Methods Were Different, but Results the Same : Boys’ soccer: Bonita Vista and Valhalla were similar in neither philosophy nor personnel, but both will be playing for section titles this weekend.

Sure, after their season is done, high school football players often take up membership on the varsity soccer team.

Problem is, they rarely display soccer skills.

Explain then how three football types and a water polo player made the transition to the back line of Bonita Vista’s boys’ soccer varsity this winter and how, along with goalies Anthony Mesa and Isaac Veinbergs, they recorded a section-record 21 shutouts (La Jolla’s 18 in 1974-75 was the previous high).

Bonita Vista is bucking the system. Good high school soccer players usually come from club programs. And teams made up mostly of club players--not football players--win section titles.

Such is the case at Valhalla. The Norsemen have two record streaks going: a share of four consecutive section championships and 78 consecutive games unbeaten.

What the programs have in common are coaches with strong philosophies. At Bonita Vista, Milt Shadoan stresses conditioning and composure. Valhalla’s George Logan just wants to instill positive attitudes and provide a good time.

Valhalla was seeded No. 1 in this year’s 2-A playoffs and will go for a fifth consecutive title Saturday night against No. 1 San Diego.

Certainly no surprise. What strikes many as unbelievable is that Bonita Vista will be going for its second consecutive 3-A title when it plays Poway Friday night at San Diego High School.

BONITA VISTA’S ROOKIE

The Barons were excusing themselves from playoff contention at the beginning of the season, talking of rebuilding.

Both goalies graduated from last year’s team, and the fullback, midfielder and forward positions had only one player each returning.

Oh, and they had a first-year coach just up from five years with the girls’ junior varsity. In fact, those five years were the only experience Milt Shadoan had outside of the American Youth Soccer Organization.

In his time with the girls’ junior varsity, Shadoan gained a reputation as a strict disciplinarian. No arguing with officials, no off-color language, no talking during stretching exercises, no meals consisting of meat or milk on game days and, worst of all from the players’ point of view, 30-minute runs to start practices at the beginning of the season.

Thirty-minute runs?

“Yeah,” said Chris Wilson, Bonita Vista’s senior stopper, “we used to laugh at the girls because they ran all the time. Then we heard Mr. Shadoan was going to coach the boys’ varsity, and we cried.”

Actually, they complained. Running was OK for the girls’ JV, but Shadoan wasn’t going to convince the defending 3-A champs, or what was left of them, that they needed to run, too.

“At first we were fighting a lot about the running and conditioning,” midfielder Gus Castaneda said. “Milt would tell us we’re going on a 30-minute run, and we’d all look at each other and . . . “

Well, picture this: a bunch of teen-aged boys staring down a first-year coach and saying, “Yeah, make us run.”

It got so bad that Shadoan had to threaten to kick several top players off the team, including Castaneda (now the leading scorer with 26 goals and 19 assists).

He was somewhat of a rebel ringleader against Shadoan’s conditioning efforts, repeatedly reminding his coach that under Jerry Holmes, they had won a 3-A championship the previous year--and no running was required.

Shadoan shot back simply that that was last year, and if they didn’t do things his way, well, the gate was just 20 yards from the field. They could walk through and go home. For good.

Still, there was more arguing. So Shadoan took another tack.

“Hey, the girls can do it,” Shadoan would say. “If you want, I can go get the girls to lead you on a 30-minute run.”

After several such conversations, not to mention a few victories (the Barons are 23-1-1), the players started to accept the conditioning program.

“My leader, Gus, was always out there at the beginning of the year saying, ‘Hey, we don’t need to run,’ ” Shadoan said. “But now he says we need to run and goes and leads them.”

Said Castaneda: “I just really wanted to do what was best for the team.”

After the accepted conditioning, the players then had to be convinced that they shouldn’t run off at the mouth when faced with a controversial call.

In fact, Shadoan, a referee himself, was so insistent about ignoring poor calls that the players thought he had betrayed them.

Shadoan said he benched several players for having words with referees, including second-leading scorer Casey June (14 goals, six assists) for a game and a half.

“Mr. Shadoan was a ref, and sometimes referees and kids have different points of view,” said Ryan Yukubik, a sophomore sweeper. “Sometimes we disagreed with the referee, and Mr. Shadoan sided with the ref . . . and that caused a couple problems.”

Even Shadoan admits that the most heat he has taken this year came from parents who were upset with his refusal to communicate with game officials.

That has subsided.

“Now he’s really on our side,” Yukubik said. “He understands where we’re coming from, and we understand where he’s coming from.”

By the time off-field problems were solved, the main on-field concern--four starting defenders, none of whom had played club soccer during the fall--had taken care of itself.

“They were lacking in some skills,” Shadoan said. “But they were tough kids who weren’t going to be denied.”

Perhaps the biggest question was at sweeper, the last defender in front of the goalie and the guy who directs the other three fullbacks. Shadoan put Yukubik (who spent the fall playing water polo) back there with three seniors from the football team--Chris Wilson, Sean Behan and Darrian Childers--in front of him.

“At first it seemed kind of awkward,” Yukubik said. “A sophomore telling three seniors what to do. I was kind of worried about seeming bossy.”

No ego problems ensued. The only thing that swelled on defense was the team’s shutout total.

“Each one of us is not a strong individual player,” Yukubik said. “But each one of us works to help the others.”

VALHALLA’S VETERAN

George Logan has been coaching soccer in San Diego County for 26 years, at Valhalla for 16. He has won at least a share of four consecutive section titles. And his team was 22-0-1 after Wednesday’s 1-0 section semifinal victory over Mission Bay.

He doesn’t make his team go on 30-minute runs.

“I believe in a lot of rest,” he said.

Actually, so many of his players participate in the fall with club teams that they are already in top condition when the high school season starts.

So Logan is more intent on providing a good time than he is in getting them in shape to play.

That sits just fine with the players.

“This is really just a three-month break (from club soccer),” said Toby Taitano, a senior midfielder considered one of the top players in the county. “And it’s hard for some of us to keep our concentration in the games. But Mr. Logan does a great job of keeping everyone’s attention.”

He can get that attention through motivation talks or simply from resting the team, which he said he does often during the season.

“You can’t push it to a level where the kids feel, ‘Well, here we go again,’ ” Logan said. “You’ve got to sort of know when the kids are really a wee bit stressed out and then maybe tell them don’t worry about practice on Monday, we’ll come back Tuesday instead.”

If it sounds a little as if Logan doesn’t really get out there and do a lot of coaching, well, Logan might agree.

“I have often said that coaches don’t make players, but players make players. Coaches can help them along, but when it comes down to it, the kid has to do his own homework outside the classroom.”

It’s the players who disagree that Logan fails to teach the game.

“He wants us to try and have fun and give 100%,” said Mark Spice, a senior midfielder. “And he teaches you a lot--he makes sure your game is perfect.”

Added Taitano, “He has taught me not so much moves and strategy, but he has taught me morals and real-life lessons in soccer parlance.”

Mostly, the lessons boil down to one axiom--always give everything you’ve got to the task at hand.

Despite the unbeaten streak, Logan has had to convince his players of this. Most, you see, are top club players who simply have not been challenged much in the Grossmont League and often get frustrated.

Logan sometimes puts Taitano on a pedestal, then knocks him down to get a point across.

Taitano has a brother, Dominic, 21, who was paralyzed four years ago in a motorcycle accident.

“When he sees me dogging it in practice,” Taitano said. “He’ll say, ‘You should be giving 150% because you don’t know what your brother would give to even move a leg again.’ He says, ‘God, there are so many people out there who can’t even run.’ And it really motivates you. It makes you dig down deep, and it really makes you try harder.”