Sun Shines on Quartz Hill Through All Kinds of Weather

In the summer, the temperature is hot enough to turn roadways into tar pits. In the winter, chattering teeth provide the rhythm section for the school band.

Quartz Hill High is a place for which oxymorons like freezer burn were invented.

They have all the elements covered but fire. Darn near every time it rains, the street in front of the school is flooded.

Then there’s the wind.

Football Coach John Albee recalls one game where it was blowing “about 70 miles an hour,” or the approximate speed of traffic on the Antelope Valley Freeway.

“Our quarterback doesn’t worry about the wind,” Albee said, pointing toward the nearby foothills, where the Santa Anas that roll through campus like an 18-wheeler without brakes originate.

“It blows out here all summer. We just keep telling him, ‘Throw tight spirals.’ ”

No question about it, Brad Norris has put a positive spin on the Rebels’ season, leading them to a 6-0 record, and he has spun secondaries into the ground like a corkscrew.

Norris, a 6-foot-3, 180-pound senior, is piling up passing yardage so fast it’s starting to make folks wonder if the elevation (2,500 feet, give or take a punt return) is making the defenders dizzy.

Norris has thrown for 1,495 yards and 12 touchdowns this season, putting him within easy reach of two Rebel single-season passing marks.

“We knew we could play with anybody this year,” said Norris, who was voted the team’s most valuable player after he passed for a school-record 1,615 yards as a junior. “It was just a matter of doing it.”

Norris, who played only the first 30 minutes of a 48-13 rout of Highland in a Golden League opener Friday night, passed for five touchdowns, completing 12 of 23 passes for 211 yards.

Norris, who ranks among state leaders in passing yardage, has thrown 12 scoring passes this year, three shy of the school record set in 1990 by Jake Haro, who led the Rebels to the Southern Section Division I final.

The Rebels, who have outscored their opponents, 209-54, are ranked third in Division I. However, the combined record of the six teams Quartz Hill has beaten is 8-27-1.

Nonetheless, it is the best start in the school’s 30-year history--and Albee has been there for 26 seasons.

“Anytime you put points on the board against anybody, you’re doing the job,” Albee said. The Rebels must have some horses, and we’re not talking about the herd of Clydesdales somebody is raising just across the road from school.

Norris’ favorite target, the speedy Troy Searcy, needs 120 yards and three touchdowns to tie the Quartz Hill single-season mark for receiving yardage (659) and touchdowns (eight).

“He’s seriously fast,” Norris said.

Ditto Quartz Hill’s start. Faster than that darn head wind, which was whipping its way though campus early Saturday.

Despite the chilly breeze and a periodic drizzle, the soft-spoken quarterback was wearing shorts and sandals. So were many of his teammates.

“(The wind) just makes you throw harder,” Norris said with a grin. “Besides, it usually dies down a little at night.”

The way Quartz Hill is playing, the hubbub may not dissipate for some time.

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Quarterback quota: Good thing North Hollywood receiver Patrick Fields is honest. Otherwise, he might be the team’s full-time quarterback, strange as it seems.

Fields and teammate Alvaro Castillo have shared quarterback duties for the Huskies. But when Castillo is taking snaps, he seems to look for Fields first and foremost.

Fields, who also plays receiver and is one of the team’s best all-around athletes, could make or break Castillo with a few untimely drops. But it doesn’t happen very often: Fields has passed for 290 yards and four touchdowns, and has 16 receptions for 321 yards (20-yard average) and five touchdowns.

The pair connected--Castillo to Fields, that is--six times for 191 yards and three scores in the Huskies’ 26-21 victory over Birmingham on Friday.

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Dollars and sense: San Fernando quarterback Leon Blunt may be generous with praise, but he’s tight with a buck. Moments after the Tigers beat Kennedy, 28-14, he sought out his front five.

“Yo, where are my big linemen?” Blunt said. “You guys did the job tonight. I’m gonna buy you all the special at Jack in the Box.”

Net outlay: $4.95, plus tax.

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Vagabonds: Last fall, St. Francis used five quarterbacks during a dismal 2-6-2 season, and two eventually left in search of greener pastures.

Both landed starting jobs.

Chris McAlister transferred to Pasadena, where he is the starting quarterback as a junior for a team that is 3-3. James Free did McAlister one better.

Free, also a junior, transferred to Bishop Amat, where he is the starter on a team that is 6-0 and ranked first in the state by Cal-Hi Sports.