Agoura, Calabasas Take Opposite Paths

It has not been that long since Calabasas High last fielded a playoff-caliber football team.

Remember 1986?

It was the year of the Coyotes’ first Frontier League championship. The year of their 26-25 upset victory over top-ranked Bloomington in the Desert-Mountain Conference quarterfinals. The year they advanced to the semifinals for the only time in school history. The year they finished with an 8-4-1 record.

A year in which they beat Agoura.

A short time after, Calabasas Coach Larry Edwards called the 1986 season “a unique situation for Calabasas.”

If he only knew just how unique it would become. Since that season, the Coyotes have won just two league games and five games overall. They have finished fourth and fifth in the past two seasons, and their two losses to Agoura were by a combined score of 70-36. Edwards is 3-6 against the Chargers, including a forfeit win in 1980.

“I wish it was a little fresher in our memory,” Edwards said of 1986.

Agoura, in the meantime, has compiled a 15-8-1 record, including a 7-2 league mark. And the Chargers put a damper on the Coyotes’ championship season when they tied Calabasas for the league title.

Agoura, with an enrollment that has increased to 1,900, is being promoted to the Division II Marmonte League next year. The Frontier League is a Division VIII member.

So, it seems, a trend has developed. Calabasas, on one side of the Ventura Freeway, is beginning to feel the effects of a small enrollment (1,125). It has 24 varsity players on its roster and disappointing seasons have become the rule at the school. Agoura, the other high school in the Las Virgenes Unified School District, has been the most consistent winner in the Frontier League this decade, advanced to the Division VIII semifinals last season and is getting a promotion to boot.

So why is Edwards smiling?

Because, as he says, “Liars figure and figures lie.”

Calabasas has 33 players on the freshman team and 50--the highest total in school history--playing on the sophomore team.

“This freshman class is incredible,” Edwards said. “They’re talented kids.”

That, however, does not mean the 10th-year coach is looking past 1989. In fact, with nine players slated to go both ways, he’s looking to make a run at favorites Santa Ynez and Agoura for the league title.

“Actually, I think the kids we have are outstanding and that we’ll be able to match up with anybody,” Edwards said. “I think we’re going to be good. We may shock some people. The kids are getting behind the idea that we’re underdogs.”

Those figures don’t lie.

“I don’t think it’s a trend,” he said. “I think it’s one of those ebbs and flows of any school, especially the medium-sized schools.”

As for Agoura, Charger Coach Frank Greminger see Calabasas as a program on the rise, but he does have concerns. Greminger said that the move to the Marmonte League was based primarily on enrollment, although he conceded that Agoura has worn out its welcome in the Frontier League where it is 14-4 in the past four seasons.

The Chargers have 37 varsity players--plenty for the Frontier League but rather low in comparison to most Marmonte League teams.

“The past three or four years we could have finished in the top, oh, eight or so in the Marmonte League,” he said with a laugh. “This year we have some good athletes but we don’t have any size, which could hurt us.”

Agoura’s nonleague schedule has been filled with Marmonte teams in recent years, and the Chargers have fared well. They are 6-4-1 since 1985 and 4-1-1 the past two seasons.

“We’ve played with those teams in the past,” Greminger said. “We haven’t been afraid, but I don’t know if we can take the pounding week in and week out. But I’m looking forward to it.”

Agoura and Calabasas have not seen the last of each other. The two have agreed to play nonleague games indefinitely because, as Greminger said, “It makes for good entertainment.”

However, the nonleague arrangement might not last long, according to Greminger. He says that when it comes time to rearrange the area leagues, Calabasas and Agoura could find one another as league foes again, probably somewhere between the Division VIII and Division II levels.

He predicts that Agoura’s enrollment will level off and Calabasas’ will rise, making for a renewed rivalry. Not that Greminger has been thrilled with the current one. In fact, both Edwards and Greminger seem pretty happy that league standings will not be an issue when they meet after this season.

“If we were 0-10 and they were 10-0, it would still be a battle,” Edwards said, “but I’m glad we won’t be playing them with a league title in the balance.”

Said Greminger: “It’s been a difficult game for us in the respect that we have a hard time getting up for Calabasas. I don’t know if we’ve been too nervous or too flat, but a lot of times we haven’t played a good ballgame.

“From an emotional edge, Calabasas has had it over Agoura. From a physical edge, we’ve had it over them.”

So much for trends.

FRONTIER LEAGUE

FINAL 1988 STANDINGS PROJECTED FINISH Santa Clara 11-1, 5-0 Santa Ynez Santa Paula 9-3, 4-1 Agoura Agoura 8-4-1, 3-2 Santa Clara Santa Ynez 6-5, 2-3 Santa Paula Calabasas 2-8, 1-4 Calabasas Nordhoff 1-9, 0-5 Nordhoff

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Player School Pos. Ht Wt Class Todd Cribari Agoura DB 5-10 170 Sr. Jamie Dinovitz Calabasas OL/DL 6-5 245 Sr. Scott Ellis Santa Ynez DB 5-8 155 Sr. Tim Gutierrez Santa Clara QB 6-2 195 Sr. Albert Kawaoka Calabasas OL/DL 6-1 235 Jr. Kwinn Knight Santa Clara RB 5-9 165 Sr. Ted Lawrence Santa Clara OL 6-2 220 Sr. Greg Ochoa Agoura WR 5-11 160 Sr. Damon Riggins Calabasas RB/CB 5-9 170 Jr. Josh Smaler Agoura QB 5-10 165 Sr. Rod Smalley Santa Ynez LB 6-3 215 Sr.