Orange County Prep Review / Ann Killion : Mater Dei’s Rembert Decides to Try Football

Kevin Rembert of Mater Dei High School, a starting forward on the school’s state championship basketball team, has decided to try his hand at football. Rembert, who stands 6-feet 4-inches, practiced at wide receiver last week with the Monarchs. He said he decided to go out for the team after watching his best friend and fellow basketball teammate Mark Ramstack playing quarterback for the 4-1 Monarchs.

“I’ve been watching Mark and Keith (Labus) play and they’ve been having a lot of fun,” Rembert said. “I’ve been wanting to play football for a while, so I decided to give it a try.”

In 1984 Mike Mitchell, also a starting forward on the basketball team, decided to become a wide receiver midway through the football season and finished the season with 32 receptions for 467 yards.

Monarch football Coach Chuck Gallo would be pleased if Rembert matched Mitchell’s accomplishment but noted that, despite the apparent similarities in the two situations, there is one major difference. Mitchell had played football as a sophomore in high school, but Rembert said he hasn’t played organized football since he was 10 years old.

“But he’s a superior athlete,” Gallo said. “If you’ve seen him run and jump, you know he has a chance of being a good receiver. Mainly he just wants to be part of the fun out there.”

Mater Dei basketball Coach Gary McKnight is supportive of the move.

“If he can help the football team win games, super,” McKnight said. “We don’t want to try and pull the kid at both ends and make it a negative situation.”

McKnight admitted he was slightly nervous about the risk of injury to Rembert, an all-Southern Section forward.

“But he can get hurt in basketball too,” McKnight said. “He’s a great athlete. I’m anxious to see him play.”

Gallo isn’t sure how much playing time Rembert will see, and while none of the other Monarch receivers have lost a starting position because of the new team member, Gallo said they should be worried.

“Oh sure, whenever a big, fast athlete shows up they better be concerned,” he said. “But the team is supportive. They think it’s a good idea.”

With league play starting this week for Orange County football teams (except those in the Garden Grove League, which have already started league play) the South Coast League has posted the most wins, with a 21-9 mark. The Pacific Coast League is right behind at 18-12. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the Sunset League. The once dominant league’s six teams have combined for a total of only 10 wins, while losing 20.

The Sunny Hills, Trabuco Hills and Woodbridge football teams all are 5-0.

The success of Bishop Amat and Sunny Hills isn’t unexpected. Both teams won league championships last year. Woodbridge finished second in the Pacific Coast League last year. The biggest turnaround thus far is Trabuco Hills. The Mustangs have already matched their win total from last year, when they finished fourth in the Pacific Coast League.

On the other hand, Cypress, Fullerton, Savanna, Magnolia, and Edison, all are 0-5.

The biggest reversal is Edison. Last year the Chargers won four non-league games and finished second in the Sunset League.

In the Garden Grove League, after two weeks of league play, Bolsa Grande and Pacifica are leading the league with 2-0 marks. Pacifica and Kennedy moved this season to the Garden Grove League from the Empire League and seem to be responding well to the transition. Pacifica is 4-1-1 overall, just one win short of last season’s total of five victories. Kennedy is 1-0-1 in league, 2-3-1 overall, and has already greatly improved on last year’s 0-10 record.

Todd Marinovich of Capistrano Valley continues to pile up passing yardage. He has thrown for 1,083 this season. But Danny Lane of Laguna Beach is quietly making his own mark. In his team’s 29-18 victory over San Clemente, Lane passed for 234 yards, bringing his total to 1,005 over 5 games.

ABC Sports paid a visit to Marina High School Friday to spend the day following gymnasts Sabrina Mar and Stacey Gunthorpe around school. The two students left for the World Games in the Netherlands on Saturday. ABC filmed the weekly pep rally, where the crowd of 1,500 students chanted “USA, USA.”

“It was exciting,” said Marina’s activities director Dave Thompson. “But by the end of the day Sabrina snuck into my office and hid. Everyone wanted to wish her well.”

Before El Toro’s Friday 14-7 football victory over Newport Harbor, Charger Coach Bob Johnson said he was desperate to compensate for his injury-plagued team.

“We may have no receivers, we may just go with 11 lineman,” he said. “We’re forced into deception we’re so desperate.”

Johnson did wind up using receivers, but he did make a change in his offensive front, putting two of his outstanding defensive players on the line, Cory Wayland (6-5, 240 pounds) at tackle and Adam De Malignon (6-3, 235) at guard. Their powerful blocking opened the way for David Nemeth to gain 116 yards.

The night of Oct. 1, just 12 hours after the earthquake that shook Southern California, Los Alamitos cheerleaders were trying to shake up the crowd while their team played Marina. Actually the cheerleaders were the crowd. Sixty, count ‘em sixty, spirited students--almost as many as are on the football roster--were rallying the Griffins to victory.

But, though Los Alamitos has been churning out mega-squads for years, winning the national cheerleading championship in 1985 and currently smuggling six of their cheerleaders into Ram non-union games to perform halftime stunts, the huge turnout against Marina was abnormal.

“I wouldn’t let anyone sit in the stands that night,” adviser Judy Trujillo said. “I’m from Colorado and I didn’t like that earthquake. I could just imagine another one hitting and those stands shaking, so I had everyone come on the track, the sophomores and freshman and reserves.”