Give High School Statisticians a Yard, and They Might Take a Mile : With No True Way to Verify, Records Could Be Off the Mark

Newbury Park High senior receiver Leodes Van Buren has made the Ventura County and Southern Section record books his personal athletic diaries. The state record book is his next target.

Against Simi Valley tonight, Van Buren needs six catches and 27 yards to break the state’s all-time records for receptions and receiving yards.

Or does he?

Van Buren might already have the records. A coach or reporter years ago could have credited one of the current state leaders with receptions or yardage they did not deserve. Also, Van Buren might not be that close because of a possible error in his statistics.

The only certainty in the world of high school sports statistics is that nothing is certain.

“You can’t say any of the (high school) stats are gospel,” said Mark Tennis, executive editor of Cal-Hi Sports magazine. “Without standardized statistical forms like the colleges and pros use, and independent agencies checking every number, there’s no way to say the stats are 100% accurate.”

Statistics at all levels of sport are performance yardsticks that help athletes gain exposure. Statistical information in the college and pro ranks is collected and checked by paid professionals. At the high school level, a team’s “official” statistician might well be the quarterback’s girlfriend.

No wonder record-keeping, especially in a state with 1,200 high schools, can become a guessing game that can lead to embarrassing situations.

On Sept. 18, the Thousand Oaks News Chronicle reported that Van Buren had broken J.K. McKay’s (La Puente Bishop Amat) all-time section records for receptions and receiving yardage during the Panthers’ 43-7 nonleague win over San Marcos.

Newbury Park Coach George Hurley was the source of the information. He was wrong.

“It was my fault,” Hurley said. “I got the numbers a little mixed up.”

Van Buren did break McKay’s receiving marks last week in a 36-0 league win over Channel Islands. But the records did not fall without some confusion. Area newspapers, Cal-Hi Sports and the school had different numbers for Van Buren.

Depending on whom you believed, he needed as few as five catches and 28 yards or as many as 10 catches and 56 yards entering the game against Channel Islands. He caught nine passes for 111 yards, and that was good enough for Newbury Park. Under Southern Section guidelines, a school’s statistics are official.

Tennis has experienced such confusion firsthand.

His eyes opened wide with excitement one day in 1985 while he read a newspaper story about a standout performance by a high school quarterback.

According to the story, the quarterback completed 40 passes for more than 500 yards. Tennis quickly reported that the quarterback might have broken all-time, single-game state passing records in each category.

Newspapers throughout the state that subscribe to Cal-Hi Sports also printed the information--some several times.

But there was one problem.

The statistician credited the quarterback with completions and yards when he handed off to a running back. The quarterback actually completed 20 passes for 300 yards.

“It was the worst case I’ve ever seen of stats being wrong,” Tennis said. “We rely on sources we think are accurate, but the fact is that some of the stats are incorrect.”

In addition to its weekly statistical updates, Cal-Hi Sports prints a state record book. Tennis and his staff gather information from coaches, correspondents and newspaper reporters throughout the state.

Of the California Interscholastic Federation’s 10 sections, the 482-member Southern Section is the only one that consistently compiles statistics and prints a record book, Tennis said. The section accepts team and individual statistics from coaches at the middle and end of seasons.

Scott Cathcart updated the record book during his nine years as the section’s director of media and public relations. Cathcart, currently assistant athletic director for media relations at Cal State Long Beach, said dealing with the numbers was always difficult.

“The odds of getting all the statistics accurate are astronomical,” Cathcart said. “And I really had no way of checking everything.”

When records are broken, the section routinely requires a letter of verification from a school official such as a principal or athletic director. Cathcart also occasionally compared statistics with newspaper reporters’.

“We felt that’s the best way to do it because the coaches are the ones watching the films,” Cathcart said. “They should be more sophisticated keeping the stats than some of the young guys at newspapers.”

Buena football Coach Rick Scott is not so sure, saying that some coaches pad statistics.

“(Coaches) maybe stretch things a little bit--especially at small schools that don’t get coverage every game,” Scott said. “So many records are held by small schools, it makes you wonder if some guys are fudging.”