The Preps / Scott Howard-Cooper : Stark Regained Timing as a Senior

Four months, 3,154 yards and 29 touchdowns ago, Scott Stark was the starting quarterback at Capistrano Valley in Mission Viejo with little more than potential.

The previous year, in what looked like a real stroke of bad timing for Scott, his father, Ray Stark, retired after having coached for nearly 30 years at Ontario Chaffey and moved his family to Orange County. Scott started at Chaffey as a sophomore, but that carried little weight at Capo Valley, especially since he didn’t make his first appearance at practice until just before the season.

“He just showed up at school one day before the start of the year,” Cougar Coach Dick Enright recalled. “I had never heard of him before, never seen him before. His dad showed up with him. I said we were very happy with the quarterback we had in Nathan Call, and then his dad said, ‘Then Scott will sit on the bench and wait his chance.’ ”

Sit is exactly what Scott Stark did. His playing time for the season added up to about two quarters and he threw only a few passes, while Call rolled up 1,500 yards.

But Enright, head coach at the University of Oregon in the early 1970s, moved Call to wide receiver and started Stark at quarterback for their senior season. The move paid of as the Cougars went 9-2-1, Stark and Call were named co-Offensive Players of the Year in the South Coast League and Stark set the Orange County record for most yards passing in a season.

And now, with a month to go until football players can sign a letter of intent, Stark, whom few of the so-called talent evaluators knew at the start of the season, is a hot commodity.

One of five or six Los Angeles-area quarterbacks projected for Division I scholarships, Stark, 6-3 and 185 pounds, returned Monday from Oregon and the first of his five recruiting trips. Stanford is up this weekend--one of the many quarterback prospects the Cardinal are pursuing this season--to be followed by Arizona, USC and Notre Dame.

“Originally, he was not really considering Notre Dame or USC too much because he felt they would not throw the ball as much as he would like,” said his mother, Marian Stark. “But they said, ‘Please come and see us because we are changing our philosophy.’ ”

Stark’s story is somewhat similar to that of Steve Beuerlein from Anaheim Servite in that both are quarterbacks from Orange County, both sat out most of their junior seasons and ended up as major recruits and both were named player of the year in their respective conferences.

Beuerlein played behind Doug Butler at Servite and didn’t start a varsity game until his senior year in 1982, by which time Butler had gone to Princeton. In the one season, though, he passed 256 times for 2,244 yards and ended up at Notre Dame.

It’s little wonder that Oklahoma’s recruiting efforts were given a big boost after winning the national championship.

“Everyone in the country knows us now and everyone wants to see what we’re doing right,” is how recruiting coordinator Scott Hill put it last week.

Exactly how well the Sooners have been doing, however, can be summed up with one statement: No recruit has turned them down for a visit.

At least so far.

J.J. Flannigan of Pomona, one of the top running backs in California, said Sunday night that he is considering backing out of his scheduled trip to Norman and replacing it with one to the University of Washington.

“They (the Sooners) don’t need any more backs,” said Flannigan, who has already gone to Colorado and Michigan and has plans for USC and Cal. “I would just fall into the shadows back there.”

Oklahoma does need linemen and linebackers, and interest at those positions is there from some of Southern California’s best prospects--linebacker Lorne Whittle of Riverside Rubidoux, linemen Mark Tucker of L.A. Banning, Dennis Brown of Long Beach Jordan, Nigel Clay of Fontana and tight end Ernie Rogers of Fontana, a projected college lineman.

The Sooners will also get a visit from running back Trevin Moore of Rubidoux, one of 12 Californians they will bring in, along with 28 prospects from Texas, twice as many as normal.

Rubidoux went 3-7 overall and 1-6 in the Citrus Belt League this season, but Moore has been a winner all season in the eyes of college coaches. Some are saying he is better at this stage than former Falcon star Ryan Knight, now at USC, because of his speed and that he is on the same level as the more publicized Flannigan.

“(Moore) is as polished as any running back in the country,” Oklahoma’s Hill said. “He’s about a 5-10, 180-pounder, the type we play with.”

Moore, who did not make an All-Southern Section team, has already visited Iowa, returned Monday from Washington, will go to Arizona this weekend and is also scheduled for trips to Ohio State and Kansas State. Whittle, his teammate, is a 6-3, 215-pounder who is considering Arizona, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Cal State Long Beach and Kansas State.

The Kansas State connection comes with Leo Brouhard, who resigned as Rubidoux coach after this season to become the Wildcats’ recruiting coordinator. Monday marked his first official day of work in Manhattan, Kan.

Prep Notes Pasadena Muir Coach Jim Brownfield, who won the state title in girls’ track last season and the Coastal Conference title in football last month, will be honored tonight in Monrovia for his 30 years in coaching. The formal affair, with reservations at $15 per person, will begin at 6:30 p.m. For more information call (818) 917-5240. . . . Running back Terry Rodgers of National City Sweetwater, the Cal-Hi Sports state Player of the Year, has dropped out of this Friday’s Sunkist Invitational track meet at the Sports Arena in favor of a recruiting trip to Texas. He has already been to Nebraska and is scheduled to visit USC Jan. 25 and Arizona State the week after, although the latter may be dropped in favor of Ohio State. The important final visit is still open. Ellis Bradford of Santa Ana Valley has been added to the 60-yard dash field in Rodgers’ place. . . . Huntington Beach Ocean View football Coach Karl Gaytan announced his resignation Times’ Top 10

SOUTHERN SECTION Through Jan. 12 No. School, League Record

1. Mater Dei, Angelus 15-0

2. Capistrano Valley, South Coast 14-2

3. Santa Monica, Bay 11-3

4. Muir, Pacific 12-2

5. HH Wilson, Sierra 14-2

6. Serra, Camino Real 9-4

7. Simi Valley, Marmonte 15-1

8. Ocean View, Sunset 11-4

9. Culver City, Ocean 14-2

10. Riverside North, Ivy 12-1

CITY No. School, League Record

1. Crenshaw, Central 9-2

2. Palisades, Central 11-1

3. Carson, Marine 9-4

4. Fairfax, Valley 10-4

5. Fremont, Central 10-2

6. Manual Arts, Marine 9-2

7. Westchester, Central 9-3

8. Washington, Central 8-3

9. Dorsey, Central 8-4

6. Cleveland, Valley 6-5