers’ coverage in the those years until well into the late 1950s.

COAST NOT CLEAR

The three local teams, Grossmont, San Diego, and Hoover, won six of seven games at home on the opening weekend of Coast League play. The only setback was Grossmont’s 36-35 loss in overtime to Compton.

Three days later Grossmont beat San Diego, 41-40, on Herbie Fennel’s free throw with three seconds remaining before a full house at Grossmont.

The Cardinals and Foothillers soon dropped from sight, however, and San Diego assumed the lead, taking an 8-1 record into its final game against 6-2 Compton.

The Hilltoppers had edged the Tarbabes, 34-27, early in league play but Compton prevailed in the rematch, 31-29 and then defeated Muir, 50-48, to forge a tie for the title.

WHICH IS WHICH?

One San Diego report declared that Compton and San Diego would flip a coin to determine the champion, but another said the winner of the teams’ first-round meeting in the Beverly Hills Tournament would determine the league’s sole playoff representative.

The Hillers came up flat, losing, 55-33, and closed out a 15-7 season.  Grossmont signed off at 10-8, Hoover at 9-11, and St. Augustine at 11-6.

DECEMBER MEDIOCRITY

Eight of the 11 San Diego-area teams in the 23-team, two-division, second annual Kiwanis Tournament were defeated in the first round of the three-day event at San Diego, Hoover, and San Diego State.

Hoover played twice on the first day, defeating Long Beach Poly, 34-31, and then lost to Beverly Hills, 22-18.

San Diego, ousted by Long Beach Wilson, 36-33, came back to win the Unlimited Division consolation title, 43-27 over La Jolla.  Chula Vista defeated Oceanside, 23-20, for the Limited Division conso’ crown.

Sweetwater won the Limited Division championship, 40-24, over Brawley.  El Monte trimmed Beverly Hills, 60-40, for the Unlimited title.

San Diego’s Bob McClurg and Eddie Simpson made the all-tournament team.  Simpson scored 42 points in the 4 games.  Jim Loews of El Monte was leading scorer with 56.

MORE EXITS

While the Metropolitan and Southern Prep leagues got ready for league openers, the three Coast League locals went north to Compton College for the annual Western States Tournament.

San Diego topped Alhambra Mark Keppel, 45-37, and then went into the consolation bracket after a 43-37 loss to Los Angeles Mt. Carmel.  Hoover topped Long Beach Poly, 43-41, but lost to Compton, 48-36.

Grossmont fell to Mt. Carmel, 47-37, in the opening round.

The threesome was quickly sent  home from the losers’ bracket.  Long Beach St. Anthony nudged San Diego, 39-38; Long Beach Wilson nipped Hoover, 56-55, and Santa Barbara beat Grossmont, 50-44.

HIGH SCORERS

Alan Logan of Ramona had the highest reported one-game scoring total with 30 points in a 40-25 win over Brown Military.  Bob (Bama) Shell scored 28 in St. Augustine’s 47-39 victory over Chula Vista.

Shell scored 23 points and Lou Kuslo 17 as the Saints defeated Los Angeles Cathedral in a Southland Catholic League event.

Shell was denied an opportunity to score more when Long Beach St. Anthony backed out of its own hoop carnival so team members and students could trek to the Los Angeles Coliseum to watch their football team play Santa Barbara for the Southern Section title.

NOTHING, ZIP, NIL, NADA

The timeworn maxim that “they couldn’t hit a bull in the — with a barn door” resonated with those watching a Grossmont junior high tournament middleweight division game.

Coronado shut out Ramona’s Mt. Woodson Mountain Lions, 37-0.

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Sixteen-year-old Casey Moffet of Shelby, N.C., drove to the basket, missed a layup, and crashed through a wooden wall in a game against Waco, N.C.

Moffet penetrated the ½-inch plywood “barrier” and fell 10 feet to the frozen clay surface outside the gym.  He sustained head, shoulder, and arm injuries.

SET SHOTS

Ivan Robinson scored the winning basket for the San Diego High alumni against the Hilltoppers’ varsity and played the next night for the Alumni against the San Diego Junior College Knights…Vista defeated San Dieguito, 40-30, to gain a tie for the SPL title and then won a playoff, 34-31 over San Dieguito to earn the league’s playoff berth…future Hall of Fame coach Jerry Tarkanian was a starting guard for the Pasadena Bullpups…after opening with a victorious Coast League weekend, San Diego stumbled against Point Loma, 30-14, and St. Augustine, 42-33…the Saints won the sixth annual Coronado C  & D tournament, 21-9 over Hoover in the Cees and 18-17 over Coronado in the Dees…

There was no Week 6 blog, with the attendant rankings from The San Diego Union, because we were celebrating my beautiful bride’s birthday on a seven-day cruise south, along the Mexican Riviera. I had a fat attack, unable to resist the relentless, daily, gastronomic temptations.

There are several interesting games this week, two in particular:  San Diego and Kearny, each 6-0, meet on Kearny’s almost-new, lighted field, with the winner taking a big step toward a Central League championship, although Crawford would have to be heard from, and El Centro Southwest (6-0) plays host to Brawley (4-2) for Imperial Valley bragging rights.

KOMETS-CAVERS

Kearny has pulled ahead, 19-16, in a series that dates to 1950, when San Diego defeated the undermanned Komets, 58-12, but lost star player Charlie Powell for the rest of the season and half of basketball when Powell took a knee to the kidneys in the third quarter, when the Cavers led, 58-0.

Three seasons later the confident, 7-0 Komets played San Diego for the City Prep League championship but were dismissed, 27-0.  Birt Slater was in his first season as an assistant coach to Duane Maley at San Diego.

Coincidentally the unveiling of a plaque this week that will recognize the Kearny gridiron as “Birt Slater Field” salutes the man who left San Diego, made Kearny a dominant program in the ‘sixties and ‘seventies, and changed things with the Cavers.

Kearny had lost its first nine games against San Diego and faced a good Cavers team in the final regular-season game in 1963. The Larry Shepard-led Slater team shocked the Cavers, 52-14, sending the Komets flying into the playoffs and to their first San Diego Section championship.

Slater didn’t like talking about it but that breakthrough for Kearny may have represented the most satisfying victory of the 134 he amassed from 1959-76.

Slater had been in line for the San Diego job as early as the winter of 1956-57, but his  appointment would be contingent on when Maley retired, but Maley didn’t step down until after the 1959 season.

Birt had  moved on.

EVEN?

The Cavers are off to their best start since Maley’s 1958 club won its first six games.  The level of competition isn’t the same and San Diego shouldn’t be confused with those great Cavers teams of the ‘forties and ‘fifties, but winning has gotten alumni buzzing and students finding a reason to go to games.

Comparative scores seem to indicate a tossup.  Coach Will Gray’s Komets beat Francis Parker, 40-3, and San Diego Southwest, 59-28.  San Diego, under former University City mentor Charles James, defeated Parker, 54-7, and Southwest, 28-7.

DESERT DUSTUP

Brawley and El Centro Southwest joined the San Diego Section in 2000 and Brawley, in keeping with its seniority, has ruled the Eagles’ roost.

The Wildcats are 17-1 against Southwest since 2000.  The average score of the 18 games is 38-8, including 72-8 and 63-0 indignities.  Brawley has won 10 Imperial Valley League titles since the millennium and finished no lower than second in all other seasons.

Coach John Self has picked up the mantel handed down by John Bishop, known as the Desert King during his many years in the Valley, and Bishop had followed the tradition of Bob Farrell, whose ‘fifties Brawley teams were formidable Southern Section small-school operatives.

Southwest’s one victory in the series, 32-27 in 2010, marked the only season the Eagles have won the league championship.

But the school near Interstate 8,  at South 23^rd Street and Ocatillo Drive, has won 24 of its last 30 games since 2015 under coach John Mitosinka, while Brawley is 18-10 over the same period.

CALIFORNIA TOP 50

Mission Hills is 16th, Madison 23rd, Helix 30th, and La Costa Canyon 43rd in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports statewide rankings.

San Marcos, 45th last week, dropped out after a quasi-surprising, 38-21 loss to Torrey Pines.  Ramona, 6-0 for the first time since 2013, attained “bubble” status.

The Union-Tribune Week 7 poll :

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

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  El Camino (3-3, 15 points),  El Centro Southwest (6-0, 5),  Eastlake (4-2, 4), Valley Center (5-1, 4), St. Augustine (3-3, 2), Christian (5-1, 1), Grossmont (4-2, 1), Mira Mesa (5-1, 1).

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

Twelve former San Diego Section stars made the 32-team NFL rosters of 1,693 players at the start of the 2017 season.

Thirteen made the list in 2016 and 15 in 2015.

Helix was one of 40 schools with 3 players active.  St. Thomas Aquinas of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, had 12, followed by Long Beach Poly with 7, two schools with 6, and six  with 5.

Florida led all schools with 212 players, followed by California (191), Texas (179), and Georgia 120.  Miami led by city with 25. Houston (17), and Fort Lauderdale (15) rank second and third.

The NFL incorrectly listed five players as having attended either San Marcos, Serra, or Cathedral from the San Diego Section.  Those players were from Santa Barbara San Marcos, Gardena Serra, and Los Angeles Cathderal.

Please contact me with corrections or additions.

Opinions are like a certain area of the anatomy.  Most of us have one.

The opinion of Scouts.com, which maintains a running list of  who’s who in high school football and who is being recruited by whom, is that the following table is indicative of the probable 10 best players in the San Diego Section.

The table reflects Scout.com‘s individual ranking for California players and is updated daily.

Helix’s Isaac Taylor-Stuart is considered the No. 4 player in the state, behind only three, five-star wide  receivers, Amron-Ra St. Brown, Santa Ana Mater Dei; Devon Williams, Lancaster Antelope Valley, and Jalen Hall, Long Beach Poly.

Other rating services will differ.

A FEW AT 5-0

At the regular season’s halfway juncture there are six teams with 5-0 records and eight with 4-0 records.

Three City League teams are on a collision course.  Kearny and Crawford are 5-0 and San Diego is 4-0.

The Komets, overlooked by us last week, are off to their best start since 1978.  Crawford was 5-0 as recently as 2013. San Diego is traversing ground not covered since the 5-0 team of  2011.

San Diego is favored this week as it opens league play against visiting Clairemont (2-3). Crawford is idle and will prepare for tough University City (4-1) at Hoover the following week.  Kearny also is off and awaits Coronado (1-3)  at home next week.

Other 5-0 teams are Mission Hills, San Marcos, Ramona, and La Costa Canyon.

Clubs with 4-0 records:  Calvin Christian, Christian, El Centro Central, El Centro Southwest, Madison, Mira Mesa, The Bishop’s.

TWO-SPORT THREAT

La Costa Canyon’s Karson Lippert, football player or track man?

He’s taken the field by storm in each.

Last week the 165-pound junior rushed for 312 yards in 20 carries ad scored on runs 80, 82, and 90 yards as the suddenly lethal Mavericks ran past Carlsbad, 36-21.

Lippert caught everyone’s attention in June at the state meet in Clovis, finishing a surprising and scorching second in the 400 meters in :46.91, second fastest in area history.

La Costa Canyon is off to its best start since 2009 but faces the meat of its schedule the next three weeks against Avocado League toughies El Camino, Mission Hills, and San Marcos.

GRIZZLIES,WARHAWKS ON MOVE

Mission Hills and Madison continue to make incremental gains in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports rankings.

The Grizzlies, No. 1 in San Diego, rose from 18th to 17th on Cal-Hi‘s state list.  Madison moved from 26th to 25th, and Helix dropped from 30th to 31st.

San Marcos crashed the top 50 at 48th and La Costa Canyon got some “on-the-bubble” cred.

The Union-Tribune Week 5 poll :

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

NR: Not Ranked.

Others receiving votes:  Carlsbad (3-2, 14 points), Torrey  Pines (3-2, 13), Christian (4-0, 13),  Valley Center (4-1, 2), Mira Mesa (4-0, 1), Point Loma (3-2, 1), St. Augustine (2-3, 1).

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