HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK : Dads Handed Coaching Reins at Chaminade

Long hours of watching low-quality game film, taping smelly ankles and scouting teams on off-nights make coaching a high school football team often appear to be a less-than-idyllic occupation.

At Chaminade, though, two men have paid for the privilege of trying their hand as coaches. As part of a deal Coach Rich Lawson struck with a charitable organization, the fathers of two Chaminade players will run the team’s offense and defense for one series in tonight’s nonleague home game against St. Francis.

Bill Powers and Pete Crecion combined to bid $1,000 at an auction to earn the right to call the plays, Lawson said. The donation will go to the Paralysis Project, an organization that researches spinal injuries and assists its victims.

Powers and Crecion joined the coaching staff last week. They accompanied Lawson as scouts to last Saturday’s game between Harvard-Westlake and St. Francis and have observed practice all week. Each received a coaching shirt and has attended staff meetings.

If everything goes well, the pair also might get more than they bargained for. If Chaminade successfully moves the ball under the guidance of Powers and Crecion, Lawson promised to step aside.

Going, going, gone. . . .

“If we get a first down, it’s going to be, ‘Head on, brother. Keep right on going,’ ” Lawson said.

TO BE CONTINUED

Southern Section releaguing has moved Mission League foes Crespi and Chaminade into different leagues next fall, but that doesn’t mean that a budding football rivalry will be nipped in the bud.

Crespi defeated Chaminade, 21-17, last week in a game that was so competitive that Lawson sought out Crespi Athletic Director Paul Muff moments after the final gun and offered to continue the series.

The lead changed hands twice in the final 90 seconds and Crespi won on a touchdown pass with 26 seconds remaining. It made Lawson’s heart pound and left him seeking a rematch.

“It was getting so bad I was hoping the game would end just because my carotid artery needed a rest,” Lawson said. “This has the makings of a good rivalry. It was a fun game, a good crowd. It looks pretty good for next year.”

WAIT A MINUTE!

Some things are better left unsaid.

Case in point was Burbank Mayor Michael Hastings’ postgame speech to Burbank players after Friday night’s 41-29 Foothill League loss to Hart.

“A lot of people came out here thinking that you guys were going to get beat really bad,” Hastings told the weary players who gathered beneath the goal posts at Burroughs High. “But you didn’t.”

In conclusion, Hastings said that the Bulldogs should be proud of their performance and that he was proud of them.

“But next week,” he said, “I gotta root for the Indians.”

The players groaned.

Hastings is a graduate of Burroughs, Burbank’s cross-town rival.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Montclair Prep baseball Coach Walt Steele said last season that he planned to schedule as many tough nonleague games as possible to make up for Southern Section sanctions against the school that have precluded the possibility of a postseason appearance.

Steele has delivered. And he isn’t through filling out the team’s spring calendar.

Montclair Prep, the two-time defending Southern Section 1-A Division champion, will play Crespi and Notre Dame in nonleague games. He also is trying to add Alemany to the schedule.

“We’re basically playing the whole Mission League,” Steele said.

The Mounties also are entered in the Thousand Oaks and Westside tournaments.

Montclair Prep was barred from postseason competition in any sport this school year because the Mountie football program violated CIF rules.

WINGING IT

The concussion that Crespi’s Cody Smith suffered last week forced some strange adjustments. First, tailback Torie Lee was pressed into service as quarterback in mid-game against Chaminade.

While Crespi this week was awaiting word on whether Smith would be given medical clearance to play in Friday night’s critical Mission League game against Alemany, Crespi installed an option offense with Lee at the helm.

“We figured that since Torie usually gets the ball anyway, we’d just take out the middle man,” Coach Tim Lins said.

Smith on Tuesday was given the green light by his physician. “Nobody was happier than Torie,” Lins said.

For Lins, the scenario brought back memories of the time former Crespi quarterback Ron Redell was injured three seasons ago. Bill Redell, the former Celt coach and Ron’s father, laughed aloud with reporters about installing a single-wing attack, wherein the ball would be snapped directly to All-American tailback Russell White.

There were snickers aplenty. After all, the single-wing attack was last used when dinosaurs roamed the planet. As it turns out, though, the coach wasn’t kidding.

“We practiced it,” said Lins, who was an assistant at the time. “He was serious.”

WING AND A PRAYER

Crescenta Valley surprised Muir and just about everyone in attendance Thursday night by employing a single-wing offense that, for a while, moved the ball.

The Falcons were forced to employ the run-oriented offense after the team’s two quarterbacks, Aaron Schaeffer and David Fielder, were dismissed from the team last week for disciplinary reasons. Neither player will return, Coach Jim Beckenhauer said.

“We had to do it,” Beckenhauer said. “We didn’t have a player on the team who had ever taken a snap.”

The Falcons’ single wing is run by senior Paul Lopez, a fullback-linebacker turned tailback. Lopez rushed for 66 yards and one touchdown in the 16-7 loss to Muir.

“I was surprised when I found out that we were going to run the single wing and that I was going to be the one carrying the load,” Lopez said. “But I was happy. I didn’t get beat up in the game.”

THE FARRAR SIDE

Nordhoff’s 21-7 win over Santa Paula in a Frontier League opener gave the Rangers their first league win over a team other than Calabasas since 1986.

Nordhoff, it appears, is in the running for its first league title in years. As such, Coach Cliff Farrar has started growing a beard--and he vows he won’t shave until Nordhoff brings home a championship.

David Coulson, Mike Glaze and Vince Kowalick and staff writers Steve Elling, Paige A. Leech, Brian Murphy and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.