Prep Wrap-Up : Coast Christian Phenom Earl Rhodes May Switch to an 11-Man League

Running back Earl Rhodes, twice named the CIF-Southern Section eight-man football player of the year, says there is a good chance he will not return for his senior year at Coast Christian in Redondo Beach.

Rhodes said he may transfer to South Pasadena High, closer to his home in Pasadena.

“I’m leaning more toward South Pasadena than Coast,” he said. “It’s not definite, but I’ve been out there watching (South Pasadena) practice and I’ve talked to some of their players.”

The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Rhodes rushed for 3,829 yards and 58 touchdowns in the last two years, leading Coast Christian to back-to-back CIF titles and a 24-game winning streak, currently the longest in the Southern Section and the longest in California eight-man history.

After accomplishing so much in eight-man football, Rhodes said he wants to prove himself on the 11-man level.

“There have been a lot of questions about me,” he said. “People say I wouldn’t perform as well at a big school as I did on the eight-man level. I see that as a challenge. I think I can perform just as well.”

Apparently there are a number of people who feel Rhodes can play at the collegiate level. Leroy Turner, Rhodes’ uncle and guardian, said his nephew has received dozens of inquiries from colleges around the country.

UC Berkeley and Washington have sent the most letters, Rhodes said.

With football practice starting next week, Rhodes hoped to decide by this weekend where he will finish his prep career.

Dan Pride, who coached Rhodes the last three years at Coast Christian and is now the coach at Webb in Claremont, said he wanted Rhodes to follow him to Webb but felt the school’s high academics would have been too rigorous.

“The academic load would probably be too heavy for him here,” Pride said. “I told him that. I really hated to leave him.”

Pride had become something of a stepfather to Rhodes. He drove the player to Coast Christian each morning and lectured him on the value of education.

Unfortunately, Pride said, sometimes his words fell on deaf ears.

“Earl was slipping academically at Coast last year,” he said. “He needs to get some things straightened out. Everybody has been trying to help him and he hasn’t been trying to help himself as much. People need to see him do some things on his own, aside from playing football.”

The former Chicago Bears linebacker said Rhodes should have a bright future in football if his grades don’t become a stumbling block.

“Scouts from Cal and Washington came down and talked to him before school was out,” Pride said. “They indicated wherever he was, they’d find him.”

Pride, who coached Coast Christian to a 31-4 record in three seasons and was named The Times South Bay Coach of the Year last season, said he took the Webb job primarily for financial reasons.

“I got a better offer here,” he said.

Pride has been replaced by Marcus Lankford, a former quarterback at Coast Christian.

“I hated to leave Coast, but I think it was time,” Pride said. “We graduated a lot of seniors. If I had gotten started with another group, I would have stayed another two or three years.”

Webb, an all-boys boarding school located on 66 acres in Claremont, is trying to rebuild its football team after it went 1-6-1 and was outscored, 231-82, last year. The Gauls compete in the Southern Section eight-man Large Division, while Coast Christian plays in the Small Division.

USC lost Hawthorne quarterback Curtis Conway to Nebraska because of the school’s policy of not accepting players who do not meet the requirements of Proposition 48, the NCAA rule that stipulates incoming freshmen must score at least 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Nebraska does not have such a policy.

USC football Coach Larry Smith would like to see his school abolish its hands-off policy concerning Proposition 48 athletes, especially those who do not meet the SAT requirement.

“I think it’s a biased test for minority people, whether they are athletes or not,” he said. “I think it has been proven many times over that it is not the test that tests whether an athlete is ready for college.”

Smith used Trojan linebacker Junior Seau as an example. Seau was the last Proposition 48 player admitted by USC two years ago out of Oceanside High. He failed to score 700 on the SAT, but has maintained acceptable grades in college and will graduate, Smith said.

“With the tutoring here, I think Curtis would have had a good chance of doing well,” Smith said. “It’s probably a selfish attitude, but I would like to see us take one (Prop. 48 athlete) a year.”

Sophomore linebacker Arnold Ale refused to comment this week on reports that his decision to transfer from Notre Dame to UCLA, rather than to USC, was influenced by outside factors.

When asked if the fact that USC is on Notre Dame’s schedule, while UCLA is not, had anything to do with Ale choosing the Bruins over the Trojans, the former Carson High standout replied: “I’d rather not answer that. I don’t want any trouble.”

PREP NOTES--Four South Bay football teams are ranked in CIF-Southern Section preseason top 10 polls. Leuzinger (9-2-1 last year) is ranked third in Division II, while Morningside (8-3), West Torrance (4-7) and Serra (7-4) are rated sixth, seventh and eighth in Division VII. Leuzinger returns 30 varsity lettermen and 10 starters, headed by quarterback Zak Odom, who passed for more than 1,000 yards in 1988, and wide receiver Quang Banks . . . Conditioning for Southern Section football teams begins Monday, with organized practice and contact drills starting Thursday. The first games are Sept. 7. L.A. City teams begin conditioning Aug. 28 and contact drills Sept. 5. Their first games are Sept. 15.