Prep Notes / Rob Fernas : Miraleste, Short of Players, Uses Sales Pitch to Get More

Miraleste Co-Coach Todd DeAngelis, a salesman by trade, used the power of persuasion to sell students on the Marauder football team.

When only 24 boys turned out for the first day of practice, DeAngelis and Co-Coach Darrin Del Conte got a copy of the school’s enrollment roster and began phoning prospective players.

“We called all the kids who are football age and asked them if they would like to play,” DeAngelis said. “We weren’t going to lie down and roll over just because we had only 24 kids.”

The coaches were able to increase the squad to 42 players as of last week. DeAngelis said he expects to gain several more, with the squad eventually peaking at about 50.

“We came up with about 15 more kids that way,” he said. “I feel pretty good about it. The future of the program is in the young boys’ hands, so we said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get them out here.’ ”

Proof of Miraleste’s youth movement comes from the fact that there are only six seniors out for football. Quarterback Mike Booth, guard-linebacker Rick Galyean and running back Brett Peabody are the senior tri-captains.

DeAngelis said the varsity will field about 30 players for its season opener at 2 p.m. Saturday at La Verne Lutheran.

Rolling Hills football Coach Gary Kimbrell has never seen Hawthorne quarterback Curtis Conway play, but he knows about his reputation. Some consider Conway, a preseason all-American, the best back in the school’s history.

Kimbrell says those people have a short memory.

“I don’t know how they come off saying Curtis Conway is the best back Hawthorne ever had,” he said. “They forgot old No. 21.”

Kimbrell jokingly was referring to himself. As a 5-4, 135-pound halfback, Kimbrell was an all-Pioneer League selection for the Cougars in 1956-57. He later played at El Camino College and Pepperdine.

“It was a little different in those days,” he conceded.

Kimbrell’s teammates at Hawthorne included quarterback Mike Gillespie, now the USC baseball coach, and defensive back Tom Graves, the athletic director at Miraleste who coached the football team last year after Kimbrell resigned following the 1986 season.

Add Hawthorne: Conway has a way to go before becoming the most successful back to come out of Hawthorne. Running back Scott Laidlaw (class of ‘71) went on to play for Stanford and the Dallas Cowboys.

Carson’s football team will play its first three games on the road, but Coach Gene Vollnogle is not complaining. The Colts open Friday night at Sweetwater High in National City, then travel to Bishop Amat in La Puente and Lynwood for games two and three.

“It doesn’t bother us,” Vollnogle said. “We don’t play games here, anyway. For 26 years we’ve been playing away. I’m not going to worry about it now.”

Carson rarely plays games on its home field because of limited seating. The Colts normally use Gardena High or Harbor College.

Coast Christian of Redondo Beach, the defending CIF Eight-Man (Small) Conference football champion, was forced to find two opponents last week because the originally scheduled teams dropped football.

Coach Dan Pride said the Saints picked up games against Antelope Valley Christian and Camp Kilpatrick for the last two weeks of the season to replace Heritage League foes California Christian and First Lutheran, which decided not to field football teams because of low turnouts.

Another Heritage League school, Ventura County Lutheran, dropped football before the start of practice. The Heritage League has dropped from six to three teams, but Pride isn’t complaining.

“This gives us a chance to play some tougher teams before going into the playoffs,” said Pride, whose team outscored opponents by an average of 38-10 last season.

Coast Christian, ranked No. 1 in preseason polls, is led by junior running back Earl Rhodes (6-2, 205), who had 2,083 yards rushing and 34 touchdowns on his way to being named Small Conference Player of the Year last season.

PREP NOTES--Santhesia Arnold of Morningside figures to be one of the area’s most talented freshmen in track. The 14-year-old set a national age group record for girls by running the 100 meters in 12.43 seconds this summer in an all-comers meet at Santa Monica College. . . . Kathy Ross, a teaching pro at the Peninsula Racquet Club, has been named boys and girls tennis coach at Palos Verdes High. Ross replaces John Fullerton, who coached the program for eight years.