THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Notre Dame Makes Playoff Preparation a Season-Long Effort

After winning a San Fernando Valley League title last season, Notre Dame High was ousted in the first round of the Southern Section football playoffs by Lompoc. Chaminade Coach Rich Lawson says that his team’s grueling game against Notre Dame in the regular-season finale might have drained the Knights, leaving them easy prey for Lompoc.

Notre Dame Coach Kevin Rooney disagrees. He argues that his team, which dropped from Division I to VII, was simply unprepared for the postseason.

This year, Notre Dame (8-1 overall, 3-0 in league play) won its second consecutive league championship and Rooney has made changes.

“One thing we’ve done from the beginning of the season is pointed to the playoffs as the most important part of the season,” he said. “Last year, we didn’t even think of the playoffs. They didn’t seem like as big of a deal. We just weren’t prepared mentally.”

Keeping the Knights in tune with stiff competition will be difficult, considering they finish the regular season tonight against Bell-Jeff (2-6, 1-2).

Charge!: Before the first block was thrown in last Friday night’s territorial Foothill League showdown between Burbank and Burroughs, the first forearm was thrown--and it did not go unnoticed.

Burbank’s Mark Kyle was flagged for clobbering an apparently overzealous Burroughs fan, who streaked onto the field during the pregame coin flip, allegedly yelling obscenities at Burbank players.

“I think it was the ball boy or somebody,” Burbank Coach Randy Stage said. “He ran right at us, yelling ‘Burbank (Stinks!).’ Kyle forearmed him to the ground and we were penalized 15 yards.”

Burbank won the toss, but with the ball spotted on the Burbank 45, Burroughs attempted an onside kick. It was unsuccessful.

Smitten: Don’t be surprised if the Camarillo High boys’ cross-country team wins Southern Section 4-A Division and state Division I titles this year. Why? Because “Smitty’s Runners Get the Job Done.”

So say the backs of the Scorpions’ workout T-shirts.

“Five years ago I had a team and they wanted a shirt they could work out in,” Coach Mike Smith said.

The shirt has since been resurrected by the No. 1-ranked team in the state. On the back of the white T-shirt is a silk-screened picture of Smith when he sported a beard and mustache.

Sandwiching the picture are the words “Smitty’s Runners Get the Job Done.”

Now, Smith is cleanshaven, but his runners insisted on having the old picture of him on the shirt.

“They wanted a picture with the beard,” Smith said. “They say I’m too ugly without the beard.”

Gun-shy: For the second time this season, an Alpha league opponent tried to forfeit its football game against Montclair Prep.

Last Friday, Principal James Braley of Maranatha, whose football team is winless, called Montclair Prep Principal V. E. Simpson in an effort to call off the game.

Concessions were made and the second quarter was played with the clock running and the second half was played in just 16 minutes, running time. Montclair Prep, which is 9-0, pounded out a 55-0 victory.

Earlier this year, Marshall Fundamental tried to bow out of its game against the Mounties and similar concessions were made.

Montclair Prep won that game, 54-0.

True test: Thirty-eight members of Newbury Park’s football team stood in line Saturday afternoon to take a test that Coach George Hurley says has more relevance than any game the team will play this season.

The Panthers--Hurley included--submitted voluntarily to tests designed to detect recreational and performance-enhancing drugs.

“We’re kind of proud of it,” Hurley said. “It’s a way for our kids to stand up and say we’re not afraid to test. We don’t take drugs. Our kids have the commitment not to be involved with that.”

The test results will be shared with the player and his family along with the team doctor.

School officials will not become involved, Hurley said, unless a player tests positive on more than one occasion.

Steroids, performance-enhancing drugs that appear to be gaining in popularity among high school athletes, were not among the substances for which the players were tested because of the high cost of that procedure.

The testing was funded by a member of the Newbury Park community.

Want ads: The San Fernando football team has an open date on Sept. 28 next season.

It seems that St. Paul was unable to guarantee its home-and-away rematch with San Fernando next year because of the uncertainty surrounding the scheduling of Southern Section parochial schools, whose leagues currently are being realigned.

San Fernando Coach Tom Hernandez said that rather than wait for St. Paul he decided to look elsewhere.

Hernandez said that the Tigers will even play on the road if necessary; the St. Paul game would have been a San Fernando home game.

“We’ll play whoever, wherever,” he said.

Missing link: Taft sophomore Mike Krentzin, the No. 3 runner on the Toreadors’ cross-country team, was sidelined for the City Section preliminaries Wednesday because of illness and is questionable for the City finals Nov. 18, according to Taft Coach Mel Hein.

Krentzin’s absence also puts a severe crimp in Taft’s plans to dethrone seven-time defending champion Belmont.

The Toreadors upset, 20-43, in a nonconference meet in September.

Should Taft claim the title, it would be the first time a Valley team has won the City championship since Chatsworth in 1978.

Mike Glaze and staff writers Tim Brown, Scot Butwell, Steve Elling, Sam Farmer, Vince Kowalick and Brian Murphy contributed to this notebook.