SEA VIEW LEAGUE FOOTBALL PREVIEW : Tustin Is Favored to Win Title, but Its Rivals Are No Pushovers

It’s a matter of pride among Sea View League football coaches that their league is one of the most competitive around. So when the league’s fourth-place team, Corona del Mar, won the Division VI championship last season, there were certainly some heads nodding knowingly.

“We feel that when we go into the playoffs people have to reckon with the Sea View League,” said Saddleback Coach Jerry Witte. “Sunny Hills got all that recognition last year with the ratings, but then they went against Corona del Mar and Corona del Mar didn’t have too much trouble with them.”

Indeed, the Sea Kings beat previously undefeated Sunny Hills, 27-0, in the semifinals and the next week defeated La Quinta, 21-10, to win their second consecutive Division VI championship.

This was the same team that could win only two of its five Sea View League games and made the playoffs as a wild-card selection.

But that’s the fun and ferocity of the Sea View League, its coaches say. The old coach’s saying, “On any given Friday night. . . “ rings true and each team usually has a decent chance to win on a given evening.

“It’s almost like you’re in the playoffs every week,” Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley said, “because everyone realizes if you lose a game, you may be out of the hunt.

“If you are lucky enough to be one of the teams to make the playoffs from our league you are in good shape.”

Or in the words of University Coach Mark Cunningham: “If you can make it out of the Sea View League, you’re licking your chops when it comes to the playoffs.”

The coaches have a point. Consider:

--In the last four years each of the Sea View League teams has qualified for the playoffs.

--In three of the last five years, the team that won the divisional or conference championship was from the Sea View League.

--During that time, teams from the league have won 63% of their playoff (24-14) games.

What accounts for this success? The coaches, two of whom will be entering their 17th seasons at their schools, cite themselves as one key to success. Most are experienced. Only Rick Gibson, coach of Woodbridge, which is returning to the league after a four-season absence, has less than four years of head coaching experience in the league.

“I think the best coaches in the county are in this league, overall,” Tustin Coach Marijon Ancich said. “Here, there are six guys whose lives revolve around the sport of football. That makes a difference.”

In this atmosphere of competition and because of the potential for surprises, it’s not always easy to determine which will be the teams that will make the playoffs from the Sea View League. But some good guesses can be made.

For starters, Tustin, which has its entire offensive backfield returning from the team that tied for second in the league last season, appears to be the team to beat.

Ancich, who is starting his fifth season at Tustin after 19 at St. Paul High in Santa Fe Springs, said the Tillers have six players with excellent speed, and they might be the fastest group of players at the school in 30 years. The Tillers, who already started their season by defeating Pac-5, 37-7, Friday in Honolulu, have an experienced quarterback--Andy Borza--and two proven running backs--Visko Ancich, the coach’s son, and Ron Goods. To that, add Shad Vickers, a transfer who gained 787 yards for Irvine High last season, and, in the minds of opposing coaches, the equation is a league championship for Tustin.

“They’ve got to find somebody to shoot arrows at and they picked us,” Ancich said. “The word ‘potential’ is deceiving. It’s good newspaper talk for the other teams to pin on bulletin boards.

“We’ve got some kids back that give us an opportunity to survive and win.”

And it’s likely, Ancich’s hyperbole aside, that Tustin isn’t invincible. Although last season’s undefeated Sea View League champion, Estancia, is now in the Pacific Coast League, a couple of the teams remaining could challenge the Tillers.

Despite the loss of five all-division players, Corona del Mar still should be among the league leaders. Todd Kehrli, whose steady play as a sophomore was a big reason the Sea Kings won the championship, is a year older and stronger, and the defense is bound to be solid with eight returning defensive starters. Corona del Mar seems to get better as the season progresses.

After missing the playoffs last year for the first time since 1983, Saddleback appears to have the talent to get back to the postseason. The Roadrunners, who won the Central Conference championship in 1985, have an experienced offensive line and a quick backfield.

Newport Harbor, which tied Tustin for second in the league and advanced to the second round of the playoffs last season, returns only 14 lettermen and seven starters, the fewest in the league. But Newport Harbor has two players--tight end George Greenwalt and kicker Josh Klein--who were first-team all-division selections.

In 1985, the last season Woodbridge played in the Sea View League, the Warriors finished third and lost in the first round of the playoffs, but the coaches are unsure what their return will bring. As a member of the Pacific Coast League, Woodbridge won the Desert-Mountain Conference championship in 1987 and was the runner-up to Trabuco Hills in the Division VIII championship game in 1988.

The Warriors had an off-year last season, finishing fourth in the Pacific Coast League. They would seem to be at a disadvantage this season because the competition in the Sea View League is better.

“I’d have to put us dead last,” said Gibson, Woodbridge coach.

University, a school which has had only three winning football seasons since it opened in 1971, may be on the brink of another one. Defensive back Donnell Dowdy, an all-division selection as a sophomore, has gained about 15 pounds since last year and could possibly be the Trojans’ quarterback this season. The Trojans will be a young team--they might start eight juniors on offense--but judging from their performances last year, they might surprise some teams.

In University’s final game of the season last year, Tustin needed the victory to go to the playoffs; University wanted to have its first and only league victory.

The Trojans came within three yards of their goal. But trailing, 14-10, in the final minutes, Jerry Apana was tackled at the three-yard line after he caught a short pass for a four-yard gain on fourth-and-goal.

“I don’t know if they looked past us or not,” University Coach Mark Cunningham said. “If they did, they made a mistake. I know our kids have never looked past anybody.”

Tomorrow: South Coast League.