Mounties Adjust to Sparks’ Exit

Montclair Prep entered the post-Sparks era battered and emotionally spent but wearing a brave face. Of course, the Mounties have little choice.

Jerome Sparks, the uncle of Derek and Leland Sparks, picked up his nephews’ transcripts Thursday, officially severing ties between the private school in Van Nuys and the two transplanted Texas football players. Derek and Leland are expected to leave this weekend with June Sparks, Derek’s mother, who arrived Wednesday to take the pair home.

The players tentatively have scheduled a farewell party Saturday at the Granada Hills home of Steve and Susie Goldbaum, with whom Derek lived from last winter until the team left for a season-opening game in Hawaii last week.

Teammates already have begun the farewell process, saying they will miss the Sparkses not just as players but as friends. Derek is a 6-foot-1, 208-pound senior running back who is regarded as one of the area’s top college prospects after rushing for 3,338 yards in two seasons since arriving from Texas. Leland (5-10, 170) quarterbacked the Mounties to a 12-1 record last year and had been moved to wide receiver.

Donovan Roy, a 6-foot-6 1/2, 280-pound senior offensive lineman, is one of the few players who has talked to Derek since the players returned from Hawaii on Sunday.

“I almost cried when I talked to him on the phone,” Roy said. “I hate to see him go. I don’t care if he doesn’t play football. I just want to have him back.”

Roy claimed that Sparks is leaving Montclair Prep reluctantly, a view shared by many in the Montclair Prep community. Sparks said all summer that despite bad feelings between his uncle and Montclair Prep, he wanted to remain there.

“I don’t think Derek wants to leave,” Roy said. “He told me he wants to play Friday night with us and he misses all the guys. But family is family and you’ve got to do what the family says. I have to respect him for that.”

Many players sensed that Derek would be taken from the team after they learned that the Southern Section had denied Leland Sparks’ request for a fifth year of eligibility. Leland repeated the 11th grade when he entered Montclair Prep in 1989.

Although two other players were denied eligibility, Jerome blamed Montclair Prep for the decision and was angered that Leland was told just hours before Montclair Prep’s 28-7 loss to Farrington of Hawaii on Aug. 30.

The Southern Section will hear an appeal Wednesday for tackle Rusty Savage and wide receiver Cardell Henderson and had planned to rule on Leland’s appeal.

Regardless, there seems little anyone at Montclair Prep can do to satisfy Jerome Sparks, who has battled with the school since last spring when Derek sought refuge in Los Angeles County Juvenile Court, claiming he had been abandoned by his uncle--his legal guardian at the time.

Derek became a foster child of the Goldbaums, whose son John plays for Montclair Prep. The Goldbaums relinquished their role as foster parents, yielding to the wishes of his family.

Jerome, who denies that he abandoned his nephew, objected to Derek’s living arrangement and urged him to move into an apartment with Leland. Leland had been living in Chatsworth with the Cole family, whose son Greg also plays for the Mounties.

The Mounties will enter tonight’s nonleague game against St. Monica at Culver City High with either Cole or sophomore Eliel Swinton at tailback.