Hart Looks Ahead--to Canyon

The pain of a 28-14 loss to Muir just barely had a chance to set in before Rick Scott, Hart High football coach, was faced with questions about what will happen in 1986.

Topic of discussion: Next season’s game against Canyon.

More than merely bragging rights to the Santa Clarita Valley will be on the line when the teams meet in the season opener next September.

Canyon will have a 38-game win streak, the state’s longest.

Perhaps even more important to Hart fans are Cowboys’ three consecutive wins over the Indians.

Maybe Tony Fadale, president of the Hart Quarterback Club put it best early this week when he told The Times’ Rich Tosches, “If anyone beats them, we want it to be us.”

What makes next season’s game even more interesting is the success of the teams this season despite both being loaded with starters who were underclassmen.

On offense, Hart loses fullback Brian Baie and starting tackles Greg Felan and Charlie Drake. The rest of the squad returns intact, including record setting quarterback Jim Bonds, who threw for 2,416 yards this season.

Canyon has almost all the starters on its offensive squad returning, too.

So what about it, coach? Should be quite a game next year, huh?

Said Scott after Friday night’s game: “Geez, do we have to start talking about next year already?”

Beverly Hills Tournament: Camarillo was outscored, 14-6, in the second quarter and led, 28-27, at the half over Bishop Montgomery in the first round. Scorpion Coach John Harbour was so upset that during intermission he made his team run through the offense for 10 minutes. No break. Camarillo won the game, 58-51.

A few leftover notes and quotes from Friday night’s Southern Section championship games:

From Canyon Coach Harry Welch, after his team’s 9-7 win over Antelope Valley: “This is the best team I’ve ever coached up until tonight. My other championship teams have all played better.”

Jim Bonds, Hart quarterback, after watching the Indians’ offense sputter against talented Muir: “We knew going in they would be quick, but they’re even faster than we thought. We didn’t have a chance going against their DBs.”

Antelope Valley Coach Brent Newcomb, when asked if Canyon might have been overconfident in the championship game after beating the Antelopes easily during the regular season: “They could have been flat. It’s tough to beat a team twice, especially a team you’ve beaten 30-6.”

Welch, responding to Newcomb’s statement: “Flat? Try concave.”

Hart Coach Rick Scott when asked if it bothered him that his team will probably be next season’s preseason pick to win the Coastal Conference, just like it was this season: “Not really. Hopefully, we’ve learned something. People picked us to win everything this season and look what happened. It didn’t do us much good, did it?”

The Indians were 0-3-1 before winning nine straight prior to Friday night’s loss.

Members of The Times All-Valley football team will be honored along with players on all-star teams from nine other Times circulation areas at a luncheon today at the Anaheim Hilton Hotel.

The Times’ Valley Back of the Year, Lineman of the Year, and Coach of the Year will be announced during awards ceremonies.

The candidates for Back of the Year are: Jim Bonds of Hart; Greg Fowble of Granada Hills; Monty Gilbreath of Taft; Sean Hampton of Sylmar; Lance Harper of San Fernando; Jang Kim of Chaminade; M. J. Nelson of Simi Valley; Riche Swinton of Montclair Prep; Barry Thomas of Monroe; Mike Trevathan of Thousand Oaks and Gary Wellman of Westlake.

The candidates for Lineman of the Year are: Lance Ane of Saugus; Randy Austin and Joe Zacharia of Canyon; Mike Bowman of Agoura; Anthony Diliberti of Newbury Park; Charlie Drake and John Libby of Hart; Brian McCarty of Rio Mesa; Ron Simmons of Kennedy; Spencer Smith of Thousand Oaks; Tony Ricci of Notre Dame and Mario Winfrey of San Fernando.

Myron Gibford of Chatsworth, John Hazelton of Montclair Prep, Dave Murphy of Simi Valley, Rick Scott of Hart, Gary Thran of Harvard and Harry Welch of Canyon are the finalists for Coach of the Year.

The award winners will be listed in Wednesday’s Valley Sports section.