Crusader Lionhearts Touched

Calling the coin toss Saturday for Village Christian High in its game against St. Mary’s of Calgary, Canada, at Kennedy High will be a special guest: Kyle Mersola, a kindergartner at Village Christian.

Kyle, 6, who told the team at practice Thursday that “I’m a football player too, with my own suit and helmet”--suffers from Treacher Collins syndrome, a birth defect that affects the bone structure of the face.

At the request of the players, the Crusaders have dedicated their season to Kyle, and they presented him with a “Crusader football” hat and a No. 1 jersey with his name on the back. The team erupted in applause when Kyle donned the hat, big enough to just about cover his eyes.

Kyle has football in his blood, according to his father Carl. Kyle’s older brother Bret was a standout tailback at Burroughs High in 1983 before going on to Saddleback College where he was a junior college All-American. Bret finished his career at Rutgers.

Kyle will be on the Crusaders’ sideline Saturday. And they will have Kyle’s rally cry ringing in their ears too.

Before the Crusaders broke for practice Thursday, they kneeled around Kyle. When his father asked him if he had anything else to tell the team, Kyle raised a fist and said, “Yeah. Go out and win the game on Saturday!”

The team roared. Said Carl with a smile: “He loves the attention.”

Add Village Christian: Reaction to the departure of Derek Sparks from Montclair Prep was, surprisingly, not one of joy at Village Christian.

According to Plaisance, the players at Village Christian--especially veterans such as Mark Vail, Matt Smay and Andy Bell--were gearing up to beat the Mounties and now believe that a win over them would be tainted.

“Our kids are on a mission to win Division X,” Plaisance said. “And our kids were disappointed. They feel that with a win over Montclair Prep, now the word will be, ‘You wouldn’t have if Derek Sparks were there.’ We wanted to beat them with Sparks.”

Long wait: For Fremont High football Coach Taja Rodisha, 1990 has been a long time coming. A chip on the shoulder, even a small one, is heavier to carry than your average football.

A certain name and year have stuck in Rodisha’s mind, if not his craw, for some time: A. D., 1970.

In 1970, Rodisha was a fleet senior quarterback at Fremont when the Pathfinders played San Fernando in the City Section playoffs.

San Fernando, led by Anthony Davis at quarterback, defeated Fremont, 20-14. Two decades later, Rodisha still feels the sting.

“I’ve been waiting 20 years for revenge,” he said with a laugh.

Fremont plays host to San Fernando tonight at 8, and Rodisha says the teams have not played since 1970.

That’s motivation enough, but there’s more. As much as he smarts over the loss, Rodisha says the USC-bound Davis stole his thunder--and perhaps swiped his scholarship.

“I wanted to get into USC, bad,” said Rodisha, who has been teaching at Fremont for 13 years. “Then A. D. beat us and hogged my scholarship.”

Rodisha, then known as Bruce Hill, nonetheless earned a scholarship to Arizona. And although 20 years have passed, things should look familiar enough to Rodisha: San Fernando again is using the wishbone, the offensive set that Davis ran to perfection.

“I hope we do a little better against it this time,” he said.

Quotebook: Moments before his team’s opener last week, Village Christian Coach Mike Plaisance was asked by an official if he planned to use any trick plays.

Cracked Plaisance: “Trick plays? We just learned our locker combinations yesterday.”

A tad understated, perhaps. Village Christian defeated Bell-Jeff, 40-9.

Heir apparent: Tom Bonds, Jim Bonds, Darren Renfro, Rob Westervelt and Ryan Connors. . . .

Although Connors has played only one varsity game, completing 17 of 31 passes for 177 yards against Canyon, Hart Coach Mike Herrington is predicting that the 5-foot-11, 180-pound junior will be the next in line of standout quarterbacks at Hart.

Quite an elite list.

Tom Bonds led Hart to the Coastal Conference title in 1983 and went on to pass for 7,773 yards at Cal Lutheran.

Jim Bonds, Tom’s brother and the starting quarterback for UCLA, led Hart to the Northwestern Conference title in 1986, passing for 3,196 yards and 39 touchdowns that season. He is listed among the top 10 in eight Southern Section passing categories.

Renfro led the Valley-area passers in 1987, compiling 2,808 yards and 26 touchdowns, and helped lead Hart to the Northwestern Conference semifinals.

Westervelt was a Southern Section Division III selection last season and ranked third in the Valley area with 2,064 yards and 24 touchdowns.

“We’ve had All-CIF quarterbacks for the past five years,” Herrington said. “I think (Connors) will keep that streak going. He did a real good job against Canyon. He threw the ball well and made some good decisions out there. He can be a flash in the pan one week and a non-performer the next. He has the potential but needs to be more consistent.

“He’s definitely in the same mold of Rob Westervelt and Bonds.”

Apropos name dept.: Greg DeNike, Arroyo Grande’s cross-country coach.

Arroyo Grande’s girls won the team title in the Seaside Invitational in Ventura on Saturday and Louie Quintana, also of Arroyo Grande, broke former Agoura standout Bryan Dameworth’s course record in the boys’ race.

Ailing Raiders: Channel Islands girls’ cross-country Coach Ken Martinez knew the Raiders’ chances of winning a third consecutive Marmonte League title were slim when Agoura joined the league this year.

Those chances, however, virtually have vanished during the summer as two of the Raiders’ top five runners will not compete, thus breaking up the five-runner nucleus that placed fourth in the 1989 Southern Section 4-A Division final.

No. 2 runner Blanca Ahumada, a senior, is awaiting the birth of a child in December, Martinez said, and junior Judy Hollers, Channel Islands’ No. 5 runner last year, opted not to compete this fall. Martinez said her availability for track is up in the air. “We’re going to be hurting,” Martinez said.

Big Brave: Birmingham has the tallest and heaviest starting quarterback in the Valley Pac-8 Conference in senior Noah Kirshbaum. Kirshbaum, called “Stork,” by his teammates, stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 220 pounds.

Overcoming adversity: Crespi’s water polo team, ranked fifth in the 3-A, faced several hardships to win the Bell Gardens tournament last weekend.

The Celts lost four players--two to illness, two because of an academic test--at various times during the five games, including one of their top scorers, two-meter man Jean Michel.

Add water polo: Royal’s water polo team won the Irvine Heritage tournament last weekend, but the Highlanders cannot sit back and enjoy the spoils of victory. Royal has to prepare for the Villa Park Classic Sept. 21-23.

The Villa Park tournament includes defending Southern Section 4-A champion Corona del Mar, 3-A champion El Toro and 2-A champion South Pasadena.

“We’ve set a short-term goal of, if not beating one of the big boys, at least giving them a strong match,” Royal Coach Steve Snyder said.

Mike Glaze and staff writers Steve Elling, Kirby Lee, Paige A. Leech and Brian Murphy contributed to this notebook.