JC Notes / Irene Garcia : El Camino Grid Coach, 22 Players Win Honors

Despite losing one game and tying another, the El Camino football team made quite an impact in the Mission Conference.

Coach John Featherstone was named the conference coach of the year, 16 El Camino players earned all-conference honors and six were honorable mention.

On offense, guard Mark Merritt, wide receiver Bryan Burnett and running back Aaron Craver were named to the first team. Burnett caught 44 passes for 637 yards and 6 touchdowns and Craver ended the season with 1,296 all-purpose yards.

Offensive tackle Tim Drevno, running backs Brian Conners and Neil Tuihalamaka, wide receiver Mike Jones and quarterback Frank Dolce made the second team. In eight games Dolce completed 86 of 136 passes for 1,000 yards and 9 touchdowns.

Defensively, El Camino had eight all-conference freshmen. Linebacker Greg Franklin, defensive back Larry Bonner and free safety Niu Sale made the first team. Sale was also the league’s defensive player of the year and a J.C. Grid-Wire All-American. Linebacker Tui Suiaunoa, defensive tackle Eric Marrero, linebacker Paul Hill, defensive end Jeff Cummins and defensive back Tony Church were named to the second team.

Sophomore Dominic Cefalone was an all-conference first team selection for punting and sophomore quarterback Scott Yessner was an honorable mention. In nine games he completed 87 of 138 passes for 1,149 yards and 10 touchdowns.

“We have at least 12 or 15 kids that will play at Division I schools next year,” Featherstone said. “We’ve had at least six scouts (college) watching us practice every day this week.”

Twenty-two players who were members of last year’s state champion Warrior club are scattered throughout the country competing in the NCAA.

“The first thing I love to do on Sunday morning,” Featherstone said, “is look in the box score and see how our kids are doing. It really is a great feeling.”

Featherstone has read plenty about former Warriors Billy Hueghley, twice PAC 10 player of the week and strong safety at Oregon State; linebacker Ken Sale (Niu’s older brother) of San Jose State, quarterback Dan Spletz (Cal State Fullerton) and place-kicker Dough Pfaff of Arizona.

He’s also seen Mike Wimberly, Sean Smith, Keith Robertson and Dwight Pickens in print. Wimberly is a wide receiver at Washington State, Smith is a wide receiver at Iowa, Robertson is a tight end at Utah State and Pickens is a wide receiver at Fresno State.

L.A. Harbor’s football season may have been a nightmare, but some good did come of it. The Seahawks, who had only two all-conference players last year, had six named to the Western State all-conference team and six honorable mention.

Freshman wide receiver Marcel Bridges and sophomore Archie Jean made the first team. Jean and L.A. Southwest’s Fred Leslie were named to the first team as return specialists.

Tackle John Taotoai, defensive end Kevin Johnson, strong safety Jimmy DeLos Santos and linebacker Jason Wyatt were named to the second team.

Besides Leslie, Southwest had eight other all-WSC players and six honorable mention.

Lineman Tim McDaniels, wide receiver Tim Campbell and quarterback Herman Tatum were named to the first team offense. Tatum, who led the conference in passing, was named the WSC player of the year. The 6-foot, 190-pound sophomore completed 136 passes for 2,029 yards and 16 touchdowns. Campbell caught 42 passes for 715 yards and 5 touchdowns.

Wide receiver Ansel Littlejohn made the second team, and defensive back Lorenzo Dickson and defensive lineman Bernard Dasney were named to the first team.

Linebacker Russell Richardson and defensive back Anthony Reid made the second team.

Despite a 5-1 record, El Camino basketball Coach Ron McClurkin isn’t satisfied with his team’s performance. The problem, he says, lies in attitude.

“For the last three years, McClurkin said, “players have had the attitude of ‘we’re El Camino and we’re going to win,’ so they don’t take certain games seriously. They go into their cool act and they don’t come out and really play because the other team isn’t that strong.”

McClurkin used Wednesday’s game against Marymount Palos Verdes as an example. The Warriors walked out with a 91-68 victory, but the first half was ugly.

“They take too long to take people seriously,” he said. “We should have blown them out in the first half, but instead we led by 8 because some guys didn’t start to play until the second half. Some kids just started shooting the ball from all over the place. They just had too much confidence.”

The same happened in El Camino’s game against East L.A. The Warriors won, 95-78, but got off to a slow start.

“We haven’t had a team since 1985 that could just come out and beat everybody,” McClurkin said. “That year we lost only one game at the Santa Barbara tournament. Those players just came to beat whoever it was. They came to get you. They never let down. They never said, ‘Oh, this is just an Air Force team or East L.A.’

“They had a killer instinct. First they’d kill them and then cruise to a finish not struggle to a finish.”

El Camino soccer Coach Norm Jackson and cross-country Coach Dave Shannon were named South Coast Conference coaches of the year.

Jackson led his team to a 12-0 SCC record and Shannon led his club to SCC titles and the state finals.

The Warrior soccer team won seven other conference honors. Freshman Raul Haro was named SCC player of the year and Mark Sharpe, Kenny Dorn and Doug Bletchel were named to the all-conference first team. Felix Guillen, Arturo Yepez and Billy Hansen made the second team.

Six members of Shannon’s teams earned all-conference honors. Sophomore John Federoff and Chris Hamilton were co-athletes of the year in the SCC.

Gina Kang, Kelly Griebel, Carlos Carbajal and Antonio Carreno also received all-conference honors.