Chastened Montclair Prep Ready to Forge Ahead

For Montclair Prep, hearings and meetings thankfully have given way to audibles and huddles. The school can buckle down to playing football and trying to assert itself as the class of the Alpha League after enduring considerable controversy during the summer.

Montclair Prep will play host to St. Monica tonight at Pierce College, starting a season in which the Mounties cannot make the Southern Section playoffs. The section banned Montclair Prep from the football playoffs for two seasons after ruling in April that the school was guilty of recruiting violations.

That ruling sparked another controversy when league members debated in May whether to allow three-time defending Alpha League champion and defending Southern Section Division X champion Montclair Prep to compete for the league championship. After much quarreling, the league took no action against the Mounties. If Montclair Prep wins the league title, the second-, third- and fourth-place teams will represent the league in the Division X playoffs.

Montclair Prep Coach George Giannini wishes the controversy would fade away.

“Honestly, this whole thing is a much bigger deal to the press than it is to us,” Giannini said. “Why don’t you just forget about it?”

One reason no one has forgotten is because of the possible impact on the league standings. If Montclair Prep is running away with the league title halfway through the season, any team playing the Mounties knows it can lose and still make the playoffs.

Village Christian, which has the best chance of dethroning the Mounties, claims there will be no drop in intensity for the traditionally emotional game against Montclair Prep.

Village Christian Coach Mike Plaisance places much emphasis on that game, and his teams generally respond with one of their best efforts of the year. Still, Montclair Prep has won the past three contests between the teams. Probation or no probation, Plaisance and the Crusaders aren’t thinking of letting up when the teams square off Nov. 9.

“Our kids understand that Montclair can still win the league,” he said. “We talk about the psychology of sports with our players, and one of the things we talked about in weight training was that, even though Montclair Prep can’t go to the playoffs, we still don’t want them to win the league.

“Let’s create a hypothetical situation here. Let’s say Montclair Prep does beat us, and we go on to win the Division X championship. We’ll still feel like we kissed our sister through the screen door because, over our shoulder, Montclair Prep can still say that they beat the Division X champion.”

However, Giannini claims his team is not letting the sanctions affect it.

“We told our players last spring that this is the situation, and we’ll go forward from here,” Giannini said. “Our goal is always to win an Alpha League championship and that hasn’t changed a bit. Everybody else wants to play us hard, and because we’re on probation is not going to affect how hard they’re going to play us.”

L.A. Baptist Coach Mark Bates, whose team stands to benefit from Montclair Prep’s ineligibility and qualify for the playoffs, agreed with Giannini.

“We still play them for the league title,” Bates said. “And winning a league championship still means just as much to them as it always does.”

ALPHA LEAGUE

STANDINGS FINAL 1990 PROJ. FINISH Montclair Prep 10-3, 5-0 Montclair Prep Western Christian 6-6, 4-1 Village Christian Village Christian 8-4-1, 3-2 Western Christian L.A. Baptist 2-8, 2-3 L.A. Baptist Maranatha 3-7, 1-4 Maranatha Marshall Fundamental 2-8, 0-5 Marshall Fund.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Player School Pos. Ht Wt Yr Dane Brown L.A. Baptist QB 6-4 230 Sr. Myles Brown Vill. Christian WR 5-10 180 Sr. M. Degl’Innocenti L.A. Baptist TB 5-8 175 Sr. Chad Everett Vill. Christian RB 5-4 165 Sr. Cameron Kelly Vill. Christian NG 5-11 180 Sr. Bret Harrison Vill. Christian OL 6-3 230 Sr. Mike Lincavage Montclair Prep QB 6-2 190 Sr. Marc Melendez Montclair Prep TE/NG 6-2 230 Sr. Chris Portugal Montclair Prep FB/LB 6-1 190 Sr. Eliel Swinton Montclair Prep TB 5-10 185 Jr.