Power Shifts : Lopez Bulks Up Hueneme’s Line; Lambert Adds Depth at Ventura

Never in the long and not-so-glorious history of Hueneme High football has one player tipped the scales in the Vikings’ favor as much as Manny Perez.

Perez, indeed, is a fine football player. As a sophomore last season, he was a starter on a Santa Clara High team that qualified for the Desert-Mountain Conference playoffs.

But it’s not his performance that will make him stand out as much as the figure he’ll pose as he takes a three-point stance on the Hueneme line.

Manny Perez is 6-4 1/2, 280 pounds, and at Hueneme, land of 150-pound linemen, he is Gulliver among Lilliputians.

“You don’t see kids like Manny too often around here,” Hueneme Coach George Machado said.

And when they are spotted, they stand out. So Machado plans on taking full advantage while he has the opportunity.

Perez will be a starter on both offense and defense for the Vikings.

“He’s going to have to be in the best condition of his life,” Machado said.

To that end, Perez has been running and lifting weights. And lifting weights. And then lifting some more weights. Apparently, weightlifting was not Perez’s strong suit at Santa Clara.

“When he came here,” Machado said, “he could squat maybe 135 pounds and bench press 180. Now he can squat 485 and bench 305.”

But can he carry the burden of playing 32 minutes a game? Perez is confident.

“I perform a lot better when I play both ways,” he said. “Getting to hit guys on defense makes me play better on offense. It’s the excitement I guess.”

Perez isn’t the only new player who will have an immediate impact on a Channel League team.

Ventura, which shared the league title with Hueneme last season, also will benefit from incoming talent.

Chris Lambert, a starting running back at league rival Dos Pueblos last season, transferred to Ventura in April. He began two-a-day practices Monday as the Cougars’ No. 1 fullback and a starting safety.

Oxnard Coach Jack Davis said Lambert should find a little more running room at Ventura than he did at Dos Pueblos, which won just three games last season.

“He’s a good back,” Davis said of the 5-11, 185-pound senior. “They just weren’t a very good team.”

To wit: Upon learning of Lambert’s move, Ventura Coach Harvey Kochel had to go back through game films to acquaint himself with the player’s running ability.

“All I remembered was that they tried to run against us and weren’t very successful,” Kochel said. “None of their people did much of anything against us.”

That should change now that Lambert is running behind, as opposed to at, a Ventura line.

“It’s nice,” Lambert said. “I know we’re going to have a good team here. At Ventura, the coaches and the whole system is more serious.

“It’s all business-like, but I like that.”

Lambert’s presence has already influenced one key decision by Kochel. Senior Tim Albrent, a tailback and the team’s leading rusher last season with 808 yards, has been moved to quarterback.

“We have a couple of other guys who can run now,” Kochel said. “We haven’t had that kind of depth in the past. It made Tim expendable. Where we need him most is at quarterback.”