Cable TV Plugs Into Prep Football : Games in County Represent the Latest Picture Show

Willie Padilla begins with a touch of Vin Scully.

“Well, hi everybody . . . “

Taped live for later showing, Los Alamitos High School football is on the air . . . make that cable.

At 7:15 p.m., Comcast Cablevision of Seal Beach and its 15-man crew swing into action. For the next three hours, they will record every pass, big hit and touchdown along with every fumble, bumble and gaffe of the Los Alamitos-Servite game at Gahr High in Cerritos.

Comcast is not alone in showing high school sports, particularly football games. Cable blankets Orange County.

If you’re a Santa Ana Valley supporter, Comcast’s Santa Ana cable service offers Falcon football on a rotating basis with Santa Ana, Mater Dei, Foothill and Saddleback games. In Mission Viejo, you can catch Mission Viejo, Capistrano Valley, Dana Hills and San Clemente games on Dimension Cable. As the saying goes, check your local listings for a game and time in your area.

“There’s great interest in Orange County football,” said Jymm Adams, the producer-director of Comcast’s Los Alamitos games. “There is no local TV here. Cable stations have taken up the slack. Football is a big draw for us.”

The attraction is not limited to Orange County, where seven cable companies televise games involving 33 high school teams.

“We are a rather large geographic area and there are a lot of cable outlets here who want to do cable coverage,” said Scott Cathcart, director of media relations for the Southern Section. “It’s becoming quite popular.”

Comcast’s paid crew includes three camera operators situated at the 30-yard line, midfield and the 35, left to right across your dial.

A fourth cameraman roams the sidelines, looking for close-ups. During Los Alamitos’ 45-28 victory, he will do a lot of roaming.

There also are assorted gaffers (a fancy name for cable pullers) and production assistants (go-fers).

In the truck, there are five or six people, including Adams. Comcast has an elaborate set-up. Its truck is a scaled-down version of the 18-wheel trucks the networks park outside Anaheim Stadium and other major league parks.

Inside Comcast’s truck, parked along one side of the home stands at Gahr, are a dizzying array of video screens, computer keyboards and other controls and knobs. There are machines that do slo-mo and others that add up-to-the-minute graphics.

In the booth, actually a large wooden table located a few rows in front of the press box, sit the announcers, play-by-play man Denny Siegel and color commentator Neal Evans. Assisting them are a statistician and a spotter.

On the field, Padilla does pregame, halftime and postgame analysis and an interview with John Barnes, coach of Los Alamitos, the top-ranked team in the Orange County Sportswriters’ Assn. poll.

Padilla, standing on the Gahr track, is in the midst of his pregame spiel, giving records for each team and statistics for the top players.

“Now, let’s take a look at some highlights of the Griffins’ win over Marina last week . . .

As he pauses, back in the truck they’re showing taped highlights of Los Alamitos’ season-opening 42-22 victory.

Padilla gets his cue and begins talking about Servite and the Friars’ 21-0 victory over Long Beach Wilson.

“Now, let’s take a look at some highlights of the Friars’ win over Wilson last week . . .

“I worked the Servite-Wilson game last week,” Padilla says to a bystander. “That’s how I got the highlights.”

He gets another cue and adds a few more comments before sending it up to Siegel and Evans in the booth.

“Well, that’s it until halftime,” Padilla says.

Not quite. Fans streaming into the stadium have seen Padilla doing his stand-up.

“Hey’s that’s the guy from TV,” one says to his girlfriend.

Padilla chats for a while before breaking free to catch the opening kickoff and Los Alamitos’ first series.

The cablecast is off and running, and so too is interest in high school sports.

National football and basketball games of the week are being shown for the first time this season on SportsChannel. ESPN’s half-hour show, “Scholastic Sports America,” is entering its fourth season. And Prime Ticket, in addition to showing Southern Section championship events, began last year a 30-minute show featuring local high school stars.

Nowhere in Orange County is local cable coverage as extensive as in the Los Alamitos-Seal Beach area. For the sixth season, nearly all of Los Alamitos’ games are being shown to subscribers of either Comcast or Los Alamitos Television, the team’s two official cable channels.

While most schools’ games are shown as part of a game-of-the-week package involving teams in the same league or school district, Los Alamitos’ games are the only football in town.

Last season, one company worked the game, produced the tape, then shared it with the other. Thus, it was possible to view every game whether you lived in Seal Beach or Los Alamitos. But this season the two are not bicycling--as it’s called--the games. Comcast does four games a season and Los Alamitos Cable handles the remainder.

The Southern Section does not charge a rights fee for regular-season games, Cathcart said. It does charge $350 for playoff games and $500 for championship events, however.

The games are shown on a delayed basis, in accordance with Southern Section rules. Comcast normally airs Los Alamitos’ Thursday night games on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 1 p.m.

The games have proven to be a great selling point for Los Alamitos football, according to Barnes. Everywhere he goes in the community, people recognize him.

“When I go to the junior highs to talk about the program, everyone knows me and all the players on the team,” Barnes said. “It’s been such a plus for us. Junior high and elementary school kids see our games week after week and want to be a part of it.”

For the most part, games air without commercials, although Los Alamitos games broadcast public service announcements.

“Usually for seat belts,” Adams said.

Make no mistake about it, these cable productions are strictly low-budget, local ventures. That’s not to say the people involved don’t try hard and aren’t knowledgeable.

What do you want for $1,200, which is what Adams figures it costs to put on a typical high school game.

“We have sharp, cheap people,” Adams said. “They approach it professionally. They all have three to four years of experience or a college degree.”

Most are trying to gain enough experience for a job with a network or a local independent station, where the money and prestige are better.

Adams, 26, has worked on a feature film, TV commercials and music videos in addition to Los Alamitos football games. He has been working for Comcast for about a year, but hopes to move to commercial television someday soon.

Padilla, 27, was a radio-TV major at Pepperdine before starting his cable career. He also works for Lakewood Cable, doing a show called Sports Connection, and for Simmons Cable in Long Beach, doing play-by-play for its game of the week.

“When I was a kid, I used to take my tape recorder to the park to my brother’s baseball games and do the play-by-play,” said Padilla, who grew up in Long Beach and graduated from Paramount High.

Padilla, who’s in his fourth season covering Los Alamitos, has high standards for his work.

“I look at the tapes I did last year and I say, ‘Jeez, that’s embarrassing,’ ” Padilla said.

Like the players on the field, Padilla is hoping to improve, catch someone’s eye and move up to the big time.

“Cable is nice, but it’s not ‘The Show,’ ” Padilla said.

Siegel, 47, the play-by-play announcer, is a different case altogether. With Len Venger and Padilla, he does all of the Los Alamitos games.

Siegel has been a member of the stat crew at Ram games for a number of years in addition to running his own retail business. He had little or no interest in changing careers when a friend asked if he was interested in covering Los Alamitos games. That was six years ago.

“I really haven’t taken it seriously,” he said. “I’m doing it now because it’s fun. I don’t think I’d ever be quite that good to do it on network television.”

Meanwhile, down on the field, Los Alamitos pulls away from Servite in the second half to win its second consecutive game of the season.

The 3,000 or so Los Alamitos fans leave in a jovial mood. And as they head for their cars, they pause to watch as Padilla interviews Barnes.

A few minutes past 10 p.m., after a couple of moments of conversation, it’s over. Padilla thanks Barnes and the bright light behind the camera winks off.

Los Alamitos football is history. At least until 7:30 the next night, when you can watch it again.

CABLE COMPANIES OFFERING PREP FOOTBALL

Community School/League Day Time COMCAST CABLEVISION Santa Ana Mater Dei, Santa Ana, Sat/Sun Noon Foothill, Saddleback, Santa Ana Valley Buena Park, Fullerton El Dorado, Esperanza, Sat/Sun Noon Placentia Fullerton Los Alamitos, Seal Los Alamitos Fri 7:30 p.m. Beach Sat 1 p.m. Sun 11 a.m. CONTINENTAL CABLE SYSTEMS City of Tustin, Foothill, Tustin Sat 10 a.m. portions of Tues 5:30 p.m. unincorporated Santa Ana COPLEY COLONY CABLEVISION Costa Mesa Estancia, Costa Mesa Mon 8 p.m. DIMENSION CABLE Laguna Beach, Laguna Trabuco Hills, Sat 2, 4, 6 or Niguel, Trabuco Mission Viejo, El 8 p.m. Hills, Mission Viejo, Toro, Dana Hills, San Thurs 4 p.m. El Toro, Dana Hills, Clemente, Capistrano Mon 4 p.m. Laguna Hills, Valley, Laguna Hills Capistrano Valley, San Clemente LOS ALAMITOS TV Los Alamitos, Los Alamitos Fri 7 p.m. Rossmoor, portions of Sat 7 p.m. Garden Grove and Tues 7 p.m. Cypress MULTIVISION CABLE Villa Park, Anaheim Villa Park, Valencia, Tues 5, 7 p.m. El Dorado PARAGON Garden Grove Garden Grove League Wed Noon, 5 p.m. Sat Noon, 5 p.m. 3-A Huntington Beach, Garden Grove League Check Westminster, Fountain Schedule Valley, Midway City, Stanton, Rossmoor, portion of Cypress

Community Ch. COMCAST CABLEVISION Santa Ana 3 Buena Park, Fullerton 3 Placentia Los Alamitos, Seal 3 Beach 3 3 CONTINENTAL CABLE SYSTEMS City of Tustin, 33 portions of 33 unincorporated Santa Ana COPLEY COLONY CABLEVISION Costa Mesa 3 DIMENSION CABLE Laguna Beach, Laguna 3 Niguel, Trabuco Hills, Mission Viejo, 3 El Toro, Dana Hills, 3 Laguna Hills, Capistrano Valley, San Clemente LOS ALAMITOS TV Los Alamitos, 3 Rossmoor, portions of 3 Garden Grove and 3 Cypress MULTIVISION CABLE Villa Park, Anaheim 22 PARAGON Garden Grove 3-A Huntington Beach, 30 Westminster, Fountain Valley, Midway City, Stanton, Rossmoor, portion of Cypress

Source: Various cable companies

Researched by Dallas M. Jackson