THE ‘80s A DECADE REVISITED :...

1986

Winning was a breeze for a couple of 15-year-olds named White and Watts, but Canyon High football team’s 46-game win streak was blown away.

How easy winning must have seemed to Russell White and Quincy Watts when they were 15 years old. How natural it must have felt.

As sophomores in their first varsity seasons, White and Watts propelled the Crespi High football team and the Taft track team to championships.

White, two days shy of his 16th birthday, rushed for 256 yards and four touchdowns in 19 carries as Crespi crushed St. John Bosco, 48-14, to win the Big Five Conference title.

Watts won the 200 meters, finished second in the 100 and anchored the 400-meter relay team to a second-place finish as Taft became the first Valley team to win the boys’ state track title.

Both were named state sophomores of the year in their sport. White rushed for a state-leading 2,339 yards and Watts set a national sophomore record in the 200 with a time of 20.97.

Three touchdowns in the final eight minutes weren’t enough for the Canyon High football team to avoid its first loss after 46 victories in a row, a winning streak that tied the Southern Section record set by Temple City from 1969 to 1973.

Antelope Valley defeated the Cowboys, 21-20, in the ninth game of the regular season by stopping Canyon quarterback Ken Sollom on a two-point conversion try with six seconds to play. Sollom, a senior who passed for 2,720 yards and 28 touchdowns during the season, directed a furious Canyon rally after the Cowboys fell behind, 21-0.

Sollom threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Ernie Figueroa, a 5-4 wide receiver, to pull Canyon to within one point. Coach Harry Welch called for an option on the conversion attempt and Sollom was stopped short of the goal line by Harold Morrow and James Richards.

Vance Mueller, a deceptively fast Occidental College running back, was drafted by the Los Angeles Raiders in the fourth round of the 1986 NFL draft.

He watched only the first three rounds before turning off his television set.

“Somebody came into the room and said ‘Congratulations, I heard you got picked in the fourth round by the Raiders.’ And we all said, ‘Ah, get outta here,’ ” Mueller said. “Nobody believed him, we thought he was kidding us.”

The Division III running back who had impressed Raiders Coach Tom Flores in tryouts before the draft by running consistent 4.3 and 4.4 times in the 40 turned out to be up to speed for the NFL. Mueller made the team and has been a valuable contributor in the backfield and on special teams.

In three seasons at Occidental, Mueller rushed for 2,981 yards and 41 touchdowns and caught 93 passes for 1,166 yards and 12 touchdowns. The Tigers were 28-2 in three seasons with Mueller.

Notable: Hart High finally emerged from the shadow of Santa Clarita Valley rival Canyon and won the Northwestern Conference title behind quarterback Jim Bonds, who passed for 3,196 yards--the third highest total in Southern Section history. He threw 39 touchdown passes that year (third on the list) and he threw a section-record six scoring passes against Alhambra. Bonds, a UCLA sophomore, ranks among the top 10 in eight categories in the Southern Section record book. . . .

Mike Kane, a senior running back at Cal State Northridge, was fourth in regional voting for the Harlon Hill trophy, awarded annually to the top Division II football player. Kane, who was named an All-American, rushed for 1,565 yards and 14 touchdowns, both Western State Football Conference records. His career rushing total is 3,572 yards. . . .

For the first time since 1970, the Cal Lutheran track team dropped a dual meet. The loss to UC Santa Barbara snapped a streak of 58 consecutive meets. . . .

Angela Burnham of Rio Mesa High became the only freshman girl to win the state 100-meter dash. . . .

High school football officials voted in May to go on strike and did not settle with the Southern and City sections until Aug. 28--less than two weeks before the season. . . .

The play of 6-8 forward Trevor Wilson helped Cleveland High become the best basketball team in the Valley. Behind Wilson, who averaged 25.7 points and 15 rebounds in his senior year, Cleveland advanced to the City 4-A final. . . .

Joey Kirk of Cal State Northridge was Division II All-American in soccer. He played in the Senior Bowl and made the U.S. senior national team. . . .

Don MacLean, a 6-9 center, was named state sophomore player of the year after leading Simi Valley High to the Southern Section 4-A final. MacLean averaged 21.7 points and 13.9 rebounds a game. . . .

Coach Craig Raub and guard Stacy Parson led the Kennedy High girls’ basketball team to the City 4-A championship over Washington, 61-52. Kennedy also won City titles in 1981 and 1987. . . .

Dan Nagelmann of Thousand Oaks High threw seven touchdown passes in the Ventura County all-star game. . . .

Behind the play of All-American Angela Brinton, the Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team finished second in Division II.