The Preps / Scott Howard-Cooper : Silver Valley Doesn’t Have to Look for a Silver Lining

Ft. Irwin, an Army base near Barstow, provides the scout team for America. Soldiers there are like the second stringers in football who practice as the opposition to get the starters ready for the big game.

Soldiers at Ft. Irwin play the aggressors, presumably the Soviet army.

“And they usually win because the Russian technique is to put everything you have right up front,” said Dave Spencer, a teacher and coach at Silver Valley High School. “The other people (the Americans) come in and are almost always outnumbered and outmanned since these are short-term exercises.”

Outnumbered and outmanned. Spencer could tell you plenty about that.

The football team at Silver Valley, which draws students from Ft. Irwin, even though the base is about 45 miles away, has been feeling that way ever since it opened five years ago. Spencer has coached in some capacity for four of those years as the Trojans:

--Put together the longest active nonwinning streak in the Southern Section--39 games, including a 12-12 tie with California School for the Deaf in Riverside and a 14-6 victory two years ago that had to be forfeited because of an ineligible transfer.

--Ended one season with 20 players.

Some coaches even joked among themselves that the San Bernardino Sun simply pulled a rubber stamp out of the drawer every Friday night for the headline: Silver Valley Loses.

But last Friday night, in the season opener at Barstow, it was the doubters and the cynics who lost. The streak ended, and this time everyone was eligible. The Trojans beat Mojave, 21-0.

“The crowd could hardly contain themselves,” said Jackie Shibley, the school librarian, cheerleader adviser and wife of Rich Shibley, athletic director and assistant football coach. “We were having a hard time keeping ourselves in the bleachers.”

Not surprisingly, Spencer, after his first game as head coach, is the center of attention. And why not? He is, after all, the most successful football coach in school history.

“A lot of people, even within the school district, gave me a lot of (bleep) the last couple years,” he said. “I’m not a told-you-so kind of guy, but I’ll have a little smile on my face when I walk around now.

“It is nice to finally shut up all those people. They don’t know how much the kids put out, even the kids who never won a game. That’s what I said to the local paper right after the game: ‘This is for ghosts past.’

“But I’ve seen so many things go wrong here,” he said. “I wasn’t smiling until there were two minutes left in the game.”

Soon afterward, he probably was cringing as he paid off on a promise to the players: “Win and you can cut off my 7-year-old beard.” Scissors were the only thing handy.

So what was the most memorable moment of the weekend?

“Seeing my chin after all these years,” he said.

Coincidentally, the Nos. 2 and 3 nonwinning streaks in the Southern Section also ended last weekend as Cantwell of Montebello (0-18-1) won for the first time since Oct. 9, 1984, and Palm Springs (0-18) won for the first time since Sept. 14, 1984. There were also victories for South Pasadena, which had 12 straight losses, and Orange, which had lost 11 in a row.

But to win for the first time in school history, at a school that has successful programs in basketball, baseball and softball? The scene was certainly different around Silver Valley Monday than it is most Mondays in the fall.

The feeling, no doubt, was also different at practice, on the field with no yard lines or hashmarks and with the homemade steel goal posts.

It almost has to be for the stars of the game: running back Joe Bistline, who rushed for 83 yards and 2 touchdowns and threw for the other on the option; tackles T.J. Davis and Lowell Lowe, who led the offensive line; wide receiver-safety Marcus Bunnitt, who scored on a 50-yard pass play and had an interception; linebacker Curt Carter, who also had an interception, and linebacker Robert Lewis, who made six tackles.

“We knew all along that it was there somewhere, that it was just a matter of time,” Jackie Shibley said. “This will give us all some pride.”

It also gives the Trojans a winning streak. What would it mean to come this far and then lose the next game?

Spencer said: “Then we’ll be .500.”

For the first time in school history.

Prep Notes Senior Dominic Sandifer of North Hollywood Harvard, one of the best kickers in the state, had field goals of 47 and 51 yards, both with plenty of room to spare, in the Saracens’ 6-0 win Friday over Mission Hills Alemany. “He’s tremendous,” Alemany Coach Enrique Lopez said afterward. “That was a major college kicker you saw right there.” . . . Add outstanding efforts: Although Whittier La Serna lost to Hacienda Heights Los Altos Friday, 29-23, Lancer senior John Sung had 3 kickoff returns for 103 yards--one of them 80 yards for a touchdown--caught 3 passes for 112 yards and a touchdown, and had an interception. . . . Jesuit High of Carmichael, Calif., is looking for a team to compete in its Christmas basketball tournament Dec. 18-20 near Sacramento. Open to all schools, Jesuit will provide food and lodging for visiting teams.

Glenn Davis competed in football, baseball, basketball and track during the 1940s at Bonita before going on to fame as Mr. Outside at Army. Thursday night, the field at the La Verne school will be named in his honor. . . . Anaheim Servite will return to all-black helmets with emblems on the side now that Father Lawrence Jenco has been released from captivity in Lebanon. The Friars wore a yellow stripe down the middle of their helmets last season as a reminder of Jenco, who was abducted and held hostage for nearly 19 months before being released in July. Jenco once served at the school.

Times’ Top 10 SOUTHERN SECTION

No. School League Record 1. Long Beach Poly Moore 0-0 2. El Toro South Coast 2-0 3. Riverside Poly Ivy 1-0 4. Servite Angelus 1-0 5. Westminster Sunset 0-1 6. Santa Ana Century 1-0 7. Canyon Country Golden 1-0 8. Edison Sunset 2-0 9. Hart Foothill 0-1 10. Bishop Amat Angelus 1-0