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Gridiron takes center stage at CV Hall of Fame

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SUNLAND — For the members of the Crescenta Valley High Athletic Hall of Fame class of 2011, Saturday’s banquet and induction ceremony was more than just an opportunity to be honored. The evening felt like a family reunion.

“This experience is like living with family and being with extended family,” said John Mirch, a 1977 graduate who was recognized for his efforts as an outstanding football player and track athlete.

“It’s like a fraternity,” said Mirch’s teammate, Gary Beck, an All-CIF football selection for the Falcons in 1975 and 1976.

“I’m still in the La Crescenta neighborhood, and everybody cares for each other in this community,” added Donna Mayhew, a 1978 CV graduate and former world-class javelin thrower who participated in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics.

Mirch, Beck, Mayhew, Bob Herrold, Michele Lee Hampton, Gene Sutherland, Greg Vasquez and the 1973 Falcon football team were each inducted in the third annual ceremony at the Angeles National Golf Club.

Each inductee shared laughs and memories with former teammates, coaches and friends during a memorable event. While the athletes discussed their experiences, they also remembered mentors who died in the past few years.

The Falcons 1973 football team — inducted as the Outstanding Team — was the only football team in school history to win a CIF title and was coached by Gordon Warnock, a 2010 Hall of Fame inductee. Warnock, who was a fixture in the local coaching fraternity for more than 40 years, died in 2010. He was 79.

“We all miss him terribly,” said Dennis Gossard, the Falcons’ current offensive coordinator who was an assistant coach under Warnock in 1973. “If he was here tonight, he would have deflected all of the praise. He loved his players.”

Warnock had a special group of athletes.

Led by a stalwart defense that allowed only seven points through the first seven games of the season, the Falcons defeated Monrovia, 14-7, in the championship game of the 3-A division.

“We had great leadership from a ton of guys,” Gossard said. “It was the greatest defensive team in the school’s history. We just had great athletes.”

The Falcons remembered Herrold as the man who started the aquatics program at CV in the 1960s. Herrold went on to become a respected basketball official at the collegiate level, but not before coaching swimming and water polo at Hoover and CV. Herrold died in 2005. He was 75.

Although he graduated from Hoover, where he also played basketball, Herrold considered CV his “home school,” according to his son, Peter.

“I know he enjoyed his time at CV, helping out and participating with all of the sports,” Peter Herrold said.

Added Elaine Herrold, Bob Herrold’s wife of 53 years: “He would’ve been so proud to be honored by tonight.”

Beck recalled that all he did was play sports while growing up in La Crescenta.

“There was a great pool of talent,” he said.

Considered one of the best running backs in school history, Beck — who also played for Warnock — earned Foothill League Offensive Player of the Year honors as a junior and senior. He then played at the University of Oregon, graduating in 1982.

“There have been so many great athletes who have come here, and there are so many great stories, I am honored and humbled to be here,” Beck said.

Hampton related to Beck’s feelings.

“I am overwhelmed,” she said. “I never expected this.”

She did plenty to deserve the induction. Hampton was an All-American swimmer for the Falcons in 1980 and 1981 and played boys’ water polo for the Falcons in both of those years. She was inducted into the Cal State Northridge Hall of Fame in 1990 and was named All-American 14 times.

Mayhew’s résumé was as impressive.

Mayhew excelled at Glendale Community College, where she captured the Western State Conference championships in 1979 and 1980 in the javelin. She also had a then-state record throw of 167-6 to win the state championship in Bakersfield in 1980 before transferring to the University of Arizona, where she received All-American status.

She was the national champion in the javelin in 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1992-1995. Despite standing at just 5 foot 3, Mayhew’s personal record of 208-10 is the third-best mark all-time for an American woman.

Mayhew’s reputation grew worldwide in the 1980s while the Sutherland family name was renowned in the La Crescenta community in the 1950s.

Darrell and Gary Sutherland played baseball at Glendale High and eventually played Major League Baseball. Gene Sutherland was a member of the Falcons’ first varsity basketball and baseball teams.

Gene Sutherland made a name for himself as a Falcon. He was a first-team All-CIF basketball player for CV and also played on NCAA Championship teams under Coach John Wooden at UCLA in 1967 and 1968.

He said he just loved playing, whether it was against his siblings or at CV, where he felt he was a part of an extended family.

“It’s a really great community,” Sutherland said. “CV has an identity that everyone comes together.”

Vasquez saw the tradition of the Falcons and wanted to be a part of it.

Vasquez played baseball for two years under Coach Randy Siebert, and he was one of three Falcons to earn All-CIF honors in 1980. He earned a full scholarship to the University of Hawaii, where he earned All-Western Athletic Conference awards as a senior. Vasquez and Hawaii won the conference title in 1982 and 1984.

Vasquez has been called one of the best baseball players to ever wear a Falcon uniform; a distinction he said made him think about Crescenta Valley’s tradition.

“There have been a lot of great athletes from CV,” he said.

Mirch was simply happy to be at Saturday’s event.

Surrounded by family and friends, Mirch, an All-CIF football player as a senior, was all smiles. He said his doctors said he was cancer free after a diagnosis of merkle cell cancer seven months ago.

“I am so happy to be here after doctors said that I shouldn’t be here,” Mirch said. “I am so happy and so overjoyed.”

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