Weber State Stakes Claim on Area, Signs 5 Players

What’s San Diego State’s biggest rival for local high school football talent?

USC? UCLA? Notre Dame?

Hardly. Weber State wound up Wednesday with the same number of San Diego County high school football players as SDSU, with five apiece.

What does Weber State have to offer that SDSU doesn’t?

“We have three ski resorts here,” said Mike Zimmer, Weber State’s defensive coordinator who was responsible for recruiting in San Diego. “A lot of (the athletes) like to ski. (San Diego) has been a real good area for us. The kids are real receptive.”

There were few surprises Wednesday. Most of the big-name players, such as Marcel Brown (Point Loma defensive back), Tamasi Amituanai (Vista defensive lineman) and Tyrone Morrison (Morse linebacker) already had made oral commitments and signed as expected. Morrison signed with Ohio State, Amituanai with Colorado and Brown with USC.

As usual, players from the Palomar League grabbed most of the scholarships, with 8 of the 27 San Diego players who signed with colleges.

Indirectly, Vista Coach Dick Haines might be one of the reasons North County high schools seem to consistently send more football players to college with full-ride scholarships.

Haines set the standards when he first came to Vista 19 years ago, establishing off-season programs and weight training.

Now, all schools have these programs. But, as was evident Wednesday, north county is still a nose ahead of the pack.

Signings from Palomar League schools included Amituanai and Times’ all-county selections Cree Morris (Orange Glen quarterback) and Jake Nyberg (Orange Glen wide receiver), both headed for San Diego State.

Five players from the City Eastern League signed, including Morrison, Brown and Times’ all-county selection Darrell Lewis.

Five players signed from the Avocado League, including Times’ all-county selections Junior Moi (Rancho Buena Vista, defensive lineman) and Al Aliipule (Rancho Buena Vista, linebacker), who both will attend USC.

USC, with three players signed, finished third behind San Diego State and Weber State.

“They expressed strong interest in becoming Trojans,” USC Coach Larry Smith said of Moi and Aliipule. “And I want people who want to be Trojans.

“The thing that really attracted us is they’re so doggone aggressive.”

That leaves Brown. His idol, Smith said, is Ronnie Lott.

“And that’s the way he plays,” Smith said.

SDSU Coach Al Luginbill said the Aztecs “were in on Marcel Brown until the end. The old white horse ran through the house again.”

Even so, SDSU didn’t fare badly. Morris, who ranks with Torrey Pines’ John Lynch as the county’s top quarterback, committed to play four more years with his high school coach, Dave Lay, who became SDSU’s offensive coordinator after Luginbill took over for Denny Stolz.

Morris finished second in the state with 3,232 yards passing. He passed for 30 touchdowns last season.

“To me,” Luginbill said, “that’s the sign of a quarterback; an individual that gets the ball in the end zone.”

Smith said this was an above-average year for San Diego prospects.

“I’ve been recruiting in the San Diego area for about 10 years,” he said. “It goes up and down. I thought this was a banner year.”

LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL SIGNINGS

Name High School Pos Ht. Wt. College Al Aliipule Rancho BV LB 6-3 230 USC Tamasi Amituanai Vista OL 6-5 310 Colorado Larry Anderson Chula Vista DL 6-4 250 Weber State Marcel Brown Point Loma DB 6-2 205 USC Joe Dougherty San Pasqual DL 5-9 190 Air Force Brad Eaddy Madison QB 6-4 210 New Mexico Gene Ethridge Mt. Miguel RB 5-10 170 Weber State Mark Hood Kearny DB 6-0 175 Weber State Sylvester Jones El Camino DB 5-9 170 Idaho State Pat Lesniak El Cajon Valley OL 6-4 260 New Mexico State Darrell Lewis Morse DB 6-2 190 Ohio State John Louis Point Loma DB 6-1 170 SDSU Andy Loveland San Pasqual QB 6-1 195 Colorado State John Lynch Torrey Pines QB 6-2 190 Stanford Lenny McGill Orange Glen DB 6-3 170 Arizona State Junior Moi Rancho BV DL 6-4 220 USC Cree Morris Orange Glen QB 6-6 210 SDSU Ty Morrison Morse LB 6-4 230 Ohio State Jake Nyberg Orange Glen WR 6-1 175 SDSU Hubert Phillips Southwest RB 6-0 185 New Mexico Jon Pollock Torrey Pines WR 6-1 194 BYU Chris Tarr Torrey Pines DE 6-3 244 Hawaii Will Tate Southwest WR 6-0 160 SDSU Ray Thompson Crawford OL 6-2 239 Weber State Andy Trakas Patrick Henry K 5-10 165 SDSU Rich Tylski Madison OL 6-5 240 Utah State