Outstanding in His Fields : The Games Sean Brown Plays Have Won the Granada Hills Senior Much Acclaim

Eighteen months after the fact, Darryl Stroh--a man not particularly prone to plaudits--still insists it is the best throw he has ever witnessed.

It happened June 6, 1986, at the Cal State Northridge baseball field, in the first inning of a City Section semifinal playoff game against Poly High.

Stroh, the Granada Hills baseball coach, provides the narrative in quick, machine-gun bursts: “The Poly leadoff man gets on, and one out later, they have runners at first and third. The next guy up hits a long fly into left-center--and it’s deep, almost all the way to the warning track. He catches the ball, and everybody just assumes he’s going to throw it to second to keep the guy on first from advancing.

“Instead, he throws a line drive to home, and he gets the guy tagging from third by at least three feet-- on the fly. I’ve never seen anything like it. It totally stunned everyone there. It was all over the newspapers the next day.”

Just your routine, 8-2 double play from about 370 feet.

The gun in question belongs to Sean Brown, who at the time was a sophomore center fielder for the Highlanders. Brown’s throw put the brakes to what should have been a big Poly inning and helped Granada Hills win the game and advance to the City final. The player he shot down is no slouch, either--speedy Luis Porres twice has been named an All-City outfielder.

The recollection of the play still makes Stroh crow, a rare feat in itself. Earlier this year, Stroh said Brown possesses the “best arm in Southern California, and that includes the Angels and Dodgers.” Denver quarterback John Elway played football and baseball at Granada Hills, so it stands to reason that Stroh knows a high-caliber cannon when he sees one.

And Brown not only throws the leather around--he can catch it, too.

For the second consecutive year, the 6-foot, 3-inch, 220-pound tight end has been named to The Times All-Valley first team. Like many others selected to the All-Valley team, all-around Brown is multitalented, a prep Renaissance man who defies specialization, plays both ways and excels in several sports.

Make your own checklist: Good hands. Decent speed. Good size. Good attitude. Good strength. . . . And broad shoulders, which is fortunate, since he carries a big portion of the Granada Hills load whether it’s spring or fall.

You’ve heard Stroh’s opinion of Brown the Arm. Here’s his evaluation of Brown the Hammer.

“Last season I think Sean was a little hesitant to punish a defensive back or linebacker after he caught the ball,” said Stroh, who is also the football coach. “He’s more aggressive, he’s shifted into a higher gear. He buries the first guy now. He’s dishing it out more this year.”

Brown has helped himself to heaping platefuls of yardage, and it doesn’t hurt that the team is an air force that passes approximately 60% of the time. In 10 games, Brown has 53 receptions for 567 yards and 9 touchdowns for the Highlanders, who play Cleveland in a City 4-A semifinal Friday night.

“He has great hands,” said quarterback Jeremy Leach, who last season played baseball with Brown. “I know because I’ve seen a few passes dropped. In football, it could be a matter of how far he wants to take it.”

Brown’s been taking it to opponents for 2 1/2 seasons now, but when he first decided to take his act to Granada Hills, it wasn’t for football or baseball.

Bob Johnson, the Highlander basketball coach, remembers when he first saw Brown. He was at Patrick Henry Junior High in Granada Hills, and Brown was busily shredding the rest of the ninth-grade class with an arsenal of eye-popping shots.

“He was head and shoulders above the rest of them in ability,” Johnson said, “and as good as any player I’ve seen at that level.”

When Johnson found out that Brown was bused to the Valley from Baldwin Hills, he asked Brown if he’d like to enroll at Granada Hills.

“I knew Coach Johnson from when he used to come over and talk to some of the kids at our school,” Brown said. “At the time, all my friends and I did was play basketball--after school, in P. E., all the time.

“That’s why I decided to come here. I figured I’d play basketball and just try out for baseball.”

Try out?

“I didn’t even know Coach Stroh or about the football or baseball programs here,” Brown said. “I thought if Coach Johnson was that interested in how I played, I’d go to Granada and play basketball, and then see what happened.”

At first, nothing did. It was the summer before football season and Brown had yet to convince his mother that he could handle the wear and tear of having someone trying to tear his head off. Brown, despite his size, had never played football before his sophomore season at Granada Hills, a three-year school.

“All the years that I wanted to play, she always said no,” Brown said. “She kept saying I was going to get hurt. I finally said ‘look, mom, I’m bigger than most guys my age, I’m not going to get hurt.’ I think she thought I’d go out there and find out how hard it was and quit.”

Stroh said Brown was lost in the shuffle of learning the new game for most of his sophomore season. Brown’s appearance in a playoff game against Dorsey, however, caught everyone’s attention. Perhaps it was fitting--Brown would have enrolled at Dorsey had he not chosen to attend Granada Hills.

“I remember I was very upset at the defensive back we had out there,” Stroh said. “So I just turned around and grabbed Sean, I just threw him out there.

“We lost the game, but Sean caught two touchdown passes and intercepted two more. And that was probably the first real experience he’d ever had.”

Brown still plays in the secondary. This season, he has picked off a team-high four passes. Only one player in the Valley League--Mario Hull of Cleveland--has more.

Brown is now in his third season of varsity football and will play his third season of varsity baseball in the spring. He has been contacted by UCLA, Washington, Arizona State and Oklahoma, to name a few.

Brown wrestled with the decision to skip basketball this season to concentrate on baseball. Last year, Brown was a starting forward for the Highlanders, who won the City 3-A championship in the Sports Arena in mid-March. Because the team was so successful, however, it delayed Brown from joining the baseball team, which had started practicing weeks earlier.

Brown told Johnson earlier this year that the diamond was his real best friend.

“I understood why he did it,” Johnson said. “To tell you the truth, we both knew that Sean’s future isn’t in basketball, it’s in baseball or football. The thing is, he could have been a great basketball player, but he spent his time playing other sports when all the other kids were in the gym.

“He was left behind by players he could have been better than. He just stopped improving,” Johnson said.

Even though he has spread himself a little thin, Brown’s progress in football and baseball hasn’t slowed. In Stroh’s eyes, Brown has cemented his reputation as a blue-chip player.

“You hear about kids all the time who are supposed to be real athletes, you know, the talented players that don’t come along very often,” Stroh said. “Very seldomly do they live up to their reputations.

“All I knew was that a kid from Patrick Henry named Brown was coming to Granada, and that he had a great arm. He’s taken care of the rest by himself.”

Brown is not the only double- or triple-threat athlete among All-Valley team members. If it weren’t for Taft sprinter Quincy Watts, Crespi running back Russell White might be known as the best track athlete in the area. White finished second in the state in the triple jump last year and has recorded the best Valley-area mark ever at 49 feet, 7 inches. As a sprinter, White has jetted to a 10.9 mark at 100 meters, 22.0 in the 200 and 49.8 in the 400.

Bryan Addison of Chatsworth finished second in the 300 intermediate hurdles in the City last year and has a personal best of 38.52 in the event. Addison also has run 15.11 in the 110-meter high hurdles and has bests of 42-7 in the triple jump and 20-10 in the long jump.

Lamark Allen of Saugus placed fourth in the Southern Section 3-A championships in the long jump last year. Allen has a personal best of 23- and a wind-aided best of 23-8. He also has run 11.14 at 100 meters, 22.71 for 200 meters and bounded 44-7 in the triple jump.

David Wilson of Reseda, the 1987 City 2-A player of the year, has run a personal best 51.39 in the 400 meters and is a member of Reseda’s 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams, which placed fourth in the 1987 City championships. With Wilson, the Regents ran 41.97 in the 400 relay and 3:18.84 in the 1,600-meter relay.

Mike Conover has competed in the triple-jump, long jump and run the 440-relay at Canoga Park. Jack Swan of El Camino Real is one of many linemen who are standouts in track and field weight events. Swan threw the shot 51-3 last year. Kyle Cummings of Crespi, a two-time All-Valley selection, also throws the shot.

Among the basketball players are Kyle Jan of Granada Hills and Sam Edwards of Reseda. Both are expected to start at forward after football concludes. Joe Mauldin, as he did last year, is expected to start at guard for San Fernando once football ends.

Vince Ferry is a forward, too--for the Alemany soccer team. In Chad Santander’s first season of wrestling at Crespi, he finished second in league competition in the 196-pound class. Santander also likes the sand--he enjoys surfing as much as football. Chris Allen of Alemany also wrestles.