HIGH SCHOOL PREVIEW : Choosing Sides Proves Difficult in the West Valley : Football: League’s brightest stars shine on both offense and defense.

Even though he already had been named the starting safety as a sophomore at Granada Hills High two seasons ago, Derrick Stewart wanted to be a tailback. The reasoning was simple: Let somebody drag him down from behind for a change.

It remains a popular sentiment among his teammates, it seems. Everybody, including the Highlanders’ burly bowling ball of a fullback, Brett Washington, wants to play in the eye of the I formation. Although he carried the ball a few times as a junior, Stewart had to wait until this year to get a legitimate opportunity.

“We didn’t need a tailback,” Granada Hills co-Coach Tom Harp said of Stewart’s first two seasons on the varsity. “Everybody wants to be a tailback. Washington wants to be the tailback. Even our receivers want to be the tailback.”

Stewart isn’t the only defensive back in the West Valley League who fancies himself as an offensive star. In fact, there are enough two-way starters in the secondary and skill positions to stock an all-star team. And the term secondary is used advisedly, because when members of this group touch the ball, their talent is shown to be of the first order.

This is the best kind of double-edged sword--players who can cut it either way. Call it a leaguewide skill saw. Consider:

* At Granada Hills, which finished 10-1 last season and won the North Valley League title, Stewart starts at free safety. Receiver Eric Moss (who will miss two games because of a shoulder separation) and tight end Robert Haywood also start in the secondary.

Haywood and Moss were first-team all-league selections at defensive back as juniors, as was Stewart, who also was a Times’ All-Valley selection.

The Highlander defense ranked second among large schools in the Valley area, having allowed an average of only 157.9 yards a game. Only Thousand Oaks’ defense (141.8) was better.

* At Taft, fullback Darnell Hendricks and tailback Vance Swendell will share time in the secondary with receivers Ruben Benitez, Cornell Hill and Steve Harris.

Hendricks, a highly regarded Division I prospect at defensive back, was an All-West Valley League selection at receiver as a junior. Benitez finished seventh in the state in the 400 meters as a junior last season (47.89 seconds), and Harris and Hill are both 6-foot-3, 185-pound seniors who also play basketball.

“I don’t know if we have any Cornell Colliers in the group,” Coach Tom Stevenson said in reference to the former Taft standout now starting at Cal. “But these guys aren’t far off.”

* El Camino Real’s Ryan Marine, an all-league defensive back as a junior, will start at running back. Quarterback Sean Boldt, a defensive starter as a junior who again will play in the secondary, hits like a lightning you-know-what.

After giving Granada Hills all it could handle defensively in a 21-0 loss in the regular season--two Highlander touchdowns came as a result of special-teams play--the Conquistadores staged the upset of the year in the postseason. Granada Hills entered the 4-A Division playoffs with a 10-0 mark, the best start in school history, but was promptly rocked by El Camino Real, 16-9.

“We always try to make defense a team strength,” El Camino Real co-Coach Mike Maio said. “I don’t know if we’ll be as good as last season, but we have pretty good team speed.”

* Running backs Rayna Stewart, Mukasa Crowe and Joynier Lockett of Chatsworth also will play in a secondary that Coach Myron Gibford predicts will be “as good or better” than 1989’s solid group.

As a member of the North Valley League last season, Chatsworth engineered a 20-7 upset of Kennedy and held its ground with Granada Hills before falling, 20-6. Granada Hills and Chatsworth were moved from the North Valley to the West Valley this season.

While it isn’t particularly unusual for receivers and running backs to play in the secondary--quite often it is done out of necessity--it is rare for a group to be so adept at both positions.

For instance, the defenses of Granada Hills, El Camino Real (202.8 average a game) and Chatsworth (211.6) ranked first through third among area City 4-A teams. With the exception of El Camino Real, which lost three all-league linebackers, no decline is expected.

Taft’s defense allowed 224.9 yards a game to rank fifth among 4-A City teams in the Valley, but is fielding perhaps its most talented group in Stevenson’s six-year tenure.

“We’re so much better in the defensive backfield it’s not even funny,” Stevenson said. “We have a very good line, four real good linebackers and three or four great (defensive backs).

“It’s by far our biggest and fastest team. . . . It’s probably our best defensive team ever.”

Taft and Granada Hills have a clear advantage over Chatsworth and El Camino Real offensively, and both teams have been through the late-season pressure cooker before. Granada Hills has won or shared five consecutive league titles and Taft has won or shared four in a row, although two were at the 3-A level.

Junior Karlon Mack gives Stevenson a multiple-threat quarterback, a luxury he has not had for several seasons.

“He’s a quick, rollout, scramble-type,” said Harp, whose team defeated Taft in passing-league play. “They should be able to do some different things.”

Harp’s incumbent at quarterback, senior Bryan Martin, is considered by some publications to be among the best in the area. Martin passed for 1,414 yards and 15 touchdowns in 1989 despite splitting time over the first two games.

“He has a year of experience and the game plan is to open it up even more,” said Harp, who handles the offense while co-Coach Darryl Stroh directs the defense. “I think you’ll see it up in the air more often than last year.”

In a league chock-full of double-threat players, a triple-threat like Martin might give Granada Hills the edge. Even Stevenson admits the Highlanders should be favored.

“It’s hard to imagine anybody stopping them completely (offensively),” he said. “If they are (stopped), it’ll probably be from mistakes and breakdowns of their own doing.”

Hmmm. In this league, the two-way backs are so good, they can even stop themselves .

WEST VALLEY LEAGUE

FINAL 1989 STANDINGS PROJECTED FINISH Granada Hills 10-1, 7-0* Granada Hills Taft 5-5, 4-3 Taft El Camino Real 6-6, 3-4 Chatsworth Chatsworth 3-5-1, 2-5* El Camino Real

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Player School Pos. Ht. Wt. Class Derrick Stewart Granada Hills RB-DB 5-11 185 Sr. Brett Washington Granada Hills RB-LB 6-0 220 Sr. Bryan Martin Granada Hills QB 6-2 180 Sr. Eric Moss Granada Hills WR-DB 5-10 170 Sr. Troy Snider El Camino Real OL-LB 6-1 215 Sr. Pete Marine El Camino Real RB-DB 5-10 170 Sr. Delvon Hardaway Chatsworth DB 6-0 165 Sr. Darnell Hendricks Taft RB-DB 6-3 190 Sr. Sam Hardy Taft LB 6-4 245 Sr. Willie Jackson Taft DL 6-3 225 Sr.

*In North Valley League