Carson’s Walsh Proves He Is No Passing Fancy

There were whispers, innuendoes and flat-out accusations.

But John Walsh and his golden arm have silenced them all.

Less than six months since his controversial transfer from West Torrance High to perennial City Section powerhouse Carson, Walsh has steadily put any doubts about the transfer to rest.

Still, Walsh won’t admit that his year at Carson has been a public proving ground.

“There hasn’t been any pressure on me,” Walsh said. “I just try to concentrate on winning and let the other things take care of themselves.”

Walsh’s numbers speak for themselves.

His 3,449 passing yards this season far surpassed the previous Carson record of 2,404, set last year by Armin Youngblood.

Not only that, but Walsh is only 730 yards behind the national prep season passing mark of 4,179, set by Lupe Rodriguez of Mission, Tex., in 1987.

Santiago Alvarez of Franklin set the City Section records last year with 4,019 yards and 52 touchdowns.

Carson (9-1), the top-seeded team, plays El Camino Real at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the quarterfinals of the L.A. City 4-A playoffs at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach. If Carson advances as expected through two more games to the championship, the national record is well within Walsh’s sights.

The 6-foot-3 Walsh no longer has anything to prove at Carson. He is the first quarterback in South Bay history to throw for more than 3,000 yards in a season and more than 5,000 in a career.

His 38 touchdown passes already give him eight more than Youngblood’s old school season record of 30. In one season, Walsh has broken 22 individual school passing records that Carson statistician Tim Finney can document.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better situation,” Walsh said.

Nor could veteran Carson Coach Gene Vollnogle, who is going out a winner in his final season before retirement.

“The offense that we run is ideal for John,” Vollnogle said. “He likes to drop back and throw, and he’s got a tremendously quick release. Combine that with the speedy receivers we’ve always had at this school and you’re going to have some good stats.”

But when you enter a top-notch program like Carson under circumstances like Walsh’s, there are also bound to be storm clouds.

Walsh passed for more than 1,700 yards as a junior at West in 1989. But in a move that West officials claimed was an attempt to enhance his college marketability, Walsh transferred to high-profile Carson for his final season in June.

Walsh is privately coached by Steve Clarkson, a quarterbacking guru who was a Carson assistant when Perry Klein--another Clarkson pupil--transferred from Palisades to Carson in 1988.

Walsh still doesn’t like to discuss his motivation for the transfer.

“It’s personal,” he said. “I’d rather not talk about that.”

West administrators talked, however. The school filed a complaint with the Southern Section. But the protest died in October, when the Southern Section, with virtually no case to make in court, dropped the complaint.

Mark Knox, West’s co-coach in charge of offense, said there are no hard feelings toward Walsh. West had a solid season in 1990 without Walsh, with junior quarterback Steve Sarkisian leading the Warriors to the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division VIII playoffs.

“As far as I’m concerned, (any hard feelings) have pretty much died off,” Knox said. “It’s over. I’d just as soon leave it at that.”

So would everyone at Carson, which, with Walsh at the helm, now passes more than 80% of the time.

Walsh has his choice of five excellent receivers and an array of pass routes to select from Carson’s high-powered double-wing offense.

All five of Carson’s leading receivers--Latario Rachal, Abdul Muhammad, Theron Hill, Fred Sims and Donnell Adams--were named to the Pacific League’s first or second teams.

Sims has run a 40-yard dash in football cleats in 4.42 seconds--the fastest time ever clocked by a Carson football player.

“They all catch the ball well, they’re all fast, and they all run excellent routes,” Vollnogle said. “But John has the ability to get the ball to them. A lot of quarterbacks read the defense, find the open receiver and then overthrow the guy or throw it into the ground.”

Walsh, a classic drop-back passer, is deadly accurate. He completed 175 of 294 passes this season (59.5%) for an average of 19.5 yards per play and was intercepted only 13 times.

“I just try to get the ball to the receivers and turn them into ballcarriers,” Walsh said. “All of our receivers are equal. I’m not afraid to go to any of them.”

He also wasn’t afraid to step in and take the reins of a Carson offense that needed leadership after the graduation of Youngblood, who went on to Fresno State.

“We threw him right into the pressure pot,” Vollnogle said.

Walsh was equal to the task, however. He threw for more than 300 yards in his debut against Southern Section powerhouse Bishop Amat.

Two games later, college scouts were already offering Walsh recruiting trips.

Veteran scout Dick Lascola, who operates a Fallbrook-based scouting and evaluation service, saw Walsh as a junior at West and graded him as a big kid with a good arm who might have trouble against good defenses.

Lascola saw Walsh again when Carson beat Banning at Veterans Stadium this season. He saw a “completely different” Walsh, one that is coveted not only by Pacific 10 Conference schools (USC, Washington), but colleges across the nation (Brigham Young, Miami, Fla.).

Walsh takes his first recruiting trip on Dec. 19, to Miami.

“For a lot of players it might have been a harder adjustment to make,” Vollnogle said. “But our school is unique in that our players respect talent. If someone like John comes in, as talented as John is, our kids will respect him.”