HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PREVIEW : Coaches Wait for New Crop of Backs to Grow Into Their Roles

New season, new faces. It’s inevitable in high school athletics.

Every year coaches say goodby to standout players who have proved themselves on the playing field. And every year a fresh crop of faces emerges to take their place.

Sometimes that crop proves more fruitful than the last. Other times, fruitless.

This season, every team in the Valley Pac-8 Conference is looking to fill a major void in its backfield. Each of the eight teams lost its most productive rusher to graduation.

“Last year all of the college coaches said the Valley had a lot of backs, but not a lot of linemen,” Sylmar Coach Jeff Engilman said. “This year is just the opposite--not a lot of backs, but a lot of linemen.”

Gone are the conference’s three 1,000-yard gainers: Sylmar’s Tobaise Brookins, Van Nuys’ Harold Boudreaux and Poly’s Jermaine Pledger.

In addition, of the eight conference backs who rushed for 400 or more yards last season, only Poly’s Ron Botley returns. A year ago, five of 10 backs who rushed for more than 400 yards returned.

Still, the running back position might turn out to be strong by the end of the season.

Although Botley was a backup last year to Pledger (1,329 yards, 15 touchdowns), he gained 849 yards in 122 carries and scored 14 touchdowns.

Engilman, who should be reeling from the graduation of Brookins (1,605 yards, 25 touchdowns), has three worthy candidates to fill Brookins’ shoes.

Tyrone Crenshaw, a junior who rushed for 383 yards behind Brookins last year, averaged seven yards a carry. Although Crenshaw would seem the obvious successor, he has competition from Cleveland transfer Ibn Bilal and Gabriel Rodriguez.

Bilal, a senior who cost Cleveland two forfeits last season because he gave a false address, rushed for 434 yards in 76 carries (5.7 average) and scored three touchdowns in five games. As a sophomore, Bilal gained 402 yards in 88 carries.

Rodriguez, a senior who will start at strong safety, carried only 10 times for 49 yards as a junior but showed promise.

Promise and proven are worlds apart, however.

“There isn’t the dominant-type kid like a Toby (Brookins) or a Pledger this year,” Engilman said. “So, the team that utilizes the talent the best, will do well.”

Poly Coach Fred Cuccia agreed.

“All teams have good football players,” he said. “It’s just a matter of how they’re used.”

Cuccia, like many of his fellow coaches, believes that sooner or later new names and faces will replace the old.

“There will be a few that surface,” Cuccia said. “Hopefully, not too many will surface against us.”

Cuccia might keep a worried eye on the rushers at Birmingham, Monroe, Canoga Park and Van Nuys. Each school has either its second- or third-most productive back returning.

Birmingham’s Paul Holt was overshadowed by option quarterback Vince Lampkin (79 carries, 470 yards, nine touchdowns). Holt gained 253 yards in 59 carries and scored four touchdowns in 1991, and at 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, he won’t be easy to knock down.

Monroe’s Andrew Rich (46 carries, 210 yards), who ran in the shadow of Sean Bell (535 yards, seven touchdowns), hopes to step into the spotlight. Harboring similar hopes is Ralph Palacios, a senior at Canoga Park who averaged 5.1 yards playing behind Roland Mitchell (152 carries, 711 yards, six touchdowns).

Van Nuys senior Bill Calhoun, who has been the team’s starting quarterback for the past two seasons, is moving to tailback--at least part time. As a quarterback, Calhoun gained 98 yards in 47 carries in 1991.

A battle for the tailback position is expected at Grant and North Hollywood.

Although neither school has a prospect to match the runners at other conference schools, the Lancers and Huskies have something that five of their counterparts do not have--a returning starting quarterback.

Grant’s Roy Rodriguez and North Hollywood’s Jimmie Crist, both of whom took over as quarterback midway through the 1991 season, return.

Regardless of who is in the backfield, each team is hopeful of finding a star.

“You just watch,” Birmingham Coach Chick Epstein said. “Someone will develop--they always do.”

VALLEY PAC-8 CONFERENCE

EAST VALLEY LEAGUE (4-A)

PROJECTED FINISH FINAL 1991 STANDINGS Sylmar Sylmar 10-2, 7-0 Poly Poly 8-3, 6-1 Birmingham Birmingham 7-3, 5-2 Van Nuys *Van Nuys 5-4, 4-3

* Finished first in Mid-Valley League

MID-VALLEY LEAGUE (3-A)

PROJECTED FINISH FINAL 1991 STANDINGS Canoga Park Canoga Park 3-7, 3-4 Monroe Grant 3-8, 2-5 Grant Monroe 2-7, 1-6 North Hollywood *North Hollywood 0-10, 0-7

* Finished last in East Valley League

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Player School Pos. Ht Wt Class Ron Botley Poly RB 5-7 170 Sr. George Brazil Sylmar LB/TE 6-3 225 Sr. Bill Calhoun Van Nuys RB/DB 6-0 180 Sr. Jabarha Henry Monroe OL/DL 6-7 270 Sr. Paul Holt Birmingham RB 6-2 210 Sr. Art Larrea Sylmar OL/NG 6-4 305 Sr. Lonny Neuhaus Poly OL 6-6 297 Sr. Tyrone Pierce Sylmar LB/TE 6-3 230 Sr. Tai Takapu North Hollywood OL/NG 6-1 260 Sr. Scott Valdez Birmingham WR/DB 6-0 180 Sr.