A HEALTHY OUTLOOK : Oft-Injured Quarterback Washington Puts His Worries Behind as He Marches Antelope Valley College to Verge of Title

Eight completions in 12 attempts for 159 yards and two touchdowns.

Marty Washington, Antelope Valley College quarterback, was pleased with those statistics against East Los Angeles last month, but he was delighted by the fact that he had survived through the sixth game of a season for the first time in three years.

“Staying healthy was my number-one goal this year,” said Washington, sidelined in 1988 because of a broken left collarbone and again last season because of a fractured right collarbone. “I was worried about getting injured again, but once I made it past the sixth game, I stopped worrying.”

Washington, a 1989 graduate of Quartz Hill High, will have plenty to concern himself with Saturday night when Antelope Valley (7-1, 5-1 in conference play) plays host to Mt. San Jacinto (6-2, 4-2) in a pivotal Foothill Conference game.

An Antelope Valley win would keep the Marauders in the hunt for their first title since they won the Southern California Conference championship in 1987. A loss, combined with a win by Citrus (6-2, 6-0) over Desert (6-3, 6-1), would end any title aspirations.

“This is definitely a big game for us,” said Washington, who has completed 63 of 154 passes for 878 yards and 11 touchdowns (nine interceptions). “We weren’t up for the last two games like we should have been, but we’ll be up for this one.”

Antelope Valley, 3-6-1 last season, has been the surprise team in the Foothill Conference. The resurgence has been led by Washington, interchangeable tailbacks Steve Miller and Tony Simmons, and a defense that has allowed about 10 points a game.

“He’s fit in well in our offense,” Antelope Valley Coach Brent Carder said. “He struggled some early in the season, but he’s really started to come on in the last three or four games. I think a lot of that is due to the fact that he’s finally starting to accumulate some game experience.”

As a Quartz Hill senior in 1988, Washington led the Rebels to a 3-2 start, but he suffered a broken left collarbone when he was tackled in the sixth game. Washington suffered a fracture in his right collarbone last season when he was tackled in the final preseason scrimmage for Grambling (La.) State.

“The second injury was really frustrating,” the 20-year-old Washington said. “I felt like I had a chance to be a three- or four-year starter, and there I was, injured again.”

The injury ended what would have been Washington’s freshman season and gave him time to explore Grambling, a town of 4,400 that was too small for Washington’s tastes.

“I liked (Grambling State), but the environment outside of school just wasn’t for me,” he said. “I had grown up in Chatsworth and things were a lot different, a lot slower paced, down there.”

After moving back to Lancaster, Washington enrolled at Antelope Valley, and began to prepare himself for the upcoming season. That meant long hours lifting weights, throwing the ball and running sprints.

“The weightlifting was very important,” said Washington, who at 190 pounds has added 20 pounds to his 6-foot-2 frame since last season. “I figured that was the only way I was going to survive. Before, I was always ready to play mentally, but the injuries told me that I needed to prepare myself physically as well.”

Washington’s mother Glenda was not thrilled with her son’s comeback, but she has resigned herself to it.

“To me, football is a gladiator sport,” she said. “But that’s the one that Marty has chosen to pursue. I would rather he had taken up soccer or baseball, or some other sport, but for whatever reason, his heart is just set on this darn game.”

Washington was expected to become Chatsworth High’s starting quarterback in 1987. But when the family moved to Lancaster in May of that year, he found himself in the Quartz Hill High attendance district, although he did not realize it.

He played for Antelope Valley High in a passing league that summer, but, after he led the Antelopes to a victory against Quartz Hill, Rebel Coach John Albee wanted to know who the new quarterback in town was, according to Washington.

“He said, ‘Who’s the new guy?’ ” Washington recalled. “And one of his players said, ‘Oh, that’s my new neighbor.’ ”

Albee tells a different tale, saying that Antelope Valley High officials realized Washington belonged at Quartz Hill when they checked his address. In any event, Washington became a Rebel with a cause in the fall.

The backup quarterback to Greg Albaugh when the season began, Washington worked his way into the starting lineup by the eighth game.

“Marty had such a strong arm and kept improving so much, that I had to give him the starting job,” Albee said.

Washington made the most of his three starts, completing 32 of 68 passes for 409 yards and four touchdowns while directing Quartz Hill’s run-and-shoot offense. The fourth-place team in the Golden League standings, Quartz Hill advanced to the Coastal Conference playoffs as a wild-card team, losing to eventual runner-up Channel Islands, 27-19, in the first round.

Washington threw four interceptions in the first half as Quartz Hill fell behind, 27-0, but he threw two touchdowns and led the Rebels on three scoring drives in the fourth quarter.

As a senior, he passed for 1,033 yards and 10 touchdowns in the first five games before he was injured.

“Marty was one of the few high school quarterbacks I’ve seen who was able to hit the out patterns constantly,” said Albee, in his 23rd season at Quartz Hill. “We had what we called choice patterns at Quartz Hill, where the receivers go 10-12 yards downfield, then cut in or out. And Marty had such a strong arm that he could wait for the receivers to make their cuts and get the ball to them before the defenders could react.”

Much to his chagrin, Washington has passed less than he expected at Antelope Valley.

When Dave Gross, the offensive coordinator at Quartz Hill in 1987 and ‘88, became the Marauders’ quarterback and receivers coach this season, Washington assumed that Antelope Valley would open up its traditionally conservative offense.

That hasn’t happened.

“I’m used to a wide-open offense where you come out and try to blow people out,” Washington said. “Here, they play more of a wait-and-see type of game. You know, let the other team make a mistake, then capitalize on it. . . . It gets frustrating at times, but I’m just trying to help the team win. That’s the most important thing.”

Washington has averaged only 19 passes a game.

“Just like any running back, a quarterback gets sharper the more he throws,” Washington said. “When you’re not throwing the ball that often, it’s hard to get in a groove.”

Nonetheless, he has made marked improvement in the past three games.

Washington completed 25 of 53 passes (47.2%) for 393 yards and six touchdowns and threw only one interception during that stretch. He completed 38 of 101 (37.6%) for 485 yards and five touchdowns and had eight interceptions in the first five games.

“Mentally, everything is there,” Washington said. “I can come out, take my drop and tell what is happening. But physically, it’s taken a while. I’m still a split-second slow, but things are coming around.”

Carder said that Washington’s mental makeup could be his biggest asset.

“His number-one strength is his head,” Carder said. “He’s a very, very intelligent guy on the football field. The X and O part of it he understands very well. You put new things into the offense and he picks them up right away.”

Now if Washington could only persuade Carder to let him pass more often.

“This year, my big goal was to stay healthy and establish myself again,” Washington said. “But next year, I want to put up some big numbers.

“I know I can do it. It’s just a matter of getting the chance.”