HIGH SCHOOLS : THE YEAR IN REVIEW : Canyon Is High in the Saddle. Cleveland Almost Reaches Promised Land. Kennedy’s Girls Are Golden. Simi Valley Employs a Big Mac Attack. Taft Unleashes an Electrifying Sprinter Named Watts. And in Baseball, It’s Beck Over Stroh.

THE FALL

FOOTBALL

Thirty-eight.

The number rhymes with great, which is the appropriate word when talking about Canyon High’s football program. The Cowboys rode tall this past season, winning their third straight Northwestern Conference championship.

For the second straight season, the Cowboys were 14-0. Their winning streak is now 38 games, eight shy of the all-time Southern Section record.

Canyon’s defense, led by standout performers Randy Austin and Joe Zacharia, recorded six shutouts and gave up only 58 points. The Cowboys averaged 30.4 points a game.

Yet the streak, the undefeated season and the bragging rights in the Santa Clarita Valley came within inches of disappearing.

In the season’s opener against Hart, Canyon led, 6-3, but the Indians had the ball at the Canyon eight-yard line with time running out. Hart Coach Rick Scott disdained a field goal and a tie and went for the win.

Quarterback Jim Bonds rolled to his right and headed for the end zone. Bonds was stopped inches short of the goal-line as the game ended.

Canyon rolled over the rest of its opponents--until it reached the final against Antelope Valley. In the final game of the regular season, Canyon had crushed Antelope Valley, 30-6. But in the process, the Cowboys lost quarterback John Watkins to a broken left wrist.

With Ken Sollom at quarterback, Coach Harry Welch’s team outscored its first three playoff opponents, 118-13. In the rematch with Antelope Valley, the Cowboys inexplicably struggled, barely holding on for a 9-7 win.

Welch was upset with his team’s play and the postgame celebration was rather subdued. Still, as the fourth-year coach said, “We’re 38-0. Who else can say that?”

Canyon was also the only Valley team that could say it was a football champion, although several others came close.

Hart started the season ranked No. 1 in the Coastal Conference. But after losing to Canyon, the Indians lost to Santa Barbara and Alemany, then played to a humiliating 0-0 tie with lowly Saugus.

“It was like watching two lepers rot,” Scott said after the Saugus game.

But Hart made a dramatic turnaround and won its next nine games, including all five of its Foothill League games. The Indians reached the Coastal Conference title game, along the way defeating Santa Barbara, 24-17, in a quarterfinal game marred by a five-minute brawl at the end.

In the championship game, the Indians could not contend with Muir’s speed and lost to the Mustangs, 28-14.

Harvard’s season was similar to Hart’s. The Saracens lost four of their first five games but used a string of upsets to reach the Desert-Mountain Conference championship game against Leuzinger. Harvard’s dream of a title turned into a disaster, as the Olympians pounded out a 39-17 win on a cold Saturday night at Valley College.

That same evening in the small town of Tehachapi, Montclair Prep played for the Inland Conference championship. The Mounties were as cold as the freezing temperatures, losing to Tehachapi, 17-7. Still, it was a remarkable season for the Mounties, whose mammoth lineman, 6-8, 270-pound Todd Bowser, quit football in the middle of the season to concentrate on basketball.

Faith Baptist brought a 23-game winning streak into the eight-man championship game against Templeton. Faith Baptist had won the title the previous year by beating Templeton. And in an earlier regular season game, the Contenders had swamped Templeton, 52-0. So, naturally, Templeton won the title game, 26-7.

In the City Section, Chatsworth came the closest of any Valley team to winning a championship. The Chancellors reached the 3-A final, only to be run over by undefeated Fairfax, 27-0.

Darryl Stroh, for 16 seasons the baseball coach at Granada Hills, took over the football program and led the Highlanders to victories in their first seven games.

But against San Fernando with the Valley 4-A League title on the line, the Highlanders were no match for the hungry Tigers. San Fernando routed Granada Hills, 40-12, to win the league. San Fernando then became the only 4-A Division team in the Valley to win a playoff game when it defeated Gardena, 13-10, in the opening round.

The Tigers then took on Banning in the semifinals and became the 21st straight Valley team to lose to the Pilots when they fell, 28-9. Banning went on to win another championship.

CROSS-COUNTRY

En route to its second straight Southern Section 3-A boys championship, Saugus caught its opposition in a collective double-take behind the performances of identical twins Daren and Kirk Stonerock. Daren finished first at the finals, while Kirk was second.

Simi Valley won the boys 4-A title behind the strong performance of Jim Zimmer, who finished fourth at the finals.

Melissa Sutton of Newbury Park won her second straight Southern Section 4-A individual championship, while the Thousand Oaks’ girls team placed second in the same division.

In the City, the Birmingham boys team was the Valley’s best, finishing seventh at the finals. The Kennedy girls took home third place at the championships.

GIRLS TENNIS

Westlake won the Southern Section’s 3-A championship in 1984 and was looking to make it two in a row in 1985. But the Warriors were upended in the semifinals by Mater Dei, 11-7. Westlake’s Marmonte League rival, Thousand Oaks, lost to San Marino by the same score in the other semifinal match.

La Reina of Thousand Oaks reached the 1-A final for the second straight year. And for the second straight year, La Reina lost, this time by a 10-8 score to Mayfield of Pasadena.

Grant qualified for the City final but lost to Palisades, 6-1. Grant’s Rowena Montenegro and Stacy Kolker teamed to win the doubles title, defeating Westchester’s Jenny Knotts and Cindy Gregory, 7-6, 7-6.

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

Westlake ended Royal’s 29-match winning streak in the Marmonte League and the two teams ended up tying for the league title. Both teams also saw their season end in the Southern Section 2-A semifinals.

L.A. Baptist (in the 1-A Division) and Campbell Hall (in the Small Schools Division) lost in the semifinal round of the playoffs. L.A. Baptist extended its league winning streak to 52 matches.

WATER POLO

For the fifth straight year, Royal won the Marmonte League title. And for the fifth straight year, the Highlanders failed to advance beyond the second round of the Southern Section playoffs.

THE WINTER

BASKETBALL

The streak goes on for the Kennedy girls basketball team.

The number is 80 now, and there’s no end in sight. That’s how many league games Kennedy has won in a row.

This year, Kennedy added a City championship to its list of conquests, defeating Washington, 61-52, in the final. Stacy Parson, who scored 23 points in the title game, was selected City 4-A Player of the Year.

Kennedy advanced to the state quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Point Loma, 46-36.

Cleveland and Simi Valley boys teams also made it to the championship games of their divisions.

Cleveland lost to Crenshaw, 95-79, in the City 4-A final, and Simi Valley dropped a 58-55 decision to Muir in the Southern Section 4-A title game the following night.

And so the trend continues.

No Valley team has won a boys City title in 22 years. In the Southern Section, only Camarillo’s 1973 team has won a boys title since 1915.

Cleveland and Simi Valley teams had one thing in common: both were overachievers.

Cleveland wasn’t even expected to win its league. Simi Valley was favored in the Marmonte League but was expected to make an early exit in the playoffs. It was thought that Coach Bob Hawking’s team was still a year or two away.

Cleveland started the season 2-4 under rookie Coach Bob Braswell but regrouped to win three of its next four. The Cavaliers were off to a 2-0 start in the Valley 4-A League when forward Trevor Wilson strained ligaments in his left ankle.

It was feared that Cleveland would spiral right out of the league race with Wilson out for six weeks, but the opposite happened.

The Cavaliers won all five games Wilson missed. And when the 6-8 senior returned, heaveraged 25.7 points and 15 rebounds in leading Cleveland to a first-place tie in the Valley 4-A League.

Around Simi Valley, the 1987 and ’88 basketball seasons were topics of discussion before the 1986 season ever started. The reason: Don MacLean and Shawn DeLaittre, the Pioneers’ top players, were both sophomores.

MacLean and DeLaittre started the season as reserves coming off the Pioneer bench. They ended the season on The Times All-Valley team.

They each scored 30 points as Simi Valley stunned No. 1-ranked Capistrano Valley, 97-69, in the 4-A semifinals. It was perhaps the most impressive performance by any Valley-area team this year.

Muir upset the Pioneers in the final, however, 58-55, by using its height and jumping advantage on the front line for a 39-24 rebounding edge.

When the season was over, MacLean lost out to Camarillo’s Mitch Parrott in voting for the Ventura County Player of the Year, enraging the good folks in Simi Valley.

MacLean reacted thoughtfully.

“I’m mad about it, but, like Coach says, it’s just more fuel for the fire,” MacLean said. “Maybe I’ll read these articles again a few times before some Marmonte League games next season.”

What a revolting thought for the rest of the league.

St. Genevieve didn’t make it to the Sports Arena, but the Valiants had one of their most successful seasons, qualifying for the Southern Section playoffs for only the third time in 28 years despite not having a home court or a starter taller than 6-1.

Also ending the season on a high note was Birmingham Coach Jim O’Hara, who guided his team to the City quarterfinals in his last season of coaching. O’Hara had paced the Braves sideline for 30 years.

The season had started out on somewhat of a controversial note.

The National Federation of State High School Assns. adopted a new bench decorum rule and several coaches were called for technical fouls as they stood to call timeout or instruct their team over the roar of a crowd.

The rule cost Cleveland at least one nonleague victory when Braswell was whistled for a technical after he stood to call an inbounds play. The Cavaliers were leading Dorsey by a point with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game. Dorsey made the two free throws, got possession of the ball, and held on for the win.

Coach Bill Hughes of Reseda perhaps put it best after an official told him to take a seat. Said Hughes, turning toward the scorers table: “I’d like to see him officiate from a seated position.”

And of course, there were other humorous moments.

Ever heard of a basketball game being rained out? It happened twice this season.

North Hollywood and San Fernando each had boys games postponed because of leaky gymnasium roofs.

During a basketball game between Taft and Cleveland, with 1,500 fans watching, three Taft students stood up, dropped their pants and mooned. They were immediately escorted from the gym by school officials who apparently didn’t believe their explanation that their pants fell down because they had too much change in their pockets.

Not so funny were back-to-back losses by a combined score of 205-20 suffered by the Agoura girls basketball team.

Agoura was trounced, 113-6, by Santa Clara and then again by Calabasas, 92-14. Santa Clara had a 46-2 lead at the half, while Calabasas led, 50-8.

In February, an exciting race for the Golden League boys basketball championship turned ugly after the final whistle of a game between Canyon and Burroughs of Ridgecrest.

A brawl following a 75-69 Canyon win on its home court led to the filing of a battery complaint against Chad Zeigler, a Canyon football player.

Robert Campbell, a Burroughs assistant coach, suffered mouth injuries after being struck during a melee following the Cowboys’ overtime victory. Campbell accused Zeigler of throwing the punch.

Zeigler was suspended from school and the charges were eventually dropped.

WRESTLING

In a sport where it is legal to vent frustrations, El Camino Real proved best at it.

The Conquistadores won the City championship, although it was a bittersweet victory. Six El Camino Real wrestlers advanced to the individual finals, but four lost.

San Fernando, which finished fifth as a team, had the most champions. Of the five wrestlers on the Tiger team, three--Ronald Drake, Jomas Robledo and David Yziguirre--won individual titles. Valley-area wrestlers took eight of 13 City individual championships.

By contrast, no Southern Section wrestler from the Valley even made it to a title match.

SOCCER

If a Valley Cup was awarded, Agoura would have been this year’s recipient. The Chargers’ boys and girls teams won Southern Section championships on the same weekend.

The boys team won the 1-A division title by defeating Frontier League rival Calabasas, 3-1. The girls defeated the other school in Agoura, Oak Park, 2-1, to win the 2-A championship. Oak Park had advanced to the title game after making the playoffs as a wild-card team.

Simi Valley boys team spent much of the season ranked No. 1 in the 4-A Division, but the Pioneers lost to Alta Loma, 1-0, in the championship game despite six shots on goal--including three breakaways--in the game’s final 10 minutes. It was the Pioneers’ only loss in a 25-1-4 season.

Burbank, which made it to the 3-A championship game behind the stellar goal-keeping of Sal Velasco, lost to Esperanza, 1-0, in the title game.

In the City section, Midge Miller guided her Granada Hills boys team to the most successful season in school history. The Highlanders advanced all the way to the City quarterfinals before losing to San Pedro, 4-2.

Granada Hills’ cross-town rival, Kennedy, had the most successful season of any Valley-area City section team. The Golden Cougars finished their season with a 13-1-4 record--its only loss was 1-0 in overtime to Belmont in the City semifinals.

THE SPRING

BASEBALL

The best hitting team in the City Section proved to be no match for the best pitcher in the City Section. Grant’s Rodney Beck, the City 4-A Player of the Year, pitched a three-hitter as the Lancers defeated Granada Hills, 5-1, for the City championship at Dodger Stadium.

It was the first time in six championship games that the Highlanders--and Coach Darryl Stroh--had come up second best. Granada Hills was considered the best team in the City for most of the year. The Highlanders did little to disprove that in their first three playoff games, scoring 39 runs.

Granada Hills, however, could not get a handle on Beck and his Fu Manchu mustache. But nobody really mastered him all year, except for Simi Valley, which beat Grant and Beck, 16-0, early in the season. The senior right-hander, who was 13-1 on the year, pitched that afternoon on two days rest.

The Pioneers were probably the Valley’s best team. After winning a tournament in Orlando, Fla., Simi Valley earned the No. 1 ranking in the nation by Collegiate Baseball magazine. Coach Mike Scyphers’ team stayed there until the Southern Section 4-A semifinals.

Simi Valley led Esperanza, 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth, and had ace pitcher Scott Radinsky on the mound. But the Aztecs rallied for a 6-5 win, sending them to Dodger Stadium, where they won the 4-A title. Collegiate Baseball then named Esperanza the No. 1 team in the nation.

Rio Mesa did make it to Dodger Stadium and the Spartans responded with their second straight 3-A championship. The Spartans trailed Western, 3-0, but got three runs in the fifth and two in the seventh to win it.

Saugus reached the 2-A title game but then fell apart against Artesia. Saugus committed eight errors at Dodger Stadium and lost, 9-4. The day before, Providence won the Small Schools championship with a 13-2 win over Linfield Christian.

TRACK

Quincy Watts, only 15, looked like an Olympian in leading Taft to the City and state championships. He set a national age group record and a national sophomore record by running a 20.97 in the 200 meters at the City semifinals.

With a 21.03 clocking, Watts became the first Valley athlete in the 68-year history of the state meet to win the boys 200-meter dash. Rio Mesa’s Angela Burnham became the first freshman ever to win the girls 100.

Watts and Burnham had both lost to rivals earlier in the season but made up for it at the state meet.

Ronald McCree of Madera had defeated Watts in all three of their previous races (including the state 100 final), but the Taft sophomore won convincingly in the 200. Burnham had lost seven straight races to Tami Stiles of Hawthorne before defeating her in the season’s last race.

Watts also ran a brilliant anchor leg on the second-place 400-meter relay team, helping Taft become the first Valley boys team to ever win the state title.

Rodney Bradshaw of Saugus won the 300-meter intermediate hurdles at the state meet after a disappointing fourth-place finish in the 110-meter high hurdles.

Kelley Peacock of Van Nuys finished second in the long jump and third in the 100-meter low hurdles at the state meet. At the City Championships a week earlier, she had been victorious in the long jump, 100- and 300-meter low hurdles and finished third in the 100, helping Van Nuys to place second behind Locke.

Saugus, led by Bradshaw and identical twins Daren and Kirk Stonerock, won its first Southern Section 3-A title.

SOFTBALL

El Camino Real won its fourth straight City 4-A championship and broke the state record for most consecutive victories. With a 2-0 win over Cleveland in the regular season’s final game, the Conquistadores had posted their 51st straight win.

El Camino Real then won four playoff games, including a 1-0 victory over Canoga Park for the championship. The Conquistadores, who were 19-0 on the season, could very well extend their 55-game winning streak next season. Top pitcher Beth Silverman was only a sophomore this past year.

Debbie Day, a junior from Burbank, pitched the Bulldogs to their first Foothill League title in five years. But Burbank was knocked from the Southern Section 4-A playoffs in the first round, losing to Thousand Oaks, 2-1, in 10 innings. Thousand Oaks then lost to St. Joseph, 1-0.

The tough-luck loser award went to Chatsworth’s Tina Schimozo, who struck out 23 Narbonne batters in a 15-inning opening-round playoff game--and still lost, 2-0.

VOLLEYBALL

The Chatsworth boys--for the second straight season--also came up short. The Chancellors reached the 4-A final for the third consecutive season but lost to a powerful Palisades squad, 15-10, 15-13, 15-4.

Granada Hills lost no matches and only three games all season en route to a 17-0 record and the 3-A championship. In the title match, the Highlanders knocked off Belmont, 15-9, 15-12, 15-8.

Harvard won the Ocean League but was no match for Woodbridge in the opening round of the Southern Section 4-A playoffs. The Saracens lost in three, 15-11, 15-7, 15-10.

GOLF

Westlake captured the Southern Section team championship by firing a 36-over par 386 at the La Cumbre Country Club.

Taft went undefeated in the 5-A League and was expected to capture the City title. Instead, the Toreadors finished third, behind champion Palisades and North Hollywood. Chris Barbour of North Hollywood won his second consecutive individual title.

GYMNASTICS

Any chance Grant had of capturing the team title was crushed when the Lancers’ No. 2 performer, Stacy Jester, hurt her back during the vault competition against Venice in the semifinals. Venice went on to post a 154.55-150.55 win but then lost in the City final to Eagle Rock.

The San Fernando boys finished second in the City to Huntington Park, although the Tigers’ Mike Neighbors (floor exercise) and Evans Nettles (pommel horse) won individual titles. Aaron Royle of Taft won the parallel bars title.

SWIMMING

A dynasty ended in City section boys competition. Palisades scored 242 points at the City finals, while El Camino Real was second with 186. That ended the Conquistadores’ string of eight straight City titles. The El Camino Real girls also finished second to Palisades, 247-240.

The highest any Southern Section swimming team placed was third. Calabasas earned that distinction in the boys 2-A Division.

TENNIS

That Calabasas earned the top spot in the Southern Section 3-A playoffs was nothing new; the Coyotes’ 12-6 win over Dana Hills gave them their fourth consecutive championship. After collecting the title, Calabasas Coach Joe Trahan retired.

Both the North Hollywood and Chatsworth boys teams reached the City semifinals but both were routed.

Chatsworth was 17-0 when it went up against University. Hardly impressed, University won, 20-9 1/2. North Hollywood suffered an even bigger loss, dropping a 23 1/2-6 decision to Palisades.

THE TOP STORIES OF 1985-86

Canyon ran its win streak to 38 straight football games with 14 more victories in 1985. With that, the Cowboys also won their third straight Southern Section Northwestern Conference championship. The winning streak is eight games shy of the all-time Southern Section record of 46 set by Temple City from 1969 to 1973. In his four years as head coach at Canyon, Harry Welch has compiled a record of 49-5.

Cleveland came into the basketball season with a new coach, Bob Braswell, and only one star, Trevor Wilson. The Cavaliers lost four of their first six games, then lost Wilson to an ankle injury. The team regrouped and was undefeated in Wilson’s absence. When Wilson returned, he directed the Cavaliers to the Sports Arena and the City 4-A championship game, where they fell to eventual state champion Crenshaw.

Quincy Watts was a virtual one-man show in leading Taft to a state championship, the first time a boys team in the Valley has ever done so in the 68-year history of the state meet. At the City semifinals, Watts, a sophomore, ran the nation’s fastest 200-meter race for a high school sophomore. He won that race at the state meet and finished second in the 100. He also anchored Taft’s 400-meter relay team to a second-place finish.

Grant baseball Coach Tom Lucero thought his 1985 team might have been a contender for the City title, but it lost in the quarterfinals. Grant lost 11 players to graduation, but it didn’t lose Rodney Beck. As a result, Grant hardly lost. Behind the pitching of Beck, the Times Player of the Year, the Lancers defeated Granada Hills, 5-1, at Dodger Stadium in the 4-A championship game for its first-ever title in baseball.

As a sophomore, Stacy Parson directed Kennedy to the City semifinals. As a junior, she took them to the City 4-A final, where they lost. After the City 4-A Player of the Year had directed 80 consecutive league victories, Parson led Kennedy to the title. It was Coach Craig Raub’s second championship in the sport and capped a great career for Parson, who earned a scholarship to play at Stanford.

At the beginning of the school year, Sean Casey quarterbacked the Alemany football team into the playoffs. After some turmoil at Alemany, Casey, a senior, transferred to Granada Hills and was allowed to play immediately for the Highlanders’ baseball team. Casey filled a pitching void and ended up leading the team to the City 4-A final, where the Highlanders lost. His efforts earned him first-team All-City honors.

El Camino just kept rolling along, posting a 19-0 softball season and a state record for longest win streak, 55 games. The Conquistadores’ 55th straight came in the City 4-A championship game over Canoga Park, 1-0. That victory was El Camino Real’s third in 1986 over its West Valley League opponent. Pitcher Beth Silverman (34-0) is undefeated in two seasons. And she still has two seasons left for Coach Neils Ludlow’s team.