Introductions Not Necessary : It’ll Be a Night for Reunions When Chula Vista Plays Bonita Vista

Chula Vista High School assistant coaches Gary Chapman, Rex Johnson, Mark Anderson and Bobby Collins are busy preparing for Friday night’s game against Coach Jim Wilson’s Bonita Vista team.

That is the same Jim Wilson who coached Johnson, Anderson and Collins at Chula Vista more than a decade ago. And that is the same Jim Wilson who hired Chapman as an assistant coach at Chula Vista.

Got it?

There’s more.

Bobby Wilson, Jim’s son, played for his father at Chula Vista. Now, Bobby is the backfield coach under his father at Bonita Vista. Craig Wilson, another of Jim’s sons, played free safety at Chula Vista on a team coached by Chapman.

Chula Vista Coach George Ohnesorgen has two brothers, Frank and Oscar, who played for Wilson at Chula Vista. Bonita Vista quarterback Doug Piper’s father played with Chapman at Chula Vista.

Wilson still lives just one block from Chula Vista High and his three children went to school there. Every February, Wilson goes skiing with the Chula Vista coaches.

All of these fellows whose pasts--and presents--are so intertwined will be on one sideline or the other when eighth-ranked Bonita Vista meets ninth-ranked Chula Vista in a Metro-Mesa League showdown at 7:30 Friday night at Southwestern College.

Even the site of the game represents another little twist. Southwestern’s Chet DeVore Stadium is Bonita Vista’s home field, but it is named after a former Chula Vista coach.

And Jim Wilson was the winningest coach in Chula Vista history. He had a 53-35-4 record between 1965 and 1974 and led the Spartans to three Metro League championships.

“When I was at Chula,” Wilson said, “I thought it was the greatest thing going. Now, I think Bonita is the greatest thing going.”

This is the first time in Wilson’s 25-year career that he will coach against Chula Vista.

“I have a great soft spot for Chula,” Wilson said, “and I will feel funny playing against them. I’m laughing because it seems like I’ve either coached against or with all these guys. It’s almost an in-house community thing.”

Almost?

Going to a Metro League game is like having friends over for dinner. A reunion on the 50-yard line.

Said George Ohnesorgen: “Everyone has been through one of the systems down here.”

Wilson, however, did not go from Chula Vista to Bonita Vista this fall. Instead, he made the move from Sweetwater, where he coached the running backs. He traded places with Larry Fernandez, who switched from being head coach at Bonita Vista to assistant coach at Sweetwater.

It would seem that Bonita Vista has thrived under Wilson.

“The best thing for Bonita was a change in the coaching staff,” Ohnesorgen said. “It was like they got a new lease on life. A new person comes in and they have a new look. They’ve had excellent athletes the last few years, and Jim has been able to get them motivated.”

With 12 starters returning from a team that went 3-7 last season, Wilson has led the Barons to a 5-1 start. They are 6-0 on the field, but forfeited a 36-6 win against Madison because they used an ineligible player. Bonita Vista has the top-scoring offense in San Diego County, averaging 34 points per game.

“Last year, there was a lot of yelling,” said Bonita Vista middle linebacker David Woodhouse. “Wilson tries to let you know what you did wrong and then talks to you about it. The team attitude is different and better this year.”

The attitude at Chula Vista hasn’t changed, but the players and the league have.

Two-time Times’ All-County tight end Darnell Woods, quarterback Darren Pudgil and running back Fredo Dwyer graduated from Chula Vista last year. They were the nucleus as the Spartans went 9-1 and lost to El Camino, 24-17, in the CIF San Diego Section 2-A championship game. In 1983, Chula Vista beat El Camino, 17-13, to win the 2-A title.

“Not having all those great kids is a learning experience for this year’s team,” Ohnesorgen said. “We have a really young team that is still developing and is trying to find itself. I thought this would be a rebuilding year and didn’t think we’d be this good in terms of a won-lost record.”

Ohnesorgen has been pleasantly surprised. The Spartans are 5-1 and their lone loss was by one point, 8-7, to Southwest. Chula Vista’s defense, led by linemen Bobby Bleisch and Mario Pintado, has allowed an average of only 4.3 points a game, second to Helix’s 3.5 mark.

In the Metro-South Bay League, where the Spartans used to reside, 5-1 would be good for first place and peace of mind. Now, it places them second behind Sweetwater.

Because Chula Vista had a significant increase in enrollment, it was promoted from the 2-A Metro-South Bay to the 3-A Metro-Mesa division. Sweetwater, Bonita Vista and Chula Vista--three members of The Times’ Top 10--are in the Metro-Mesa League. The Metro-South Bay is not represented in the rankings.

“I think the 2-A division is basically where we belong,” Ohnesorgen said. “When the decision was made, we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was fun being the big fish in a small pond. Now, it’s just the opposite.”

The Spartans have beaten Bonita Vista four straight times and lead the series, 14-5. However, now that Chula Vista and Bonita Vista are back in the same division and both schools have good teams this year, this may be their most meaningful meeting.

Chula Vista’s main rival has been Sweetwater, the oldest school in the district and traditionally the school with the best athletes and most successful teams. Bonita Vista’s main rival has been Hilltop, its closest geographical rival.

However, this may be a spot for the beginning of a rivalry between these high schools, which are about a 10K apart.

What’s more, there are also demographic differences. Chula Vista is the city high school and Bonita Vista is the newer school in the affluent suburbs.

“Chula Vista is really a middle-of-the-road school and Bonita is out there on the hill,” said Chula Vista assistant principal Karen Hunt, who used to work at Bonita Vista.

Chula Vista is in the middle of everything and Bonita Vista was built on what was the middle of nothing.

“I used to see cows having babies on the road,” senior Kristen May said. “It sure has changed. It used to be more country and it’s becoming a city. It’s gotten more fancy. Did you see the ‘Welcome to Bonita’ sign with the palm trees?”

Less than a mile past fruit and pumpkin stands is an endless row of billboards for condominium developments.

“There is a combination of cosmopolitan and rural,” said Dorothy Murphy, Bonita Vista dean of activities. “There is still a very active 4-H club, but there are a lot of professional people and a lot of money in this area.”

Affluence is a plus for developers in the Bonita area, but it is also a stigma Bonita Vista students have to fight.

“The reputation of being the snobs of the district is not fair,” Murphy said. “I don’t look at our kids as the rich kids. For years, people have told me Bonita kids are not hungry enough to win. That’s nonsense.”

Wilson, who coached against Bonita Vista at both Chula Vista and Sweetwater, agrees.

“The whole league has felt Bonita Vista was a bunch of rich kids who were not going to get their noses dirty,” he said. “I don’t think there is any basis for that, but that thought has prevailed since Bonita Vista came into the league. When I was at Sweetwater, I always thought Bonita Vista players hit.”

Bonita Vista players realize they have to battle a lot of preconceived notions. Despite winning Metro League football titles in 1975 and 1980, the Barons are still clamoring for respect.

“People still think of us as little old Bonita,” quarterback Doug Piper said. “We still have to prove ourselves every week.”

There will be a lot of proving going on Friday night. Especially among the coaches.

When two fairly even teams meet, a coaching trick here or there could be the deciding factor. However, in this league, the coaches all know each other’s tricks so well. Maybe too well.

“I’ve been around so long that people pretty much know how I think,” Wilson said.

People like Johnson, Anderson, Chapman and Collins.