Campbell’s Moves Floor Greminger

Frank Greminger can count on one hand the number of times he has been bowled over by a ballcarrier while walking the sidelines as football coach for Agoura High.

This week, Greminger, 54, in his 24th season as coach, was unable to count, or do anything else with his left hand, after undergoing surgery to repair torn ligaments in his wrist. Greminger’s hand is in a cast.

Four weeks ago, Greminger was flat out flattened by Camarillo tailback Fahali Campbell, who was forced out of bounds where Greminger was standing. Greminger saw Campbell coming but was unable to move from harm’s way because of the crowd of players standing behind him.

Campbell, the area’s leading rusher, and Greminger collided hard.

“My feet went out from under me and I landed flat on my back,” Greminger said. “People were hootin’ and hollering in the stands until they realized I could be hurt.”

Greminger said doctors originally did not realize how serious the injury was before deciding to perform surgery Wednesday. Greminger said his wrist will remain in a cast for six to eight weeks.

His eyes likely will remain on the lookout for shoulder-padded freight trains for much longer.

“I’ve been hit before,” Greminger said. “But never this bad.”

GET A LEG UP

Good thing Kennedy is knee-deep in kickers, because a bad knee may prevent the team’s top gun from playing in tonight’s game with Reseda.

Jeremy Deach, who has made six field goals to lead area City Section kickers, twisted his right (kicking) knee when his punt was blocked in last week’s loss to San Fernando.

Deach, who has made nine of 10 point-after attempts and six of nine field-goals attempts, has been on crutches all week and may not be available. Deach’s 42.3-yard average leads area City punters.

Receiver and soccer player Keith Thompson is the leading candidate to replace Deach, though Kennedy has other options.

“Believe it or not, kickers are one thing we’re real deep in around here,” Coach Bob Francola said. “We have a bunch of guys who can probably get the job done.”

GET WITH THE PROGRAM

There are game programs and there are user guides. For a dollar, fans get both in the same package at Calabasas High. On one program page are two detailed, X’s and O’s-style football diagrams of Calabasas’ offensive and defensive schemes, with an explanation of which ballcarrier runs where and what is taking place with the team’s 4-4-3 defense. The diagrams look like John Madden went crazy on his TV telestrator.

A written excerpt: “To complement the running game, Calabasas will use the combination of a sprint-out and drop-back passing attack that will add excitement to the Coyote offense.” Excitement? Not if the opposition defense buys a program.

For nonsophisticates, the program spells out by number the fan responses to cheerleader chants-- all 36 of them .

DON’T LABEL ME

Being the son of a former All-Pro NFL player might be a dream come true for most guys. But not for Birmingham’s Marvin Powell III. He would rather keep his genealogy a secret--and for good reason. He wants to be judged on his ability and talent, not measured by what his father accomplished.

His father, Marvin Powell Jr., was an offensive tackle for the New York Jets. The younger Powell, a sophomore, has been training for a college scholarship since the fifth grade, but he doesn’t want to ride in on his father’s merits. If he continues to play like he has, he won’t have to worry. Powell, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound tight end, burned North Hollywood on the first play from scrimmage last week, hauling in a 55-yard touchdown pass to give the Braves an early lead en route to an 18-8 win.

In the third quarter, he blocked a punt and allowed Birmingham to recover at North Hollywood’s three. Moments later, Paul Holt scored on a one-yard run.

DISTRACTIONS

Since the first grade, Verdugo Hills senior linebacker Armando Gonzalez (6-3, 223) had been enrolled in private all-boys schools. This year, with family finances tight, Gonzalez chose to transfer from St. Francis to Verdugo Hills. “I didn’t want to burden my parents,” he said.

Gonzalez, who is being recruited by Arizona, Colorado and Cal, among others, scored 1,050 on his Scholastic Aptitude Test and maintains a 3.2 grade-point average. But it hasn’t been easy.

“Going to school with girls is really different,” he said. “I have to remind myself to keep my mind on my studies.”

IN OVER THEIR HEADS

These have not been the best of times at Burroughs.

After a 33-3 Foothill League football loss to Canyon last week, the Indians are winless in seven games. Burroughs ranks fourth to last among area Southern Section teams in offense (171.6) and allows more than 300 yards per game.

Shut out in two games and having scored three points in two others, Burroughs is averaging 5.8 points a game. The numbers indicate that a program once among the area’s more successful has fallen--hard. Better days are not expected soon.

Indians’ co-Coach Jay Gudzin, who has been at Burroughs as either an assistant or head coach for 16 years, knows that much work needs to be done. “(The Canyon game) just shows you how times have changed,” Gudzin said. “When we were doing pretty good in the early ‘80s, (Canyon’s coaching staff) was probably thinking, ‘How do we get these guys off of our schedule?’ Now I’m thinking, ‘What are we doing on (Canyon’s) schedule?’

“It’s going to take time for us to get better, but we will.”

LIBRARY BOWL

Ho-hum. Some things never change. Loyola is 7-0, ranked first in the state, fifth in the nation and has outscored its opponents by an average score of 35-7.

Last week, the Cubs shelled Crespi, 34-6. Another game, another lambasting.

It would seem that the Cubs could conceivably earn a berth in the first CIF/Reebok Bowl, which will pit the winners of the Southern Section Division I and City Section 4-A Division championships Dec. 18.

Loyola sure is a football factory. . . . Or maybe not.

Loyola administrators already have informed Southern Section administrators that if the Cubs win the Division I title, they will not play in the bowl game because it conflicts with senior exams. If Loyola wins and turns down the bowl bid, the Division II winner will play the City 4-A champion.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR

Hart may be the best football team in the region, but Alemany Coach Pat Degnan isn’t particularly crazy about the team’s coaching staff.

Alemany was shelled by Hart, 43-0, earlier this month. Degnan, a former assistant at Cal State Northridge, said Hart intentionally embarrassed Alemany.

Degnan said Hart attempted an onside kick and kept trying to block Alemany’s punts despite holding a huge second-half lead. What’s more, Degnan said that Hart’s pass-happy quarterback, Davis Delmatoff, remained in the game until the fourth quarter was half over.

“What goes around, comes around,” Degnan said. “I’ve got thick enough skin that it doesn’t bother me. But to do that to the kids, well, I have a problem with that.”

The teams are scheduled to play next season at Alemany.

TIME FLIES

Listen to most coaches during their postgame handshake, and it’s a lead-pipe cinch that they will not refer to each other by name. Instead, they use the universal standby: “Coach.” Much easier than remembering actual names. If Degnan does likewise after tonight’s game between Alemany and Loyola, he has a good reason.

As a third-grader in the 1960s, Degnan played basketball at Leffingwell Elementary School in Whittier. His coach was Jon Dawson, now Loyola’s defensive coordinator and athletic director.

DRIVE TIME

Time of possession is often ridiculed as one of the most misleading of football statistics. In certain instances, though, it can be telling.

Take Alemany’s game against St. John Bosco last week. Alemany, desperately seeking its first victory, held a 16-7 lead with two minutes left in the third quarter. The Indians had the ball at their 10 and needed a big drive to put the game on ice.

It may have been drive time, but it wasn’t rush hour. Alemany took 12 minutes to march down the field and scored on a two-yard run by Marwin Willard. Alemany won, 22-7, and improved to 1-5-1.

NO REST FOR DEFENSE

Royal’s secondary, already among the area’s best, should get better.

Starters Rommel Butler, Bryan Fernandez and Andre Desaussure are juniors. Derek Newcomb, who platoons with sophomore Ty Russell, is the lone senior. Together, the group has 10 interceptions, tying Thousand Oaks for most among Marmonte League teams and breaking the team record for interceptions in a season. The Highlanders had a team-record seven last season.

Butler, who intercepted four passes last season, has four this season to account for a school-record eight interceptions in his career.

BLANKO

Maybe the “ND” on the Notre Dame helmets stands for “nice defense.”

The Knights have shut out their last three opponents. And this after defensive end Brandon Gabriel and defensive back Danny Guerrido went down for the season because of torn anterior cruciate ligaments.

Their replacements, Greg Baldwin and Mike De Martinis, along with the rest of the defense have played better than Coach Kevin Rooney could have expected. “The guys who have filled in have been great,” Rooney said. “The general intensity of our defense has picked up quite a bit.”

Staff writers Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Vince Kowalick, Paige A. Leech, Theresa Munoz and Jason H. Reid contributed to this notebook.