Problems Don’t Stop Sweetwater

Players had been conditioned, instructed and disciplined for three weeks. Plane tickets had been purchased two months ago. Gene Alim was set. His three-season hiatus as head football coach at Sweetwater High was supposed to end Friday night at San Francisco’s Kezar Stadium, where the Red Devils were scheduled to meet San Francisco Mission.

Problem No. 1.

On Wednesday, a day before arriving in San Francisco, Alim was informed the game had to be switched to Saturday afternoon because of a scheduling conflict at Kezar.

Problem No. 2.

On Thursday, Alim was informed the game had to be switched to Washington High School because of another conflict.

How did Alim respond to all this: “No problem.”

And it wasn’t.

Sweetwater cruised to a 43-12 victory.

“All things considered, it went very well,” Alim said. “It was 29-zip at the half, and then we let everyone play.”

On Friday--an unexpected off day--Alim let everyone play tourist.

“We figured there was nothing we could do about the situation, so we chartered a bus and toured San Francisco for seven or eight hours,” Alim said. “That was great. The bus driver was real informative and really took a liking to the players. He ended up taking a ton of pictures for us too. Turned out, he was also a professional photographer.”

There may be a new problem this weekend, when Sweetwater plays at Las Vegas Basic. The players may be hoping for a similar mix-up.

Trivia: What active football coach holds a share of the San Diego Section career interception record?

La Jolla Lights: La Jolla, which played under a new lighting system for the first time Friday night, will have a dedication ceremony this Saturday before its football game against St. Augustine.

Game time is 1 p.m.

“We wanted to make it a part of our annual ‘Blast Off’ game, which is always the second home game of the year,” Viking Coach Dick Huddleston explained.

Rolf Benirschke, a former Charger who served on the fund-raising committee for the lights, will help kick off the ceremony.

The project wasn’t approved until January. By June, La Jolla had enough donations ($80,000) and placed the order for the state-of-the-art system. The lights were turned on Sept. 4.

“It came together very quickly,” Huddleston said. “It’s been a tremendous community effort. We had 2,500 (fans) for our first game. When’s the last time you heard of that at La Jolla High?”

Low Budget: Monte Vista’s trip to Hawaii on Aug. 31 was one of only five scheduled by the 10 Grossmont Conference football teams this season outside the district boundaries. The other four were played Friday.

From here on, the remaining 45 games involving Grossmont teams will take place within the district.

Trivia Answer: Gene Alim. In two seasons at Mar Vista High in the late 1960s, Alim picked off 22 passes to tie Dave Duncan (1961-63) for the section record.

“That’s my claim to fame,” Alim said. “But I must be getting old. All of my buddies don’t even think of me as an ex-player any more. I’m just a coach now.”

Other things have changed as well. Alim used to be known as Eugene.

“I used to hate Gene,” he said. “It sounded too feminine. But now, I could care less. It’s no big deal.”

Pay Back Time: Under their pads and jerseys, Rancho Bernardo football players wear shirts with the inscription “I-O-U.”

Last year, in its first game of varsity competition and without a senior class, Rancho Bernardo lost to Mission Viejo Santa Margarita, 27-0, and finished 2-8 with an average margin of defeat of 27 points.

On Friday, Rancho Bernardo defeated Santa Margarita, 37-23.

A couple of Wows!: Christian’s 50-22 football victory over Mar Vista represented the most points ever scored by the Patriots since moving to the 2-A level in 1980.

San Diego, 2-8 in Coach Art Anderson’s first year in 1990, scored a 36-0 romp over Clairemont. It was the Cavers’ largest margin of victory since 1980.

Overlooked: Mike Daniels of Bonita Vista had 207 yards receiving on eight catches in a 25-24 loss to Hawaii Baldwin. Perhaps because the game was played two weeks ago in Hawaii, it got lost in the shuffle.

Bonita Vista, by the way, missed four extra-points in the game, including a two-point conversion try late in the fourth quarter.