The High Schools : North Hollywood Reduces Game to Basics

Who says football is a complicated game?

Not North Hollywood High.

Coach Fred Grimes, faced with coaching his varsity team with only two first-year assistants, decided to take last Friday’s opening game against St. Genevieve simply.

How simply?

Well, let’s put it this way: The Huskies ran two plays, give or take a pass or two.

“We ran a strong-side pitch and we ran an inside trap to the fullback,” Grimes said. “And a couple of pass plays.”

Five to be exact.

Before you recommend that Grimes spend some vacation time to gather his wits, consider his plight.

He had been coaching 74 players during two-a-day practices--basically by himself.

“As you can imagine, there was a lot of standing around (for the players),” Grimes said. “With the manpower shortage, we went with keeping it simple and teaching the kids how to run the pitch play.”

And the results were not as bad as one might think. Although the Huskies lost, 7-0, they received a strong effort from tailback Mike Lewis, the beneficiary of the single-minded play calling. Lewis rushed for 115 yards in 28 carries. North Hollywood gained 146 yards total offense.

And Grimes thought that his team should have had more to show for its efforts.

“To be honest with you, I thought we should have won,” he said.

Now that’s positive thinking.

Moonies: Disappointed with his team’s 19-11 loss to Royal and its subsequent lackluster practices, Chaminade Coach Rich Lawson decided to shed some light on the problem. A few massive halogen lamps worth of light, to be exact.

Lawson scheduled a night practice Wednesday to give his players a break from the heat and to jar them from their complacency.

When the lights clicked, so did the offense. Chaminade posted one of the biggest wins in school history, upsetting Palmdale, 35-14.

“We turned the lights on and then things started happening real nice and it just carried until Friday,” Lawson said. “The moon was out and it was nice.”

The Eagles punctuate each practice with a two-minute drill in which the offense drives downfield into field-goal range for kicker Michael Terzian. During the first week, by Lawson’s estimates, it took the team five attempts each practice to cap the drive. It took one try under the lights.

Why does moonlight feel right?

“You move a lot faster,” he said. “The ball looks great coming through the sky. Everything’s dark all around.”

Secret weapon: Evidently, Jerry Thompson’s passing ability came as a surprise to the Hart Indians--they were burned for a 93-yard touchdown Friday by a crisp option pass from the Crespi running back to wide receiver Zach Rayner that traveled 20 yards in the air.

Crespi Coach Tim Lins, who described Thompson’s tight spiral as “a dart,” didn’t expect a wobbler. He had seen Thompson throw in quarterback tryouts last spring.

“Jerry thought he was going to be the guy--for about three minutes,” Lins said. “We put him back at linebacker where he belongs.”

Add Crespi: Celt senior Joe Mahoney has been named the athlete of the week by the San Fernando Valley chapter of the National Football Foundation.

Mahoney, a senior defensive end, led Crespi’s all-out charge against Hart quarterback Rob Westervelt in last week’s 21-13 upset. Westervelt was held to 93 yards on seven-of-23 passing.

A fresh start: Cleveland’s Aaron Castro figures to see plenty of action at free safety in tonight’s opener at Van Nuys. Sure, Castro is a first-year letterman, but there’s more to it: Castro, a six foot, 175-pounder, is also a freshman.

“He’s probably the first freshman ever to start here,” Cleveland Coach Steve Landress said.

If starting in the secondary isn’t enough responsibility, Castro is also the team’s backup quarterback. Landress says that he would not hesitate to use Castro if senior starter Steve Bryant is injured or falters. Bryant will be making his first start at quarterback tonight.

A mark in the win column: Agoura cross-country runner Deena Drossin notched her first victory since November, winning at the Woodbridge Invitational in Irvine on Saturday.

Drossin’s last win came in last year’s Southern Section 2-A Division preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College. Drossin, who missed the Seaside Invitational in Ventura earlier this month because of shin splints, covered the three-mile course at Woodbridge High in 17:55 to edge San Clemente’s Terri Smythers by a second.

“I felt pretty good at the beginning,” Drossin said. “(But) I need to get more base training.”

Drossin had steamed to a 40-meter advantage by the halfway mark but Smythers made up the deficit in the final mile.

Drossin also sat out half of the 1988 season because of stretched arches in both feet yet still placed third at the state meet.

Injuries: Village Christian (2-0) suffered a blow with the news that All-Alpha League center Andy Kaminski is out for four to six weeks because of a cracked tibia. Another lineman, Brett Wood, is out for three to four weeks because of stretched ligament.

The two losses damage a line that featured five returning starters. Earlier, returning all-league tackle Frank Castellucci decided not to play football this year.

Add Village Christian: Should the Crusaders defeat Murphy on Saturday night it will mark Coach Mike Plaisance’s 100th career win.

Mike Glaze and staff writers Steve Elling, Sam Farmer and Brian Murphy contributed to this notebook.