HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PREVIEW : Grueling Schedule Awaits Crespi, Alemany

Not that you’d expect to hear otherwise, but the words still sound a little funny coming out of Tim Lins’ mouth.

“We are looking to win the thing,” the Crespi High coach said.

Win the Del Rey League title?

Beat out Bishop Amat, the top team in the state last season and the Cal-Hi Sports magazine preseason No. 1 this year? Beat out Loyola, the Division I runner-up and another perennial power?

C’mon, Tim. Get real.

“If you look at it on paper we don’t have a chance against some of those teams,” Lins said, “but you can’t go into the games thinking that.”

Alemany faces the same task. Before last season, both Valley teams moved from the Mission League into the Del Rey, which is a little like going from the minors to the majors.

“We like this league better,” said Lins, whose team was 2-3 in the Del Rey last year. “It is certainly a great challenge for us to play the best teams in the state week in and week out.”

Alemany Coach Pat Degnan feels the same way, even though his team went 1-8-1 overall and 1-4 in the league last season, his first with the Indians.

“If you want to be the best, you’ve got to play the best,” Degnan said.

As if the Del Rey schedule isn’t tough enough--and considering Crespi and Alemany won a combined three league games last season, it probably is--both teams have brutal nonleague schedules.

Alemany begins the season with Notre Dame, which has 13 returning starters and is the consensus pick to win the Mission League. Next is Crescenta Valley, which welcomes back most of the key players from last season’s Division II semifinalist team and is 18th in Cal-Hi’s ranking. The game the Indians must have circled on the schedule as the best chance for a victory is Sept. 24 against Bishop Montgomery, the Mission League’s worst team in 1992. But the Indians then play traditional powers Hart and Canyon. The Cowboys are ranked 17th in Cal-Hi’s preseason poll.

By then, Alemany should be ready to start the league schedule.

“We don’t have the luxury of playing teams that are inferior to us,” Degnan said. “I would challenge anyone to show me a tougher schedule than what we play.”

How about this? Crespi also plays Canyon and Notre Dame, along with Taft, which has seven offensive and seven defensive starters returning from a City Section 3-A runner-up squad, and Chaminade, the defending Mission League champion. Crespi’s other nonleague game is against St. Bernard, which will contend for the third playoff berth in the Mission League this season.

Sound like fun? You bet.

“Our kids would rather compete at the highest level and maybe sacrifice the record, but they want to see what they can do at that level,” Lins said.

The toughest games for Alemany and Crespi, though, will again be against Bishop Amat and Loyola.

Bishop Amat, which was 15-0 and beat Sylmar, 31-10, in the Reebok Bowl last season, is again the league favorite. Coach Mark Paredes chuckles when he hears how good other coaches think his team is, though. He is quick to point out that the Lancers lost every starter on the offensive and defensive lines.

“We’re all right,” Paredes said. “A far cry from last year.”

Running back Rodney Sermons, who gained 1,376 yards last season, is the Lancers’ top returning player. Junior receiver-defensive back Daylon McCutcheon, an all-league pick as a sophomore, is also back.

Loyola, which lost only to Bishop Amat last season, begins 1993 ranked sixth in the state by Cal-Hi. The Cubs have added 6-foot, 204-pound Kadar Hamilton, a transfer from Knoxville, Tenn., who was one of that area’s best defensive backs last season and will play running back for the Cubs.

Crespi, probably the best of the rest in the Del Rey, will play the Lancers on Oct. 15 at Pierce College and the Cubs on Oct. 23 at Glendale High. With eight starters returning on defense, Lins has hope for a championship.

“We figure they have to put 11 guys out there just like we do,” Lins said. “We just think it’s going to be our night, 10 Fridays in a row.”

Del Rey League at a Glance

1992 STANDINGS OVERALL LEAGUE PROJECTED FINISH Bishop Amat 15-0 5-0 Bishop Amat Loyola 12-2 4-1 Loyola St. Paul 5-6 3-2 Crespi Crespi 7-4 2-3 St. Paul Alemany 1-8-1 1-4 Alemany St. John Bosco 1-9-1 0-5 St. John Bosco

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Player School Pos. Ht Wt Class Rick Avina St. Paul DB 5-9 182 Sr. Kwame Cain Loyola RB 6-1 230 Sr. Kadar Hamilton Loyola RB 6-0 205 Sr. Morris Leuvano St. Paul RB 5-10 184 Sr. Daylon McCutcheon Bishop Amat WR/DB 5-11 175 Jr. Deron McElroy Crespi FB/DL 6-1 200 S. Rodney Sermons Bishop Amat RB 6-0 185 Sr. Ryan Williams St. John Bosco RB 5-8 165 Jr. Shaun Williams Crespi TB/DB 6-2 180 Sr. Brian Van Holten Alemany RB/LB 5-10 185 Sr.