Julian High School Football Eagles Aren’t Just a Bunch of Winners . . . : They’re the Apple of the Town’s Eye

In this sleepy town where ice cream sodas are still served at the corner drugstore and walking is considered a sensible way to get around, the Fall Apple Festival isn’t the only big news.

Something special is taking place on the quaint Julian High School football field overlooking the Volcan mountains.

The Eagles are winning, and they’re winning big.

Coach Dick Nolan’s eight-man team has won its four games by scores of 56-6, 36-6, 35-0 and 59-22. Julian’s 36-6 win over perennial small-school power Francis W. Parker was its first victory over the Lancers since 1971.

Eight-man football is known for wide-open offenses that bring back memories of the old American Football League.

The Eagles resemble the AFL’s Chargers offensively, but defensively, they don’t. The Eagles’ first-string defense has allowed only two touchdowns.

Saturday morning discussions on Main Street now revolve around the Eagles’ multiple offense, as well as which store or roadside stand has this year’s best apple pie.

Senior star quarterback/running back/defensive back Mike Scholnick works at his family’s drugstore on Saturdays. Local customers ask Scholnick about the team, about his four touchdowns against Lutheran and whether he hopes to play college football.

“There is a lot more interest in the team this year,” said Scholnick, who has started at quarterback since his sophomore year and switches to tailback in certain situations. “Now, even the town drunks ask me what is going on with the team.”

The last time Julian won a CIF San Diego Section football championship was 1977, when a Nolan team defeated Army-Navy, 35-0, in the 1-A title game for 11-man teams. Previously, 11-man Eagle teams won 1-A championships in 1971 and ’74.

In 1979, Julian switched to eight-man football because it could no longer compete with schools that had larger enrollments.

“We were always close in 11-man,” Nolan said, “but then there was a drop in male inhabitants. Now, we are right where we should be.

“This is the best eight-man team I’ve ever had. This is a hot team with a nice spirit. A smart team like this is almost unstoppable. Mike makes the offense as good as it is. He knows the offense almost as well as I do, and he comes up with good ideas.”

Scholnick is the epitome of the multipurpose back. Just listen to him.

“I like to throw, run and go out for passes,” he said. “I like to punish them on defense. But the best thing is breaking into the open or throwing the bomb.”

Senior teammates Todd Knudsen, Bret Hutchinson, Danny Artho and Tom Smith form the nucleus of a 16-player team that has been maturing and improving the past three years. Smith is appropriately called The Bull because he is a 212-pound running back who runs over and past defensive backs. The smaller field used for eight man football--40 by 80 yards instead of the 53 by 100 that is used for 11-man football--is barely big enough for him.

“These five guys are like golfers in that they basically play against themselves,” Nolan said. “They haven’t had the competition here at Julian.”

Would Scholnick rather be playing on an 11-man team that would make him more appealing to college coaches?

“I don’t regret playing eight-man,” he said. “It has given me a chance to be on a team like this.”

Julian is just 60 miles from San Diego, but it has a lot more in common with a Colorado mountain town than with Horton Plaza.

Except for the fall Apple Festival, when the town is inundated by “flatlanders” wanting a taste of autumn and apple butter, Julian is a quiet and scenic one-street town.

“Julian is sort of unreal in the 20th century,” said Tom Helmantoler, who announces home football games and has taught and coached at Julian for 17 years.

Cows graze across the street from the football field.

“I remember when the first-period class used to clean droppings off the football field,” said James Ketcherside, a former Julian High principal. “A herd of cattle used to come during the night and leave their calling cards.”

Just when it begins to appear that Julian might still be in the 19th century, the word processing lab at the high school comes into sight. It is located near the electronic scoreboard, which was installed after Julian won its first championship in 1971.

There is a mixture of the modern world and homespun attitudes at Julian. And this year, The Game in town is football. Basketball games in the 50-year-old gym are a happening, but football games are bigger.

Julian football means John Mann, the school’s principal, lets his students out of sixth period so that they can watch the opening kickoff of the varsity game. After all, games must start at 3 p.m. because there are no lights.

“Sports is the thing here,” senior cheerleader Ann Clark said. “That’s really all we have to look forward to.”

Added Ketcherside: “Being involved in sports is a family tradition here. The mother was a cheerleader, the father was a player, and the brother or sister was a player or cheerleader.”

Youngsters awaiting their day in the limelight at Julian High play touch football in the end zone during games. The informality of eight-man and small-town football enables the coach’s daughter to hug her father in the midst of the first quarter.

There are stone bleachers on the home side and six rows of wooden bleachers behind the visitors bench. However, most of the crowd of 100 or so parents and fans roam the home sideline.

They don’t just clap for a player after he scores. They shake his hand and pat his shoulder.

Sometimes, they do more than that. Take the 1974 game against Borrego Springs High.

“One of my friends’ sons was kicked by a Borrego player after a tackle,” said Carol Hopballe, whose son played for Julian. “My friend Willie and I ran on the field and started pulling the players apart. Willie, his son, my son and I were kicked out of the game by the official. We had to watch the rest of the game from a bus.”

The voice of Helmantoler is as much a part of an Eagle game as the pine trees surrounding the field. Helmantoler describes the action from a small, white booth that needs a coat of paint and is at the mercy of strong winds. Walk up the ladder to the top at your own risk.

Helmantoler knows Eagle players, their brothers, sisters and parents. And their statistics. He even remembers specific plays from the 1971 championship season, which he believes was the best overall team Julian has had.

“The team’s biggest win ever was when they beat Ramona, 22-9, in the homecoming game that year,” Helmantoler said. “Ramona used to be our main rival. Well, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the town go crazy like they did after that game. The partying started right after the game and went on until 3 or 4 in the morning.”

Helmantoler recounts how that 1971 team was led by 5-foot 10-inch, 170-pound running back and middle linebacker James (Bugs) Ponchetti.

Bugs is a legend in town. Mention his name and the stories start flowing.

“Oh, Bugs,” Hopballe said. “He ran like a tank.”

He also scored 118 points in 1971.

“More than once,” Helmantoler said, “I saw him run over three or four people. He loved to hit . . . That was some team. When they won, the town closed down. You couldn’t buy a gallon of gas or a hamburger.”

Ponchetti is now a plumber and sells oak wood in the neighboring town of Santa Ysabel.

Which is the largest school district in San Diego County?

Answer: The one that has the fewest number of high schools.

The Julian High school district stretches from Witch Creek on the west to Borrego Springs and the Imperial County Line on the east and from Descanso on the south to the Riverside County Line on the north. Four Indian reservations--Inaja, Mesa Grande, Santa Ysabel and Los Coyotes--account for the 14% Indian population at Julian High.

Julian High, established in 1892 and expanded in 1955, is the only high school in the 1,050-square-mile district.

That creates some problems.

One is traveling to road games and the other is that some students have to travel as much as 50 miles to school.

“When we travel to games,” said Mann, “we really travel.”

Ramona used to be the closest school to Julian and its chief rival, but then Ramona moved up to 2-A.

During the week of their football game, Ramona students would take Julian’s symbolic bell and Julian students would run off with Ramona’s goat mascot. The parties would exchange them a day later at Sutherland Dam Road, a meeting place between the schools.

Now, folks go to Ramona for their shopping sprees. The closest football rival is Borrego Springs, a winding 30-minute drive down the mountain.

When the football team plays at La Jolla Country Day in La Jolla or at Victory Christian in Carlsbad, it has to leave Julian at 10:30 Friday morning. The junior varsity game starts at 1 and the varsity game at 3.

The return trip usually gets the team home at 8 or 9 p.m.

“When we have an away game,” said Brad Ill, the Julian athletic director, “a quarter of the school is gone.”

Not exactly, but not as far-fetched as some would think.

There is a student body of 216 students from a population of about 2,500 in “greater metropolitan” Julian. This is in keeping with the 10-year average of 210 students.

“One big family can change the whole student population,” Ketcherside joked. “Really, I remember when the Jennings, all with the initials C.R., had nine children at Julian High.”

Julian is a small town and Julian High is a close-knit school.

“I could give you a basic outline of just about every student’s life,” said senior Shona Lewis, the Associated Student Board president, who has gone to school in Julian since kindergarten. “A lot of people in my class have been here since third grade. It’s a fun situation because it’s like a family, but I’m really looking forward to going away to college.

“There is no single life here. It’s not a good place until you are married and have kids.”

Then, it can be an ideal place.

“People who have been in Julian two or three years want to put a gate at Santa Ysabel,” Ketcherside said. “They’ve found what they want.”

So has the 1985 Julian High football team.