Keep Eyes on Dimmer Stars in Grid Game

If you’re going to tonight’s 7 o’clock Lions All-Star Football Classic at El Camino College, pay attention to the unheralded players. Hardly anyone else has.

For every player on the West squad like highly recruited wide receiver/defensive back Eric Nelson of St. Bernard, there are many more like Brett Austin and Zak Krislock of South Torrance and Victor Prince and Byron Wade of Hawthorne. Nelson is headed for UCLA; Austin, Prince and Wade are junior college-bound, puzzled that they didn’t get a scholarship after outstanding prep careers.

Krislock, a 6-5, 185-pound quarterback, had a season that should have interested many top schools.

But after completing 62% of his passes for 2,116 yards and 21 touchdowns, no one offered him a scholarship. Syracuse told him he was “too slow,” and Cal State Fullerton labeled him “too skinny.” Few others had bothered to watch him play.

Dick Lascola, who runs the Scouting Evaluation Service in Fallbrook, said that he listed Krislock on his final report but that there was little interest from colleges.

“I thought Krislock had a shot to play in college,” Lascola said. “He’s a Big Sky (Conference) or a PCAA type, not a major college quarterback. Last year, there were a lot of good quarterbacks in Southern California. It could have been that a lot of schools weren’t looking for quarterbacks (this year).”

South Torrance Coach Joe Austin says there is no mystery why schools showed little interest in Krislock or his son, Brett. It happens every year, he said, and there is nothing he could do about it.

“I gave films to a lot of schools, but the recruiters go where the highest percentage of the top players are in an area,” Austin said. “In the South Bay, they all go to Banning and Carson, and I don’t blame them. But there are some good players at the Torrance schools and those on the hill (Palos Verdes Peninsula) who get overlooked.”

And so Austin, who caught about 60 passes and was all-Bay League the last two years, was overlooked, as were Prince, the Ocean League’s leading receiver last year, and Wade, who intercepted six passes and averaged 30 yards on kickoff returns.

Lascola agreed that players from schools with strong reputations, such as Carson and Banning, draw more attention than players from smaller, less successful programs.

“A kid coming out of Banning or Carson obviously is going to be looked at more than a kid from Miraleste,” Lascola said. “Don’t get me wrong; we still look at kids from Miraleste, but I can’t force a school to look at a kid.”

This can be especially depressing for a player who has spent years in pursuit of a scholarship, a ticket to the big time. Bigger crowds. Televised games. Higher stakes.

Was it hard to accept?

Krislock said it would have been a huge disappointment had he not been offered a baseball scholarship to UC Irvine (his second-best sport). Austin called it a “big letdown after having high hopes.”

Prince said he “felt there was something wrong with me.” To which Wade added: “At Hawthorne, it’s almost as if you have to be an all-American for scouts to check you out.”

For Prince and Wade, the disappointment was even greater because more scouts (but not many) came to Hawthorne than to South, probably to get an early look at junior quarterback Curtis Conway. Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona State and most Pac-10 schools showed interest in Conway.

“I told the recruiters that Victor and Byron were academically qualified; all you have to do is talk with them and sign them,” Hawthorne Coach Goy Casillas said. “They talked, but when it came down to the nitty-gritty, nothing concrete was offered.”

Casillas, for one, is a believer in Prince and Wade: “They are going to show some recruiters that they made a mistake. I believe by the time Victor and Byron graduate from college, they will be stars.”

In the meantime, El Camino College Coach John Featherstone is one happy man that Wade and Austin will be hunting for a position for the defending state champion Warriors. Prince said he is deciding between Santa Barbara College and El Camino.

Other standouts for the West, coached by El Segundo’s Steve Newell, are Leuzinger wide receiver Anthony Jefferson (18 touchdowns last season), South Torrance tailback Mike Wyrick (1,725 yards, 19 TDs rushing), Inglewood halfback Donald Lee (1,216 yards, 14 TDs rushing), Leuzinger linebacker Greg Franklin and Bishop Montgomery defensive back Niu Sale.

The East, coached by Dale Hirayama of Gardena, features several college recruits, including Carson wide receiver Brian Treggs (UC Berkeley), Serra quarterback Eric Hamilton (Colorado), Gardena wide receiver Damon Mack (Washington) and Banning offensive lineman Mike Alexander (Arizona State).