Carson Quarterback Walsh Is Snubbed by Shrine Game : High Schools: El Toro’s Rob Johnson and Westlake’s Todd Preston will be quarterbacks for South team.

Quarterback John Walsh, who passed for a state-record 4,223 yards and 48 touchdowns in leading Carson High to the L.A. City 4-A Division title last season, was not selected to the South team for the Shrine California All-Star Football Classic.

Walsh was picked as an alternate, meaning his only chance of playing in the game will be if either of the South’s two quarterbacks--Rob Johnson of El Toro or Todd Preston of Westlake--decides not to participate.

The game, pitting the top seniors from Southern California against their counterparts from the Northern part of the state, will be played July 22 and is tentatively scheduled for the Rose Bowl.

Some consider Walsh’s snubbing an injustice. He passed for more yardage than either Johnson (2,781) or Preston (2,247) last season and was the only one of the three quarterbacks to play for a section champion.

“I think it was a mistake,” said Gene Vollnogle, who recently retired as Carson’s football coach. “Here’s a guy who broke the state record and was No. 2 in the nation (in all-time single-season passing). He certainly deserves the recognition to be asked to play in the Shrine game.

“He probably has better stats than (Johnson and Preston) combined. What can you say? Unfortunately, there’s politics in high school football, too.”

The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Walsh, who now attends West Torrance High, already was aware that he had not been selected to the Shrine game when contacted Thursday afternoon.

“Of course I’m a little disappointed,” he said. “But I had nothing to do with the picking. . . . It’s not life or death.”

Player selections, which will not be announced until March 22, were made Feb. 28 by a committee that included South co-coaches Dick Barrett of Lompoc and Gary Meek of Anaheim Esperanza, media representatives and members of the Shrine football office.

Mark Tennis, editor of Cal-Hi Sports, chaired the selection meeting and said Walsh did not fit into the South coaches’ offensive plans. Tennis said the South intends to feature Lompoc’s Napoleon Kaufman in a one-back scheme that will call for the quarterback to run a lot of sprint-out plays.

“(Walsh) isn’t the type of quarterback that runs around a lot,” Tennis said.

Asked about his reputation as a slow-footed quarterback, Walsh said: “I don’t think I am. I think I can roll out and throw just as good as anybody in high school.”

Tennis said another reason Walsh was overlooked was because of the Shrine game rule that allows only two players from one school to be picked on a team. He said safety Tarriel Hopper and wingback Abdul Muhammad were the top Carson players selected. Tennis also confirmed that Banning tailback Travis Davis was chosen to the South team.

“In that type of offense, with slotbacks, they wanted Abdul,” Tennis said. “It all made sense to me. I had the final say and I didn’t object to that line of thinking. (Walsh) had the great statistics and threw real well, but the logic of the coaches was pretty impeccable.

“If they didn’t have a limit of two players per school, he may have made it. But Tarriel and Abdul were the (Carson) players they wanted.”

Tennis said Walsh’s decision to leave Carson after the football season and transfer back to West Torrance, where he played his first three years in high school, had no bearing on the selection process.

“It wasn’t even brought up,” he said.

Walsh was the recipient of The Times’ Glenn Davis Award, given annually to the top player in Southern California. He signed a letter of intent last month with Brigham Young University.

Johnson and Preston were also highly recruited and signed with USC and UC Berkeley, respectively. Another factor that made Preston attractive to Shrine coaches is that he can also kick.

Nate Grosher, managing director of the Shrine game, said player changes can be made in special circumstances.

“We certainly can go back to the selection committee and try to do something about it,” Grosher said. “Normally, though, we try not to dictate to them.”