2020: Active coaches with 50 or more wins through 2019
Football season is just beyond the horizon in this chaotic year, but many coaches are actively preparing for a January start (in the usual basketball season), including those who have reached 50 victories in their San Diego Section football careers.
2020: Bill Rainey, Crawford Football Star and CIF Track Champ
Bill Rainey left with a couple championships when he graduated from Crawford High in 1962 and went on to the University of Southern California.
Rainey, who passed away recently at his home in Seattle, was the San Diego Section football player of the year in 1961 and also was the first San Diego Section track-and-field champion in the 880-yard run in 1961.
Two separate and distinctive achievements.
As a junior Rainey bested the field at Kearny High in the inaugural San Diego Section championships, winning in a time of 1:58.0.
Rainey proceeded to score 19 touchdowns in the fall and led Crawford to the CIF championship, 13-0 over Kearny, but it was in the game the previous week that forever etched Rainey’s name in San Diego Section lore.
Rainey eluded Kearny defender in San Diego Section championship.
The 175-pound halfback scored 5 touchdowns in a 31-13 victory over Helix in a contest billed as matching the two best teams in the County. Entering the game Crawford was 6-0-2 and Helix 8-0.
Crawford’s 8-0-2 championship record remains the only unbeaten season in school history.
Rainey was an all-Southern California, first-team choice by the Helms Athletic Foundation and the San Diego Section player of the year.
Bill did not defend his 880-yard championship in the spring track season. He instead contributed to Crawford’s track-and-field squad by becoming a pole vaulter.
Rainey’s 1:58.0 nipped the 1:59 of 880 runner-up Rick Lethola of Sweetwater in 1961 San Diego Section championships.
Rainey was honored at San Diego State athletic banquet with (from left) former Aztecs basketball star Tony Pinkins and La Jolla quarterback Dan Berry (from left). Retired Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy (right) was principal speaker.
1981: Population=New Leagues+New Names+More Games
The CIF board of managers passed a resolution at the end of the 1980-81 school year that resulted in the dividing of three leagues and the board-approved addition of a 10th regular-season game.
Cause and effect was County population, which had grown to 1.8 million in the 1980 census, with almost 1 million in the city.
–The 10-team Metropolitan League split into the Mesa and South Bay leagues, under a Metropolitan Conference umbrella.
Bonita Vista, Castle Park, Hilltop, Montgomery, and Sweetwater became the Mesa League in 3-A, a classification for playoffs instituted in 1979 to accommodate enrollment concerns. The South Bay’s Chula Vista, Coronado, Marian, Mar Vista, and Southwest were designated 2-A schools.
Bosses had to meet a second time to determine the names of the Metro’s new leagues. Other suggested names included Eastern, Western, Bay, Coast, Inland, and Freeway, according to Bud Maloney of the Evening Tribune.
CITY SHAKEUP
The Eastern and Western leagues realigned and a Central League was formed as part of a three-league City Conference.
The 3-A Eastern went from 8 to 5 teams, losing Clairemont and Point Loma to the 2-A Western, and Crawford to the 2-A Central.
The Western went radical as St. Augustine, Lincoln, Serra, and Hoover left and joined Crawford and formerly independent Christian in a six-team Central.
A revised Western of seven clubs included Clairemont, La Jolla, Mission Bay, Point Loma, San Diego, University, and first-year University City, which played a junior varsity schedule.
Palomar (3-A) and Avocado (2-A) replaced the Avocado East and Avocado West, the change not affecting schools except for division nomenclature. Explosive growth in the 1960’s and ’70’s had created several realignments within the original Palomar and Avocado circuits.
LONG AND WIDE
The San Diego Section’s acceptance of the Imperial Valley League’s four, smaller entities from the Southern Section had meant expansion in 1980 of the old Southern Prep League, now the Southern Conference with a Mountain-Desert League and Coastal League.
The Mountain-Desert, stretching about 125 miles east from Pine Valley (Mountain Empire) to Winterhaven (San Pasqual), also numbered Imperial, Holtville, and Calipatria.
The Coastal loop was more geographically agreeable, going up and down Interstate 5, 805 and their tributaries, to Army-Navy, Chula Vista Christian, La Jolla Country Day, Francis Parker, and Santa Fe Christian, plus, oddly, Julian, tucked away in the mountains.
— Left standing and unchanged was the nine-team Grossmont League, which in the future finally would split.
David Andrade and Allen Read (76) convoyed Bob Fuller as Vista ran down Patrick Henry in playoffs, 26-0.
AIR CORYELL OF FOOTHILLS
Helix quarterback Jim Plum, throwing to star receivers Allan Durden, Karl Dorrell, and Craig Galloway, set a state record with 3,328 passing yards and passed for 32 touchdowns as coach Jim Arnaiz’ Highlanders posted a 10-3 record and went to the San Diego Section finals before the fogbound Scots lost a 34-16 decision to Vista.
Helix’ passing game had a familial connection to the San Diego Chargers’ “Air Coryell”.
Chargers running backs coach Earnel Durden, a former Los Angeles City player of the year at Manual Arts and all-America at Oregon State, was father of three Helix standouts, beginning with Mike, followed by Kevin, and finally Allan, a tough, shifty, 60-catch receiver.
Linkage did not stop with the Durdens. The all-purpose Dan Hammerschmidt was son of Al Hammerschmidt, who quarterbacked an upset victory by Cal Poly-Pomona in 1962 over Coryell’s San Diego State squad and who was Helix’ head coach from 1968-72, succeeded by Arnaiz.
The younger Hammerschmidt tied a record that can never be broken, a touchdown on a 99-yard pass play, with a couple added feet.
Hammerschmidt backed up Plum, returned kicks, played cornerback, and was variously described as “the heart and soul of Arnaiz’ defense.”
DAN HAD A HAMMER
Midway through the season Hammerschmidt found himself playing flanker on offense, stepping in for the injured Dorrell.
Helix was backed up to its half-foot line after Hammerschmidt misjudged his position in calling for a fair catch, fumbled, and barely saved a safety or a Granite Hills touchdown by recovering the punt just before the end zone stripe.
The Highlanders’ senior had no time to fret about his error.
Karl Dorrell, Craig Galloway, and Allan Durden (from left) made for powerful offense at Helix.
On first down Plum pitched a lateral that Hammerschmidt caught, then dodged a tackler at his four-yard line, picked up a block from Durden, and took it to the house.
“After Jim threw me the pass I got that great block from Allan—he always blocks like that—and I just ran as hard as I could,” Hammerschmidt told the Evening Tribune’s Bud Maloney, who was covering the game, a 24-0 Helix victory.
OH, SAY CAN WE SEE?
Dorrell, Durden, and Galloway arguably were the best set of receivers on the same team in San Diego Section history. Plum ranks among the best quarterbacks and Arnaiz is in the top rung of coaches.
It should have been one of the all-time championship games when Helix met Vista in a rematch of the season opener for the 3-A title in San Diego Stadium, but forces of nature and the pounding attack of Dick Haines’ Vista Panthers prevailed.
Thirty-plus years later Steve Brand of The San Diego Union remembered the game as if it were yesterday.
“Helix was loaded with talented athletes,” said the longtime prep writer. “Vista just hit you. It was quite a matchup, until the fog rolled in early in the game.”
Plays like these, in which Clairemont’s Richard Frye blocked a Lincoln punt, were typical of the Chieftains’ 10-1-1 season, best in school history. Clairemont won this game, 21-6, and repeated over the Hive in the 2-A finals, 41-26.
WRITERS ALSO GROUNDED
When the game started Brand was in the press box high above the field. “It got so bad we could not see the game at all. The media went down to the field and I remember creeping along the sideline, trying to see. The fog grounded the Helix attack.”
What struck Brand even more was response of the announced crowd of 15,302.
“The game clock operator and the announcer also were on the field, which meant that when one of the teams scored there was a very obvious pause between the score, the announcement, and the cheers,” said Brand.
“If we were on our sideline hashmark and sent someone in motion, he disappeared in the fog,” said Arnaiz.
“We continued to throw the ball but they were all checkdown, short passes, “said the Highlanders’ coach. “You could not throw beyond 10 yards. Our passing attack took a beating.”
VISTA 2-0 VERSUS HIGHLANDERS
Arnaiz’ passing offense was crippled by fog.
“Vista ran the heck out of the option and Dan did a great job of holding them down with his great play. He went out (with an injury) after the first quarter and they began to wear us down.”
Who’s the say Vista wouldn’t have won, fog, rain, or clear skies? The Panthers defeated Helix 24-0 in the season’s hastily prepared, first game, the so-called “10th game”, which the CIF approved at the end of the 1980-81 school year.
Fog is not a problem, if you’re Vista. The Panthers defeated Patrick Henry, 32-0, in a heavy, seasonal shroud for the championship in 1974.
Arnaiz and Haines were virtually even when they hung up their whistles after a combined 52 seasons on the San Diego scene.
Arnaiz was 212-77-7 with 6 trips to the finals (4-2) and a .726 winning percentage in 27 seasons. Haines was 194-85-1 (.698) with 6 championship games (3-3) and a 3-0 record head to head with Arnaiz in 25 seasons.
CHARGERS CONNECTION, CON’T
Grossmont quarterback Jeff Van Raaphorst, the son of Dick Van Raaphorst, a kicker for the Chargers in 1966-67, piloted another air-oriented attack.
A placekicker and a converted tight end, Van Raaphorst was virtually even with Helix’ Jim Plum in the regular season with 25 touchdown passes and 2,975 yards passing. Plum had 2,793 and 27.
Plum had the edge when Helix defeated Grossmont, 49-14, with a line that read 18 for 22, 336 yards, and 4 touchdowns. Van Raaphorst completed 20 of 41 passes for 329 yards, and 1 TD.
Grossmont’s Jeff Van Raaphorst was Grossmont League passing rival of Helix’ Jim Plum.
CONNECTIONS, CON’T.
Willie McCloud of Clairemont, a 6-foot, 1-inch, 160-pounder, was the son of Willie McCloud a San Diego High football and baseball standout from 1957-59.
Fallbrook coach Tom Pack attended Mission Hills’ Bishop Alemany in the San Fernando Valley, where Granada Hills was an L.A. City Section power, holding sway under coach Jack Neumeier, who nurtured several quarterbacks, including John Elway.
Neumeier retired in 1979…to Fallbrook. “That Jack Neumeier?” Pack exclaimed when a Fallbrook High teacher and neighbor of Neumeier’s casually mentioned the name.
After constructing a new home, Neumeier was free and accepted Pack’s oft-repeated invitation to join the Warriors’ staff as an unattached assistant coach, sitting in the press box during the first half of games and heading to the sidelines with his play sheets and observations in the second half.
Neumeier brought his spread offense and passing game to the Warriors and the results were dramatic. Fallbrook scored 82 points and had a 4-5 record in 1980. They improved to 228 points and an 8-2 record this year, their second winning season since 1967.
MADISON PLAYER’S SILENT WORLD
Darryl Rutland, a 17-year-old, 6-foot, 1-inch, 200-pound junior nose guard occupied a unique position in the Madison defense.
Rutland was deaf.
“It’s totally refreshing to have Darryl on our squad.” head coach Bob Bishop told Bud Maloney of the Evening Tribune. “He doesn’t hear the roar of the crowd, just goes out and plays football.”
What about a play-ending whistle by officials? Would Rutland be at risk for a penalty.
“No,” said Bishop. “Darryl plays a very controlled game. He’s very intelligent, knows the rules, and plays by them. He has never had a penalty…i think it would be the official’s mistake if one was.”
Madison linebacker Matt Pelot touches helmet of hearing-impaired lineman Darryl Rutland, communication when Warhawks are on defense.
Rutland and Dean Lawson, athletic interpreter-aide, talk without speaking.
WHO ARE THESE GUYS?
Virtually ignored by the media were very small public and private schools that included Borrego Springs, Francis Parker, Julian, Victory Christian, Chula Vista Christian, La Jolla Country Day, and Santa Fe Christian. They all labored in six-man and eight-man football obscurity.
Like life on the African veldt, only the strong survived, i.e., those with healthy enrollment and paid-up tuition.
Julian, which began playing in 1967, and Borrego Springs, first season of football in 1967, moved down from 11-man and found their niches in lesser numbers. So did Santa Fe Christian.
10 MORE THAN ENOUGH?
Twenty-nine schools took advantage of the board of managers’ approval of an extra game. The schools played before classes started and with limited time to prepare.
Reaction was mixed.
“I’m all for it,” enthused Vista coach Dick Haines, whose team ended Helix’ 12-game winning streak 24-10 before 5,500 persons at Vista. “It was a well-played game with few penalties and no injuries.”
But there were 300 yards in accepted penalties and a couple players sidelined when Sweetwater defeated Carlsbad 18-13. “I still think the extra game is worthwhile,” said Carlsbad coach Mel Galli.
Point Loma and Morse played before a small crowd in the so-named first “Friendship Bowl”. “It’s not fair to gauge the crowd because neither school knew about the game until a month ago,” said the Pointers’ Bennie Edens.
Carlsbad coach Mel Galli saw economic benefit.
Point Loma and Morse were the only city schools to accept the extra game invitation and the teams gathered afterward for a postgame meal. Players with identical jersey numbers sat across from each other.
“It’s not worth it, no matter what the crowd was,” said Granite Hills’ Paul Wargo. “It was too soon. I question the sanity of having a 10th game without preparation.” Wargo’s club beat Bonita Vista 14-0.
“You have to budget your time,” said Jim Arnaiz. “Because of the early start we don’t have the luxury of one-a-day practices (instead of “double days”).
Mount Miguel’s Brian Smith said some schools took advantage of unclear guidelines during the one-week of conditioning. “We weren’t even supposed to touch the football. Some schools touched the ball, believe me.”
“If they could allow us to split the one week of conditioning period into three days of straight conditioning and three allowing use of the ball and blocking dummies, it would be better,” said Arnaiz.
Carlsbad’s Galli cut to the chase: “We’ll make some money off the game, even if the crowd was down a little.”
San Diego Section schools never looked back. Ten regular-season games became the norm.
WORTH THE WAIT
University City, 17 years after original planning, opened on 80 acres off Genesee Avenue in North Clairemont, the Section’s 64th football-playing school and 13th in the San Diego Unified School district.
Money for U. City, which began with 10th and 11th graders and played a junior varsity schedule, was included in a 1974 bond measure, but “politics, court battles, and angry homeowners delayed construction for six years,” reported The Union.
HELLO, BALBOA
The new Balboa Stadium, at Glenn Broderick Field, named after a San Diego High football and track coach in the 1920s and ‘thirties, was home field again for San Diego.
The Cavers played three games in the 3,700-seat facility, which was wired for lights and future expansion to 5,000 seats.
The original stadium was built in 1914. An upper deck to accommodate the San Diego Chargers was constructed in 1961. The stadium was demolished in 1978.
QUICK KICKS
Helix linebacker and baseball catcher Jerry Schniepp saw beyond the game… Schniepp was destined for a career in athletics and in 2011 became the fifth commissioner in San Diego Section history, serving until Schniepp’s 2020 retirement… the CIF finally was able to raise $21,000 through donations to cover expenses for using San Diego Stadium as the championship venue after fears that a financial shortfall would force the two games to 4,000-seat Mesa College, 7,200-seat Southwestern College, or the 5,500-seat Mt. Carmel High… Helix’ Jim Plum cut off the tip of a finger on his throwing hand in a lawnmower accident in May but “I was throwing a nerf ball as soon as they put in the stitches,” said Plum. Dennis Shaw, who passed for 39 touchdowns in leading Don Coryell’s San Diego State team to an 11-0 record in 1969, became head coach at Chula Vista… Monte Vista beat Helix for only the fifth time in 21 seasons and the Monarchs began the week of preparation “thinking brave,” said coach Gary Cooper, perhaps recalling Hollywood’s Gary Cooper and his brave stand in the movie, “High Noon”…. Sweetwater rolled through the Mesa League behind the powerful running of James Primus and senior brothers, quarterback Wes Saleamua and fullback Dan, who were 13 months apart in age… as a 300-pound defensive lineman, Dan became a seventh-round NFL draft choice out of Arizona State in 1987 and played 12 seasons and in 177 games for three teams… Helix’ Karl Dorrell was a four-year letterman at wide receiver at UCLA and was the Bruins’ head coach from 2003-07…Dorrell became head coach at Colorado in 2020 after several years on NFL staffs… Patrick Henry’s Don Shafer tied a CIF record with 3 field goals in a 9-9 tie with Lincoln… .Lincoln reached the 2-A finals behind the quarterbacking of 5-foot, 4-inch Rodney Hill…Section newcomer Imperial defeated Mountain Empire, 15-6, for the 1-A championship….
2020: Winningest Active Coaches, Through 2019
Will there be a season?
Even a truncated season with no playoffs and play restricted to league games will be cause for rejoicing, it says here.
The state CIF is scheduled to make a decision July 20 on whether there will be games in the fall.
Meanwhile, coaches and players wait.
Active top 10 in career victories:
NAME
YEARS
W-L-T
PCT
Rob Gilster
1989-2019 (31)
230-129-5
.639
Ron Hamamoto
1985-2019 (34*)
228-159-4
.588
Sean Doyle
1996-2019 (24#)
204-94
.685
Matt Oliver
Christian (20)
172-73-3
.700
Chris Hauser
2000-2019 (20*)
168-74-2
.693
Mike Hastings
1998-2019 (22)
148-105
.584
Rick Jackson
2004-2019 (16)
141-49-1
.741
Tom Karlo
Grossmont (15*)
108-65-2
.623
Joel Allen
The Bishop’s (11)
100-35-1
.739
Damon Baldwin
Ramona (15)
100-69-1
.591
*Coached at multiple schools (use Football/Coach 100 Club menu to see a complete list of coaches with at least 100 career victories and their schools).
#When Doyle became coach in 1996 school was known as University of San Diego High, and became Cathedral Catholic at a new campus in Carmel Valley in 2005.
TRY TO TOP THIS
Point Loma has had three head coaches in the last 75 seasons.
Don Giddings, later the school principal and the first principal at Patrick Henry, was 52-23-3 from 1946-54. Bennie Edens was 238-173-17 from 1955-97, and Mike Hastings is 148-115 since 1998.
QUICK KICKS
Jack Mashin was the first coach to win 100 games, when Grossmont defeated Oceanside, 21-6, in game 6 of the 1941 season… El Camino’s Mike Hobbs coached a San Diego Section record and maybe coached or tied a state record… Hobbs’ team
posted a 9-7 record in 2019…the 16 games played in one season have never been equaled in this area…other teams from San Diego played 15 games in the previous decade, but El Camino went one step further when it did not have a first-week bye and was forced to play four San Diego section playoff games before entering the state playoffs…after a 4-6 regular season, the Wildcats caught fire and won five in a row before bowing at Santa Rosa Cardinal Newman, 31-13, in the state III-AA championship game….
2020: Veteran Coaches Move On, Others Move Up
Address changes and new names represent most of the news-making activity these days in the San Diego Section as it pushes on to a critical date and still looking for light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.
The state CIF is scheduled to make a decision later in July on the 2020 future of football in California, but steps here were taken over the spring to position the men who will lead.
Nine new coaching assignments have been announced, including those for five veteran mentors who have moved on to other schools, according to prep writing honcho John Maffei of The San Diego Union and Max Preps.
NAME
NEW SCHOOL
PREVIOUS SCHOOL
REPLACED
Tyler Arciaga
Bonita Vista
Mar Vista
Sam Kirkland III
Jason Texler
Eastlake
San Marcos
John McFadden
Bryan Wagner
Hilltop
Sweetwater
Drew Westling
Will Gray
Hoover
Kearny
Zach Shapiro
Curtis Mays
Mar Vista
Tyler Arciaga
Kyle Williams
Poway
Westview
Scott Coats
Shane Graham
Rancho Buena Vista
Joe Meyer
Ervin Hernandez
Sweetwater
Bryan Wagner
Jason French
Westview
Kyle Williams
Kearny has not announced a replacement for Will Gray, who had a won-loss record of 34-25 from 2015-19.
Jason Texler has coached in the North and East County and now moves south to a strong program at Eastlake, succeeding John McFadden, who was 135-50-4 in 16 seasons.
Texler is 79-58-1 in 12 seasons over 16 years. He was 18-16 at El Cajon Valley from 2004-06, 5-15-1 at Escondido in 2010-11, and 56-27 at San Marcos from 2012-18.
Texler was an assistant on McFadden’s staff in 2019 and is a classroom teacher at the Chula Vista school.
Arciaga was 41-34 from 2013-19 at Mar Vista and comes from a coaching family. His father Bob Arciaga, was head coach at San Diego Southwest from 1978-80.
Wagner moves from Sweetwater to his alma mater, Hilltop, where he tied a County field-goal record of 53 yards in 1978 and eventually was a punter for nine seasons in the NFL, including 1994 with the San Diego Chargers.
Williams served at Westview since 2016.
1929: Coronado Steals Some Hilltoppers Thunder
San Diego High was on its fifth head coach in the last three seasons and found itself sharing headlines for the first time with a team not from Long Beach.
Coronado High, across San Diego Bay, was flexing muscles.
Controversy would follow.
John Perry left coaching after the 1926 season and was succeeded by John Hobbs in 1927 and Mike Morrow and Charlie Church in 1928, changes that were followed by a couple years of mediocrity.
The new coach was John Harold (Hobbs) Adams, a former standout USC lineman fresh from a head coaching stint at Monrovia High.
Adams played on Perry’s 1920 and ’21 San Diego High teams (in 2013 Adams was a second-team lineman on the all-time, all-San Diego County high school squad).
Hilltoppers won with Adams at helm.
Adams’s first team posted a 6-1 record, beaten only by archrival Poly, 20-13, in a Coast League battle before an estimated 13,000 persons in City Stadium.
After that game Coronado coach Amos Schaeffer, who attended the contest between the Hilltoppers and Jackrabbits, “challenged” the Long Beach team.
Under a CIF Southern Section rule, Coronado, a Group B (minor) school, could issue a challenge a Group A (major school).
PLAYOFFS OR BOWLS?
Media described the process and similar other midseason challenges as “playoffs”. In reality they were more like midseason “bowl” games. In effect the games helped the CIF project its postseason invitations.
Nov. 9 had been set aside as a date by the California Interscholastic Federation for challenge games open to all schools.
The CIF struggled for years to find a structured playoff format. Four teams, beginning play in a semifinal round, eventually were selected this season by Secretary Seth Van Patten, after the schools agreed to participate.
The Islanders, with Frank (Toady) Greene and Johnny Lyons leading 15 outmanned teammates, took the fight to mighty Poly, leading 7-6 with six minutes to play before bowing 20-7 in front of 7,000 spectators at Poly’s David Burcham Field.
Interestingly, the Los Angeles Times described a “courageous” Poly team, apparently the underdog, that came from behind to defeat the heralded and “classy Coronado eleven”.
The trans-bay squad finished with an 8-1 record, scored 415 points, and dominated the Southern Prep League, also known as the County league.
Greene set a standing state record with 11 touchdowns and 14 points after touchdown in a 108-0 victory over Sweetwater and held the school season scoring record with 164 points for 74 years. J.T. Rogan, playing in 11 games, broke Greene’s record in 2003.
Speculation was that San Diego and Coronado would meet in a postseason game for city bragging rights, but another CIF rule and prior scheduling by the teams prevented a showdown.
San Diego seemingly was set for a game on Thanksgiving day with Tucson High of Arizona after finishing runner-up to Poly in the Coast League and Coronado was rumored to be going into the Southern Section Group B playoffs.
None of those games materialized. Nor did a Nov. 9 San Diego High challenge to Fullerton, which instead played Brea. A San Diego challenge to Covina also fell through.
The only question was how many points Coronado would score, with Greene (left) and Lyons (right) leading the way.
COACH CALLS OUT CORONADO
Local fans had flooded media outlets with calls for a San Diego-Coronado showdown. The San Diego Sun reported that a game was in the works.
Adams reacted.
The Sun:
Herrick attempted to cool the Adams-stirred controversy, pointing out that “although noted for his impulsiveness, Adams claims he was misquoted.”
The Cavers and Islanders could have met on Nov. 9, since Coronado coach Schaefer, in attendance at the Oct. 26 Poly-San Diego battle in City Stadium, had informed Herrick that day that he would challenge the Jackrabbits-Hilltoppers winner.
ISLANDERS COACH FIRES BACK
incendiary remarks.
The affable mentor was just warming up:
THE COTTON TOP
Irvine (Cotton) Warburton has been honored as one of San Diego High’s all-time athletes, known throughout Southern California as a champion 440-yard runner, having won the state championship with a time of :49.6 in the spring and leading Hobbs Adams’ team in the fall with 10 touchdowns in seven games.
Warburton went on to become an All-America at USC and, like other Trojans athletes, went into the film industry. He won an Academy Award for cinematography in 1964 for Mary Poppins
COTTON SETS PACE
LONELY SAINTS
Out of the loop was St. Augustine High, coached by Herb (Duke) Corriere. The Saints were without a league affiliation and virtually without a country.
The Saints’ motto could have been “Have team, will travel. Expenses negotiable.”
The school at 32nd Street and Nutmeg also played by its own rules. San Diego High graduates Blas Torres and Harry Jones were standouts on this year’s squad, which posted a 7-3 record against teams from all over, several of which were not on the schedule Corriere announced in September.
There were 13 high schools in San Diego County, population approximately 210,000. Julian, Mountain Empire, Fallbrook and Ramona did not field teams. Others playing varsity football were Point Loma, La Jolla, Oceanside, Sweetwater, Grossmont, Escondido, and Army-Navy Academy.
Escondido principal Martin Perry convened a meeting of Southern Prep League honchos to protest a 6-6 tie with La Jolla. An apparent winning Escondido touchdown was disallowed by referee Glenn Broderick, who penalized the Cougars for having too many men on the field.
Perry and his coach, Harry Wexler, appealed on the basis that the offending player had not interfered with the game action and was yards away from the play.
Appeal denied.
POLY WINS COAST AND CIF
The large throng at City Stadium watched Long Beach Poly overcome San Diego, 20-13, with two late touchdowns the day after the stock market crash and earn the Coast League championship and trip to the playoffs.
Poly defeated Huntington Park, 7-6, and met Santa Barbara, 2-0 winner over Fullerton, for the CIF Group A championship. The Jackrabbits outran the Golden Tornado, 14-6.
The Los Angeles Times, quoting CIF boss Seth Van Patten, reported the next day that the game was on and that if Santa Barbara did not show the contest would be ruled a forfeit.
Coincidentally, the flu outbreak was revealed about the time big wigs from Santa Barbara were told the championship would be played at Poly’s Burcham Field. Neutral Wrigley Field and the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles were unavailable.
MERCY FOR ARMY-NAVY?
The Cavemen, or Hilltoppers, take your choice, scored all of their 27 points in the fourth quarter of a shutout at Army-Navy. Hobbs Adams played his reserves in the first three quarters.
Was the San Diego coach worried about blowback from earlier in the decade?
This was the first game between the teams since 1922. Adams was a member of John Perry’s 1920 squad that hung a 130-7 defeat on the Warriors. Two seasons later Army-Navy was on the short end of a 106-6 score.
NO BLAST
FOOTBALL IN MOUNTAINS?
It would be 1938 before the Bulldogs took the field in a regulation game.
