At El Toro, They’re Hearing Some Mighty Big Footsteps : Prep football: Brian Haas and Jeremy Hogue are reminiscent of two former all-county stars who led the Chargers to a pair of recent titles.

For those who thought it would be years before El Toro High School produced another linebacker as good as Scott Ross (Class of ‘87) or a big lineman with the agility of Cory Wayland (Class of ‘88), meet linebacker Brian Haas and tackle Jeremy Hogue, the class of the Chargers’ 1990 football team.

Both are following in the footsteps of Ross (USC) and Wayland (UCLA), two former all-county stars who led El Toro to Southern Conference titles in 1986 and ’87.

Haas, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound senior, wears the same number (33) that Ross once wore and plays with the same reckless abandon and intensity. “Scott Ross was his idol when he was a freshman,” El Toro Coach Bob Johnson said.

Hogue, a 6-4, 255-pound senior, possesses enough quickness to play on the school’s basketball team, where he is the second-leading scorer behind Rob Johnson and the top rebounder. Wayland was the basketball team’s top rebounder playing with Johnson’s older brother, Bret.

Haas & Hogue, El Toro’s prosecutors for the defense, lead the top-ranked Chargers against Fountain Valley at 7:30 tonight at Mission Viejo High following a nine-day tour of the East Coast.

The players and staff attended USC’s victory over Syracuse in the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium last week and then practiced at the East Rutherford, N.J., facility the next day. They took in a Mets game at Shea Stadium and toured the Statue of Liberty.

Then it was off to Pennsylvania, where they toured Gettysburg and attended a triple-A baseball game in Scranton. They lived with the players on Wyoming Valley West’s football team and then made themselves feel right at home with a 41-0 victory.

“The game was the highlight of the trip for me,” Hogue said. “That’s what we went there for. They couldn’t move the ball on us, but then it will be difficult for any team to run on us. I’d like to see the team that does.”

Haas, a no-nonsense player who has started for three years, said the camaraderie among teammates during the trip was a big step toward a banner season.

“I got to know a lot of the guys on the team that I didn’t really know very well before the trip,” he said. “The team came together on game night. Our locker room was under the bleachers and when we walked out to the field, their fans were lined up to check us out. I think they wanted to see what we were all about up close.”

Johnson said the capacity crowd of more than 8,000 turned on Haas when he made a questionable hit that the officials ruled was not an infraction.

“The booing just fired Brian up even more than he already is on game night,” Johnson said. “The same thing happened last year against Tustin. Their fans were throwing stuff at us at halftime, and that just got Brian’s motor revved.”

While Haas and Hogue have shared equally in El Toro’s 18-7 record over the past two seasons, they took different routes to the Chargers’ program.

Hogue moved to Mission Viejo midway through the eighth grade and befriended Rob Johnson at La Paz Intermediate School.

“Rob was the first guy I met when I moved out here, and I ended up playing on the same traveling team for basketball with him,” Hogue said. “We practiced in the gym at El Toro and my family ended up moving to El Toro the summer before my freshman season. Funny, I ended up at El Toro because of basketball.”

Hogue played on a championship freshman team that finished 9-0-1, and he was elevated to the varsity team midway through his sophomore season. “It was a big jump because everyone is so much bigger and the game moves so much faster.”

Haas grew up in El Toro and began playing football for the Saddleback Valley Pop Warner team that featured most of the area’s current top prep players at El Toro, Capistrano Valley and Mission Viejo highs.

Haas lists the excitement of playing Capistrano Valley for the No. 1 ranking in the county and meeting Paramount in the Division III championship game last year as his career highlights.

“Even though we lost both games, I’ll never forget the crowds and the excitement I felt just walking onto the field,” he said. “We wanted the chance to play Capo again in the finals, but it never happened.”

El Toro finished the 1989 season with a 12-2 record, but Hogue said something was missing despite the lofty record.

“We were 12-2, but had nothing to show for it,” he said. “We finished second in our league, second in the county and second in the CIF (Division III). It was frustrating, but it also inspired us to have our most intense off-season training program since I’ve been here.

“This year, we want to win every game. We want the league title, the No. 1 ranking and the CIF title.”

Hogue, a 4.0 student, is on the shopping list of every major college in the nation. He has narrowed his choices to USC, Colorado, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Iowa and Nebraska. Hogue has played every position on the offensive line and is projected as an offensive guard. He plans to major in political science with a minor in pre-law.

Haas, a 3.6 student, is also being heavily recruited but declined to list his college choices. He is projected as an inside linebacker. Haas plans to major in engineering or agriculture.

“Jeremy is getting most of the notice because of his size and versatility,” Bob Johnson said. “The colleges really like what they see. He’s playing defensive tackle because that’s the position best suited for our team, but I think he’ll be an offensive guard in college.

“Brian is definitely an inside linebacker. It’s no coincidence that he wears Scott Ross’ number. He has that assassin’s mentality and plays with as much intensity as anyone we’ve ever had here.”