Sylmar Opts to Perform for the Crowd

A week ago, Sylmar Coach Jeff Engilman and members of the school’s administration were upset because City Section officials changed the site of the 4-A Division quarterfinal playoff game between San Fernando and Sylmar highs.

Sylmar (10-1) was entitled to the home-field advantage, but City officials moved the game to Birmingham because a larger crowd could be accommodated.

The game, which Sylmar won, 31-7, attracted 8,488 spectators and helped justify the move. It even prompted Sylmar administrators to change the site for this week’s semifinal game against top-seeded Dorsey (9-1-1).

“This week they’ve opted to have it at Birmingham,” City Commissioner Hal Harkness said. “They were overwhelmed by their own show of support (last week), and they don’t want to take the chance of not having enough room for their own fans.”

Engilman, in his fifth season at Sylmar, was most impressed.

“I haven’t seen a crowd like that in a long time,” he said. “For me, that game rivaled my two City championship games. And those were at the Coliseum in front of 35,000.”

Engilman guided Manual Arts to 3-A championships against Wilson (41-7) in 1983 and against Locke (30-20) in 1984.

TALE OF THE TAPE

Kennedy Coach Bob Francola feels that his team has been caught in the freeze frame all too often. And he is not talking about the chilly temperatures that have whipped through town recently.

Francola said that his team has been videotaped numerous times this season, particularly by Banning, Kennedy’s foe in the City 4-A semifinals Friday. Filming an opponent’s games is prohibited under City rules, but Francola’s cries of foul play have turned few heads.

Said Francola of Banning: “They’ve got more tape on us than we do.”

Francola protested to City athletic administrators in the past but was told that the rule has been rendered obsolete by technology.

“It used to really bother me,” Francola said. “It’s an unenforceable situation. You can’t control video cameras because everybody has one.”

COLLEGE CONNECTION

When it’s playoff time, it never hurts to have loyal fan support. Might there be a correlation between the turnout of former players and victory?

On the sidelines last Wednesday night at Kennedy were former Golden Cougars Ontiwaun Carter (now at Arizona) and John Jones (Kansas). Former Sylmar standouts Kenyatta Green (Ohio State), London Woodfin (UCLA) and Jerome Casey (Eastern New Mexico) showed up on the Spartans’ sideline.

Sylmar and Kennedy won by the combined score of 61-13.

NOT FINISHED YET

Agoura junior Ryan Wilson placed second behind La Mesa Helix junior Daniel Das Neves in the state Division II cross-country final Saturday in Fresno, but Wilson will be the top returnee in the division next year.

Das Neves, a native of Sao Paolo, Brazil, turned 19 in September and will be ineligible to compete in high school athletics starting next fall.

Das Neves will be allowed to defend his 1,600-meter title in the state track and field championships in June.

THE COMEBACK KIDS

Six games into the season, Village Christian was 1-4-1 and had little hope of achieving a winning record, let alone a playoff berth.

However, the Crusaders, winners of five of their past six games, will face Santa Ana Calvary Chapel in a Division X semifinal Saturday at Kennedy High.

Coach Mike Plaisance said that the Crusaders’ comeback is the stuff of Hollywood movies. As such, Plaisance says he has written a script about this season and is looking for a producer.

“I even have a title for my script,” Plaisance joked. “It’s called, ‘Up From the Grave.’ It’s about a football team with one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.”

SURPRISE SOPHOMORE

Canyon Coach Harry Welch took pains to avoid mentioning sophomore tailback Ed Williams when he evaluated the team in the preseason. But any postseason evaluation must now include Williams: He holds the school single-season rushing record.

Williams (5-foot-7, 143 pounds) gained 1,554 yards, surpassing Chris Peery’s 1988 mark of 1,459 yards. Peery ground out his total in 14 games; Williams in 12.

Williams rushed for 178 yards Friday against Eisenhower, USA Today’s No. 1-ranked team.

“I didn’t want to put any pressure on a kid who had never carried the ball in a varsity game,” Welch said of his reluctance to publicize Williams. “But no one knew he was that good.”

IMPRESS THE BEST

Harvard-Westlake’s 9-5 water polo victory over La Serna last week in the Southern Section 3-A championship game impressed a noteworthy observer.

Monte Nitzkowski, a man under whom Harvard Coach Rich Corso studied early in his career, dropped by to see how his protege’s team would fare. Nitzkowski witnessed Harvard’s 5-0 second-half rally that brought the Wolverines back from a 5-4 deficit. He also saw Harvard drop into a little-used zone defense in the fourth quarter, confusing La Serna.

“You better save the film of that second half,” Nitzkowski told Corso. “You guys put on a defensive clinic.”

High praise, and Nitzkowski knows good water polo when he sees it. He served as the U.S. Olympic water polo coach in 1972, 1980 and 1984.

Mike Glaze and staff writers Steve Elling, Paige A. Leech and Brian Murphy contributed to this notebook.

Regional Basketball

Preseason Top 10 Selected by sportswriters of The Times

1991 Rk Team League Record 1 Santa Clara Frontier 28-5 2 North Hollywood Mid-Valley 23-5 3 Taft North Valley 15-8 4 Kennedy North Valley 9-15 5 Hart Foothill 19-7 6 Saugus Golden 20-10 7 Thousand Oaks Marmonte 22-5 8 Simi Valley Marmonte 9-17 9 Cleveland North Valley 19-7 10 Crespi Mission 21-7