The High Schools : Expansion Plan Unites Simi Valley Rivals

Working at rival schools often drives the coaching staffs at Royal and Simi Valley in opposite directions. But coaches at the cross-town schools have sounded a common voice in support of the school district’s decision to add the freshman class to each school.

Simi Valley has been a three-year high school since 1964 and Royal has used the 10th-through-12th-grade format since its doors opened in 1968. The Simi Valley Unified School District adopted the 9-through-12 plan at a board meeting last month, citing educational advantages of adding ninth grade to the senior high schools.

The new system, which takes effect for the 1989-90 school year, has been met with enthusiasm by Royal and Simi Valley coaches.

“There isn’t a coach in Simi Valley that isn’t absolutely delighted,” Royal football Coach Gene Uebelhardt said. “Coaches have been working for it for a long time and all will benefit.”

Royal and Simi Valley coaches claim they have been working at a disadvantage in regard to the five other Marmonte League schools that use the four-year system. In fact, of the Southern Section’s 479 schools, only 23, or fewer than 5%, are three-year high schools.

Dave Murphy is a Simi Valley graduate and serves as the school’s football and girls’ basketball coach. Among his complaints about the three-year format are the lack of contact with freshman athletes, the difficulties in recruiting ninth-grade athletes for high school sports, logistics problems in getting freshmen to high school practices and the simple shortage of teaching jobs that exists in schools with one less grade. He also thought the change would result in an increase in the maturity level of incoming high school students.

“Now we’re getting sophomores who aren’t that mature,” he said. “It’s better for freshmen to hang around senior high school kids than to hang around seventh- and eighth-graders.”

The addition also will mean increased enrollment for the two schools. District officials expect Simi Valley to reach the 3,000 mark with a freshman class, and Royal should reach 2,500.

Said Murphy: “I hope out of the numbers we get some athletes.”

Add Uebelhardt: Royal’s new football coach takes over a program that has won only one league game in the past four seasons. During a stretch that includes 22 losses, the Highlanders have employed the run-and-shoot offense and the Delaware wing T.

Now they’re getting their third offense in five years. For lack of a better term, Uebelhardt calls it a multiple offense.

“I asked my defensive coaches what offenses were the toughest to defense and what we came up with is the accumulation of all our varsity coaches’ experience. It’s a little bit of everything. but it doesn’t make a difference which offense you run as long as it’s taught well.”

Add Murphy: Too often in his 13 years at Simi Valley, Murphy said he has seen many of the school’s top athletes steer clear of the football field. He directed his staff in the off-season to correct that problem with an intense recruiting campaign.

“If you look at the history at Simi High in the last 13 years, there’s been too much specialization,” he said. “We’ve got to recruit on our own campus. We wanted to prove to ourselves we could get kids out for the team. We were more aggressive as a staff and talked to everybody.”

The aggressive tactics have proved successful with three players joining the program for their senior season. Mike Jenkins, a pitcher on the baseball team, has worked out as a defensive back this summer. Emery Nelson, a hurdler on the track team, may win a job at wide receiver, and Jason Galvez, a basketball player, is competing for the fullback job.

“We encourage them all to play other sports but it’s good to get guys from other sports out for the team,” Murphy said.

Injury report: Bobby Hughes, a catcher on the Notre Dame baseball team who was expected to quarterback the football team this fall, underwent an emergency appendectomy Friday. He will be sidelined about one month and will miss Notre Dame’s opener Sept. 9 against Alemany.

He had been selected to play on the all-star baseball team representing the Valley area in a series of games this weekend in Lodi but had to cancel.

Transfers: The Chatsworth baseball team, which at one point last season was ranked No. 1 in the nation, received some out-of-state help this summer. Eric Johnson, a 6-foot, 3-inch, 195-pound catcher, has moved into the Chatsworth district from Michigan. He played on the Chicago White Sox rookie team in the Goodman summer league.

El Camino Real’s baseball program received a boost closer to home when Del Marine decided to transfer from Canoga Park. His family has moved from the Canoga Park district to Woodland Hills and he had his choice of schools for his senior season.

Marine helped Canoga Park reach the semifinal round of the City Section 4-A Division playoffs last spring, batting .370 with 16 runs batted in and a team-high 4 home runs.

The transfer also costs Canoga Park its starting quarterback. Marine will give up the sport to concentrate on baseball. Last year, he completed 68 of 142 passes (47.9%) for 843 yards with 6 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

Two place 12th: Two swimmers from the Class Aquatics of Thousand Oaks finished 12th in the Junior National Championships at Arizona State early this month, but neither qualified for this week’s Olympic Trials in Austin, Tex.

Eric Weitz, a Calabasas High graduate, finished 12th in the 200-meter backstroke with a time of 2 minutes, 11.04 seconds. Mike Litter of Calabasas was 12th in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:07.41.