Calabasas Hobbled by ‘Coyote Curse’

Larry Edwards usually can be found this time of the year, in the Calabasas High locker room, scanning a list of the latest Coyote football casualties.

As coach of the Coyotes, Edwards typically sees more injuries than a M*A*S*H unit. If the Red Cross had a poster child any number of Calabasas players could be a candidate.

The names might change each year, but to Edwards, the maimed remain the same.

“We were cursed last year,” he said this week. “The first day of practice our starting linebacker slashed his hand on somebody’s helmet strap. He took 15 stitches and was out for two weeks. Another guy stepped off a curb going to his car and suffered ligament damage in his ankle and was out for three weeks.

“Someone else got hurt stepping on a sprinkler head. We also had a collision with a starting linebacker who ran into another linebacker, threw out his knee and was out for the season.

“And that was all in two days. A couple of years ago, we had a kid get hit by a trash truck and was lost for three weeks. It’s been unlucky around here sometimes.”

The team sometimes contracts a collective ailment. Edwards calls it the “Coyote Curse.”

“You usually have a contagious injury,” said Edwards, who is beginning his eighth year as coach. “This year it’s shin splints. Last year it was ankles, and the year before it was knees. It’s usually the first injury that someone complains about. Everybody else can be diagnosed the same way. Somebody yesterday said he had shin splints and we had 17 guys with shin splints this morning.”

While Edwards makes light of the curse, he is serious about his team’s lack of depth. Only six starters return, but if the team avoids a wave of major injuries Calabasas could repeat as Frontier League champion.

The Coyotes were 8-4-1 last year and 3-1 in league, the most successful season in team history. Calabasas advanced to the Desert-Mountain Conference semifinals, losing to Atascadero, 38-6.

One player Calabasas can’t afford to lose, Edwards said, is 6-1, 195-pound Ceo Wimmer. Wimmer, who played cornerback as a junior last season, has been moved to quarterback.

Calabasas’ offensive line has been bolstered by a pair of East Coast transfers. Tackle Chris Margaris (6-0, 245) and guard Joe Olivo (6-1, 180) will join guard Ed LeBlanc (6-2, 210) and tackle Mike Schaefer (6-5, 250) and center Scott Kirkpatrick (6-2, 210), both all-league selections a year ago.

The arrival of Margaris and Olivo was like Christmas morning for Edwards. But if there was ever a guy who deserved a break . . .

“Last spring we said we needed a lineman badly because we were hurting in numbers,” he said. “Two days later we said, ‘Thank you, God,’ when Margaris walked into the weight room.

“This week we were saying we were still weak on the line and needed another guard. Sure enough, this guard, Olivo, walks in, so I’m going to church this Sunday. If this is manna from heaven, it’s going to be outstanding.”

A night to forget: The evening had started poorly--Notre Dame had lost, 28-7, to Canyon. Little had gone well for the Knights in the Oct. 3 defeat last season.

After the loss, offensive guard John Connolly and a few friends stopped at a fast-food restaurant. What followed took a big bite out of Connolly’s high school career.

The players became involved in a brawl that left Connolly with a fractured tibia and fibula in his left leg. He missed the rest of the season.

Connolly tried to escape the attack but tripped when he attempted to jump over a short fence.

“I don’t know if I broke it then or during the fight,” he said. “But as soon as I went down, three guys jumped back on me and whaled away.”

Connolly, a 5-10, 205-pound senior, still is suffering from the effects. In preseason workouts, what was once routine has become a chore.

“The fitness tests that were easy last year are real trouble this season,” he said. “It’s very painful. All this running, running, running is really tough.”

Connolly is far from attaining last season’s form, Notre Dame Coach Kevin Rooney said.

“We still don’t know if he’s going to be able to play,” he said. “He’s in a lot of pain, and it’s all going to be left up to him. We can sure use him if he’s healthy.”

Connolly has been practicing with the first team, trying to regain the starting position he held last year before the incident.

Add injury: Saugus quarterback Jared Snyder, who spent much of the summer recovering from an ankle injury, appears to be in good shape.

“He’s ready,” said Dick Flaherty, the first-year coach at Saugus. “He’s been running gingerly, but his upper body is in good shape.”

Snyder, a three-sport athlete and catcher on Saugus’ baseball team, strained ligaments in his ankle while trying to score on a squeeze play in May. The injury ended Snyder’s season and put his ankle in a cast for three weeks.

“It feels better now,” said Snyder, a senior who bypassed American Legion baseball this summer to concentrate on rehabilitation. “I’m close to 100%--about 95%. I have all the movement back. Now it’s just a matter of getting back my cuts. I haven’t really cut yet going full speed.”

“He’s a little slow-footed,” Flaherty said. “But he’s got a great arm. I don’t think his ankle will bother him. We’re looking for a good year from Snyder.”

Last season, Snyder threw for 1,253 yards but Saugus was 0-10.

Last add injury: Despite having a junior placekicker on last season’s Marmonte League championship team, Thousand Oaks Coach Bob Richards has been forced to find a temporary replacement.

Sean Cheevers, who led the Lancers in scoring last season with 40 points, broke his right ankle playing in a club soccer tournament July 4 in Denver. The cast came off Tuesday--a metal plate and five screws had been placed in the ankle--and the right-footed Cheevers said he’d be ready by the second game, Sept. 18 at Buena.

Waiting in the wings are John Mogler and Mitch Libonati. Richards said Mogler consistently has been kicking longer distances in practice, but Libonati has genes in his corner. His brother, Daren, was an all-conference placekicker in 1981 and first team all-league in 1981 and 1982.

Still, Richards is looking forward to Cheevers’ return.

“It’s a major problem until we get Sean back,” he said.

Staff writers Tim Brown, Vince Kowalick and Steve Elling contributed to this notebook.