Promoter Promises Added Security : Senior Bowl: After fan disturbances marred the 1991 game at Culver City High, Jerry Weiner is optimistic that this year’s event at El Camino College will be trouble-free.

When a gun was fired during an all-star football game at Culver City High last year, the natural reaction of players and fans was to hit the ground.

Except Jerry Weiner. He wanted to crawl in a hole.

As organizer and promoter of the Los Angeles Prep Senior Bowl, Weiner was criticized for providing insufficient security at the game, which was called in the third quarter after a second disturbance involving fans.

Afterward, a shaken Weiner wondered if there would be another Senior Bowl unless funds could be raised to provide a safer environment.

Today he has a considerably brighter outlook for the game’s future.

Thanks to the generosity of an NFL rookie, Weiner is confident that Saturday’s 16th annual Senior Bowl can avoid the problems that plagued last year’s game. The contest featuring recently graduated high school players starts at 4 p.m. at El Camino College. Several South Bay standouts are expected to play.

Weiner said he was able to rent El Camino and hire more security for this year’s Senior Bowl because of the financial contribution made by Chris Mims, a first-round draft choice of the San Diego Chargers out of the University of Tennessee.

Mims, a defensive end who played at Los Angeles Southwest College and Dorsey High, has committed $12,500 to the Senior Bowl for each of the four years of his present Chargers’ contract--a $50,000 pledge--and a promise to support the game as long as he plays professional football, Weiner said.

Mims played in the 1988 Senior Bowl and was named the game’s outstanding player.

“It apparently was something he felt very strongly about,” said Weiner, who put Mims’ name in the game title.

Weiner said acquiring El Camino as the site for the game will help avoid last year’s security problems.

“It gives us a substantially better opportunity to make sure there are no distractions,” he said. “It puts us in a college setting, and the structure is more conducive for checking who’s there and who’s not.”

Weiner said metal detectors will be used on everyone entering the stadium.

“We never had any disturbances before last year, but once was enough,” he said.

Mims’ financial contribution made it possible for Weiner to rent El Camino at a cost of more than $3,000 and to hire additional security. Weiner said he has consulted with El Camino’s security people and intends to follow their recommendations.

“Security will probably cost us more than the rental of the stadium,” he said. “We’ll spend whatever we have to spend.”

Weiner apparently learned his lesson after last year’s Senior Bowl. Although he said security at Culver City High included 18 Guardian Angels, two plainclothes off-duty police officers and several members of a semipro football team, those numbers were later disputed.

Marty Siegal, the Culver City athletic director, said there were no more than six Guardian Angels at the game and that the two plainclothes police officers were there to guard the cash box. The Culver City Police Department had no officers at the game, a normal practice when the high school team plays at home.

“The bottom line is that the football game would have been great, except (Weiner) wanted to save a buck,” Siegal said.

Weiner contends he was unfairly blamed for the actions of a small group of unruly fans, some of whom he believes entered the stadium without paying.

“(Culver City) was a good place for us to play the game,” he said. “It’s just that a few bad apples popped up.”

He hopes to weed them out this time.

Inglewood football Coach Angelo Jackson, whose team was placed on probation by the Southern Section for playing three academically ineligible transfers last season, will coach the South-West team in the Senior Bowl.

The South-West roster includes seven South Bay players: quarterback Chris Keldorf of St. Bernard, fullback-defensive end Michael Hall and lineman Jason Blanchard of Westchester and four Inglewood players--defensive back Lester Church, running back Tindsley Trawick, linebacker Shermont Harrison and defensive back Louie Reza.

Three players who helped the South to a 38-0 victory in the Shrine all-star game last week also are expected to play for the South-West team: Culver City quarterback/receiver Dameron Ricketts, Santa Monica lineman Luke Davis and Dorsey running back Sharmon Shah. Ricketts caught a touchdown pass and Shah was named most valuable player of the Shrine game after rushing for 163 yards and two touchdowns on a Shrine-record 29 carries.

The North-East team, coached by Ed Johnson of Washington and Chuck Hollis and Rodney Spencer of Manual Arts, includes eight players from Leuzinger: quarterback/defensive back Gary Mumin, receiver/defensive back Joe Betton, quarterback/receiver John Cotton, running back/defensive back Charles Bell, running back Rick McCauley, running back/linebacker Otto Aholelei and linebackers Steven Bell and Shawn Bard.

One of the North-East’s featured players is Washington quarterback Sheldon Anderson.

Tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for high school students with a current school ID and $2 for children under 12, and can be purchased at the El Camino stadium box office.