Transfers Give Taft New Hope

Tom Stevenson, a two-sport coach at Taft, oozes with optimism. Whether he’s analyzing his football team or talking about the track team, Stevenson accentuates the positive.

But even he admitted that 1987 loomed as a rebuilding year for the football team. His top three offensive players--running backs Donald Dozier, Cornell Collier and Kevin Wolfe--graduated in June. That trio rushed for 1,724 yards, 71% of Taft’s total offense, and scored 16 touchdowns last season. Taft tied Canoga Park for the Sunset League title with a 4-1 record but forfeited two non-league wins for using an ineligible player and finished 4-6 overall.

But just when Stevenson was ready to write off this season, his mood was brightened by a sudden influx of talent.

“We were looking real terrible until these kids transferred in,” Stevenson said last week. “Now, I think we’re capable of being as good as last year’s team.”

Three of the five transfers are from the Valley area: Kelvin Byrd (El Camino Real), Doug Kougher (Crespi) and Nick Rivera (Birmingham). Erin Reeder is from Iowa and Aaron Lippman hails from the state of Washington.

Byrd, a 5-10, 165-pound junior with 4.6 speed in the 40, already has made a favorable impression. “Potentially, he’s as good as any back I’ve had,” Stevenson said.

Byrd will line up alongside fullback Terrence Britt, a 5-11, 190-pound senior who also has 4.6 speed. Stevenson calls the Byrd-Britt backfield “the best running tandem in the Valley outside of Crespi,” which has Russell White and J.J. Lasley (2,850 yards and 35 touchdowns combined in ‘86).

Byrd and Britt will run behind an offensive line that includes tight end Kougher, a 6-0, 180-pound junior; Reeder, a 6-4, 225-pound junior; and Lippman, a 6-3, 215-pound senior.

Stevenson, who had worried about his offensive line because of its inexperience, now has few concerns.

The defense also will benefit from the new talent. Kougher will double as a safety, and Rivera, a senior whom Stevenson describes as “five feet, ten inches and 170 pounds of mean madness,” will play middle linebacker.

Despite the transfers, Stevenson’s enthusiasm is restrained because of Taft’s youth.

“We could win league but we could also finish fourth,” he said. “We’re very young. We have a lot of underclassmen. The seniors have to take charge of the leadership roles.”

Move over Olonzo: For the past two years, the name Woodfin has been synonymous with a successful baseball program at Sylmar. Olonzo Woodfin, a 6-4, 187-pound left-hander, led Sylmar to the City 4-A semifinals last season as a junior. He compiled an impressive 11-3 record and a 1.19 earned-run average, while striking out 159 in 94 innings.

Now, Woodfin might have to share the athletic spotlight with his “little” brother: 6-2, 220-pound London, a sophomore with no previous organized football experience.

“He’s worked very hard over the summer,” said Sylmar football Coach Jeff Engilman, who is experimenting with London at tight end and outside linebacker. “He has a lot of raw talent and wants to learn. He has a lot of agility for a big guy. He has shown signs of being a very good football player. His only weakness is lack of game experience.”

Said London, who also intends to play baseball: “I thought it would be fun, so I went out for the team. It was just a matter of wanting to get in shape and football seemed like the right thing to do.”

London also is eager for his share of recognition.

“I like my brother’s success so far,” he said. “It’s great. I hope he does better in the future. Football or baseball, it really doesn’t matter which sport I make it in as long as I make a name for myself.”

As for Olonzo, he believes his brother has the capability.

“He’s certainly big enough. He always wanted to go out for football growing up, but he was always too big for his age.”

Olonzo has yet to offer brotherly advice but insists that such a talk is forthcoming.

“I will just tell him to do his best,” Olonzo said. “The problem is he is such a nice guy. I’ve got to get him toughened up. Once he puts on the pads and starts hitting, he’ll see how it feels.”

Little big men: Montclair Prep, one of the Valley’s smallest schools with a student enrollment of about 450, will play Coastal Conference schools Palmdale (3,000 students) and Simi Valley (2,400) in its preseason schedule. And the Mountie players seem to think the bigger, the better.

“Our kids like the challenge. They’re always after me to schedule the big schools,” second-year Coach Pat Blackburn said. “They’d play the Rams if we’d let them.”

It is a chance for the players to show they can compete on the same level as the larger schools.

“The kids do feel like they’re looked down upon because we’re a small school,” Blackburn said. “That’s a big motivating factor for them. They feel we have a good football team and they want to prove it. They don’t want to be a big fish in a little pond.”

The non-league schedule also includes Orange Lutheran (530 students), Norwalk (1,500) and Palm Desert (1,000). That should harden the Mounties for Alpha League play, although Blackburn doesn’t expect his team to be better than 2-3 by then.

“If we can stay healthy and injury-free, we’ll be better prepared for league than any other team,” he said.

Staff writer Larry Rosoff contributed to this notebook.