Rancho Bernardo Building Process Might Not Take Long

It is in its first year. It has no senior class. It has no campus. Its students are split, some attending classes at Poway, some at Mt. Carmel. In the months leading to opening this week of Rancho Bernardo High School, there have been trials.

But forget for a moment the controversies and hassles surrounding the school colors and mascot. Forget the optional areas where students could choose which of the local schools they wanted to attend.

Forget about the football team’s debut, a 27-0 loss to Santa Margarita on Friday, three days before any Rancho Bernardo student attended class. This is a school that begins with some proven winners on its coaching staff and is drawing from an area that has supplied athletes for two of the county’s most successful programs of the ‘80s.

Sooner or later--and don’t count out sooner--this school will be competitive.

Call it instant credibility.

Anyone taking the Broncos lightly this year might be kicking themselves afterward.

Maybe they won’t win a San Diego Section title their first year. Maybe they won’t even win an Avocado League title. Then again, this is an active, well-to-do community that lives on golf, tennis and swimming, and there are strong feeder programs in baseball, basketball, football and soccer.

Both Poway and Mt. Carmel had Rancho Bernardo residents attending classes, and the two schools in the past have had extraordinary success. Either singly or together, they have virtually dominated girls’ volleyball, girls’ tennis, boys’ and girls’ swimming, wrestling and baseball the past decade. The same with boys’ tennis the past five years and boys’ and girls’ cross-country and girls’ basketball the past three.

Poway High School won nine section championships in 1988-89 and eight more in 1989-90 to prove it wasn’t a fluke. Add to that the three section titles Mt. Carmel won last year and the Poway Unified School District won 11 titles in 20 sports. That doesn’t include Poway’s lacrosse team, which competed on a club level and won the state championship.

Those are the kinds of building blocks Rancho Bernardo coaches have available.

Though Rancho Bernardo didn’t score a touchdown in its first football game, Coach Bill Christopher said his team’s effort left him thinking it had managed a moral victory against a stronger opponent.

But don’t expect all victories to be moral ones.

“I think there are sports that we can come out and be competitive in right away,” said Christopher, who was 37-35-2 at Mt. Carmel and coached it to the section finals in 1982. “There are two or three sports that can do that right away--the individual-type sports, like tennis.

“In football and basketball, where the kids need more time to work together and mesh, it will take more time for those programs to develop, but I don’t think it will be very long until we are real competitive.”

Rancho Bernardo’s tennis team has already won three of its five matches. They might be undefeated had they had their full team for the two losses. Competitive? Yes.

“Rancho Bernardo and tennis are synonymous,” said Coach Tony Goffedo, who left Mt. Carmel to begin the RB program. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to come here.”

Athletic Director Mark Ochsner is looking for something more than wins and losses when he considers the fledgling Broncos.

“I would expect Rancho Bernardo to develop the same strong reputation that the Poway Unified School District has in athletics,” he said.

And what about Poway and Mt. Carmel high schools? Are their programs doomed because of the split?

Mt. Carmel Athletic Director Frank Andruski doesn’t think so.

“The inference is that the talent won’t be there, but I don’t think we have any coaches that are conceding just because we lost some kids,” he said.

“I have no reason to think that we’re going to go into the tub. We’re going to be competitive, hold our own and we may even surprise some people.”

A similar division occurred in 1987, when Vista split and formed Rancho Buena Vista. The Vista programs suffered, but Vista’s enrollment dropped by about 1,200 students, more than a third of its enrollment. Mt. Carmel is going from about 3,100 to about 2,400 students, and Poway is dropping from about 3,100 to about 2,750.

“We haven’t noticed a real reduction in the number of athletes going out for the programs this fall,” Poway Athletic Director John Self said. “And no one’s said anything about a reduction in talent.”

Andruski: “I think we will finish in the top three in most sports and get into the playoffs, and after that, anything can happen. Once you get in the playoffs, it’s a different game; there’s a lot of luck involved. But I don’t hear anybody crying the blues.”

Ochsner and Principal Sandra Johnson certainly aren’t. They are the two most responsible for assembling the Bronco coaching staff. They had some hits and some misses.

Ochsner and Johnson homered with . . .

- Sam Blalock, who has won four 3-A San Diego Section baseball championships. Since 1981, either Blalock’s Mt. Carmel team or the team that eliminated it from the playoffs won the section title. His 16-year record: 298-108 (.734).

- Peggy Brose, who has won two Division I girls’ basketball titles in the past three years for Mt. Carmel and compiled a 187-103 record (.645) over 12 years.

- Goffredo, who took the Mt. Carmel boys’ tennis team to the section finals four of the past five years, won the title in 1989 and was eliminated in the semifinals in 1987 by San Dieguito, which featured future French Open champion Michael Chang and his brother, Carl.

The strikeouts . . .

- Randy Burgess, who has won five section water polo championships at Coronado in seven years and finished second once. He was offered a contract and Johnson announced him as the new water polo coach, but Burgess declined to sign the contract, citing his wife’s pregnancy, the commute and that he was an Islander at heart.

- Joe Kelly, who won three state titles at Palos Verdes in girls’ cross-country and five Southern Section championships since 1980. He was offered a contract but was unable to sell his house and move south.

“They’re fine coaches, but I think we have fine coaches who are working with the kids now,” Ochsner said. “I’ve always been high on Don Jones (cross-country coach). I feel like the programs are in good hands.”

Seven of the school’s 18 coaching positions were filled by six former Mt. Carmel teachers, six were filled by five Poway teachers, and five were filled by four coaches from outside the school district.

“The mix from the two schools, and of experienced coaches to younger coaches, is good,” Ochsner said. “The ones that are moving into their first head coaching positions--I think--have come through good programs and are ready to move up. I feel very good about the staff.

“The bottom line--as far as I’m concerned--is that the kids at this school will benefit. They’ll not only be taught by people who are good coaches but who are good examples.”

Although the athletes and the coaches might be conducive to putting together winning programs right away, the logistics of after-school practices are not. The students begin the day on one campus, then must be bused to another facility within the district. Only football (Mt. Carmel) and cross-country (Poway) meet at the high schools. The others meet at a middle school, a resort and the community pool.

“It’s not ideal, but it’s workable,” Ochsner said. “We have great kids and great coaches. They understand that this kind of a problem is something that’s just there and that we will have to work through.”

True home games? Probably not until late February.

The 1,450 students--expected to reach 2,000 next year--should be able to inhabit the school site sometime in December. The final two buildings, the gymnasium and the performing arts center, are scheduled to be completed Feb. 15. By then, it will be too late for the basketball and wrestling programs to get much use out of the two-story domed gymnasium that will feature a four-sided scoreboard suspended from the ceiling.

Still, Ochsner is optimistic.

“I think the future of athletics is bright,” he said. “I believe in the coaching staff and the kids. The facilities are nice, but you have to have the coaches and kids, and that’s what we have. That’s what will make this a strong, successful school.”

And give it instant credibility.

THE COACHING LINEUP AT RANCHO BERNARDO

Football Bill Christopher Coached Mt. Carmel twice, reached section finals in 1982. Cross country Don Jones Coached Monte Vista varsity in 1984; assisted at Poway in 1984-85. B/G volleyball Robert Sills Assisted San Diego State men’steam last year. B/G tennis Tony Goffredo Won section 1989 with Mt. Carmel,reached finals four of past five years. Water polo Joe Davalos Coached Bonita Vista from 1987-89, Monte Vista before that. Boys’ basketball Chris Carter Assisted Neville Saner at Poway past two years; coached JV previous two. Girls’ basketball Peggy Brose Won two Division I titles in past three years at Mt. Carmel. Boys’ soccer Vince Vitale Began the soccer program at Mt. Carmel in mid-’70s. Girls’ soccer Tom Martin Coached the Poway varsity last year. Wrestling Les Congelliere Won four league championships at Redondo Beach. Baseball Sam Blalock 298-108 record at Mt. Carmel, four section, eight league titles in ‘80s. Softball Ian Campbell Assisted the Poway varsity last year. Track and field Don Jones Assisted at Poway from 1985-90. Swimming Jeff Ukrainetz Coached Mt. Carmel last year; boys took second in section, girls third Gymnastics Karen Zinzer Coached Glendale JC 10 years, third nationally in 1981. Golf Gary Bradshaw Last coaching assignment was Poway girls’ soccer.