Division I Throws Pass to Kocicka

Hart High’s Mike Kocicka entered the season with a gifted arm and minimal varsity experience, then underwent a crash course in the art of playing quarterback.

The 6-foot-4 senior is improving so fast, the question now is which Division I school will he attend next year?

The answer, according to Hart assistant Rick Herrington, is nobody knows. Kocicka is not being recruited.

He has completed 77 of 138 passes for 1,400 yards and 12 touchdowns in six games. He ranks as the area’s fourth-leading passer after his 13-for-17, 319-yard, four-touchdown performance in just over three quarters of a 41-21 victory over Saugus on Friday night.

“Not too many people know about him,” Herrington said. “But I don’t think that will be the case for long.”

FOOTHILL LEAGUE

First-Year Success

If first-year Coach Gary Bernardi doesn’t win another game this season, he’s already matched the number of victories at Burroughs for the preceding two seasons. The Indians are 3-3.

“We’re getting better, but we need to improve on a lot of things,” said Bernardi, a USC assistant under Larry Smith the past six seasons. “I attribute it to just improving with execution and the kids grasping the intensity level in competition that I’m used to.

“We’ve done a good job in turnovers and sacks and eliminating minus yardage. We have to eliminate penalties. We try to do the same thing each week and, slowly but surely, the kids are grasping it.”

Tonight, Burroughs faces Canyon (4-2), a team it hasn’t defeated in 10 seasons.

NORTHWEST VALLEY

Almost Miller Time

Sophomore forward Eddie Miller, a 6-foot-6 transfer from Notre Dame, is expected to move into the Chatsworth attendance area Nov. 1, Chatsworth Coach Sandy Greentree said.

Miller, who needs to change residences in order to establish athletic eligibility, is considered by many to be a major-college prospect. He played varsity ball as a freshman last year at Notre Dame, which won a Southern Section title.

“There isn’t a guy I’d rather have in the whole city,” Greentree said. “There are some great players out there, but I’ve got him for the next three years.”

*

Chatsworth has received the lion’s share of attention recently for drawing several transfers into its highly regarded boys’ basketball program, but Reseda also has received a healthy shot in the arm.

In addition to Trenton Cross, a Times All-Valley point guard, Reseda will have four seniors who are new to the program: Archie Williams, a 6-foot-2 swingman from Santa Monica; Damon Bailey, a 5-9 guard from Fairfax; Roderick Jones, a 6-4 center-forward from Chatsworth, and Matt Cooper, a 6-2 forward from Faith Baptist.

“It should be exciting,” said Coach Jeff Halpern, who noted that the transfers all have satisfied athletic eligibility requirements.

The group should complement the talents of Cross, a top-flight ballhandler who is being recruited by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Portland and Cal State Northridge. Cross (5-10) averaged 21.8 points and 4.3 assists as a junior and was an All-City 3-A selection.

*

Granada Hills backup quarterback Brian MacLean has put up solid numbers since he took over for injured Jim Landress two weeks ago. In fact, MacLean’s numbers are superior to those of Landress, a two-year starter.

MacLean has completed 25 of 44 passes (56.8%) for 370 yards and two touchdowns. Landress, sidelined with a minor concussion, is 56 of 119 (47%) for 607 yards and four touchdowns in four games. Landress has thrown five interceptions; MacLean has thrown two.

VALLEY PAC-8

Sylmar Shares Wealth

Sylmar ran a casting call for running backs during its 54-13 victory over Canoga Park last week. Ten players carried the ball--and six scored touchdowns.

Tyrone Crenshaw, who reinjured his ankle in the third game of the season, rushed for 132 yards in 10 carries before leaving the game just before halftime because of soreness in the same ankle.

Devon Young and Greg Guerra each carried for the first time--and each scored a touchdown. Young carried once for a 62-yard touchdown and Guerra had two carries for three yards and a score.

But, what’s new? Ten players have scored a rushing touchdown for Sylmar this season.

*

Shave and a haircut--one win!

North Hollywood volleyball Coach Carl Lager received a memorable coiffure. He agreed last week to let his players shave the letters “NH” in his hair when North Hollywood won its first match of the season.

The Huskies defeated Grant on Tuesday, their first victory in nine tries. Lager had a new ‘do the next day.

“I figured, anything to reward them,” he said. “They’ve worked so hard.”

PACIFIC LEAGUE

Flying Falcons

Crescenta Valley led Hoover, 35-7, at halftime last week and the Falcon coaches were concerned about trying to keep the game from getting further out of hand.

Just as they were discussing it on the sideline, John French, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound lineman, grabbed a squibbed second-half kickoff and took it 78 yards, finally coming down inside the Hoover one-yard line and setting up another Crescenta Valley touchdown.

“We’re trying to keep the score down and we can’t,” Falcon first-year Coach Alan Eberhart said. “Every time one of our kids touches the ball, it’s a touchdown.”

The Falcons (5-1) won the game, 48-28.

MISSION LEAGUE

Getting a Head Start

While an assistant under Jim Fenwick at Pierce College in the mid-1980s, Rich Lawson saw Fenwick’s son, Tyler, at practices.

“He was always on the field,” Lawson said. “He used to be around in that Pierce jersey, getting into everything little kids do.”

Given that the younger Fenwick spent so much time around football, Lawson, now coaching at Chaminade, was not surprised when the junior receiver/defensive back made the Eagle varsity.

“You are a product of your environment,” Lawson said.

*

Notre Dame fullback Lei Malieitulua was honored at last week’s game against Chaminade by a group of his friends and family who played Polynesian drums from the bleachers. Malieitulua is Samoan.

“It gets me going just to hear the traditional beats,” said Malieitulua, who was born in Southern California. “In the huddle during the game, a lot of guys were sort of dancing. They said that (the music) was awesome.”

Malieitulua gained 137 yards and scored two touchdowns.

*

Playa del Rey isn’t considered a hotbed of gang-related activity, but last week’s game between St Francis and St. Bernard was delayed by a brawl in the street outside the stadium.

At St. Bernard, grandstands are located only on the home side of the field. The visitors’ side is backed only by a chain-link fence and a street.

In the second half, a fight broke out in the street behind the St. Francis bench. It was believed to be gang-related.

“Some thought they heard gunfire,” said St. Francis Coach Bill Redell, who called the disturbance “a mini-riot.”

Redell said he personally didn’t hear any discharge of firearms, but that didn’t stop the coach and his players from bolting to the home side of the field. A few members of the St. Francis coaching staff, who were overhead in a hydraulic lift located on the visitors’ sideline, were quickly lowered to safety and joined the rest of the team.

To make matters worse, St. Francis linebacker Tony Minello at the time was lying injured on the field with a broken left leg.

“I thought about putting the team on the bus and going home,” Redell said. “In retrospect, it might have been the thing to do.”

*

St. Francis has lost seven starters to injuries since the start of the season. The most serious loss is that of two-way lineman Ben Kadletz, who is expected to miss the remainder of the season because of a knee injury. Defensive back Bob Aubrey, the Golden Knights’ other potential Division I player who has been sidelined with a groin injury, may be back for the Nov. 5 game against Notre Dame, Redell said.

Around the Leagues. . . .

* Alemany Coach Pat Degnan, on why it’s difficult to tactfully criticize officials: “You’ve got to be able to tell someone to go to hell and have him look forward to the trip.”

* Degnan wants to go on record before St. Paul, which beat the Indians, 17-0, last week, meets top-ranked Bishop Amat tonight. “You heard it here first,” Degnan said. “If St. Paul doesn’t outright beat them, it is going to be one heck of a game.” Degnan, by the way, is a St. Paul graduate.

* Crespi’s Shaun Williams continued to overshadow some of Southern California’s best running backs in head-to-head competition by outgaining Bishop Amat’s Rodney Sermons last week, 94-81. Williams has also gained more yards in games against Chaminade’s Franklin Saunders and Canyon’s Ed Williams.

* It hardly seems fair. Verdugo Hills is averaging nearly the same offensively (186.3 yards) that it has allowed (188.3). However, the Dons’ record certainly does not reflect the nearness of those statistical averages. Verdugo Hills is 1-5 and has been outscored by 50 points, 117-67.

* Statistics can be misleading. Antelope Valley had a hum-drum 259 yards offensively last week against Littlerock, which had 262. Antelope Valley won, 40-14.

* Thousand Oaks, the No. 4-ranked boys’ cross-country team in the nation, heads a list of four teams from the area ranked among the top 10 in the state Division I poll. The Lancers are first, followed by three-time defending state champion Hart (second), Palmdale (seventh) and Canyon (ninth).

A Coaching Yardstick

Here are the state’s all-time top high school football coaches by winning percentage:**

Record Coach School Years 149-14-1 Bob Ladouceur Concord De La Salle 1979-92* 158-37-1 Dick Bruich Fontana 1977-92* 114-27-2 Harry Welch Canyon 1982-92* 211-48-9 Larry Welsh Gonzales & Atascadero 1966-92* 211-49-9 Ed Lloyd Santa Rosa Cardinal Newman & Piner 1966-91 128-34-1 Jerry Van Lengen Hilmar & Auburn Placer 1977-92* 206-54-5 Wayne Schneider Tracy 1965-92*

Record Pct 149-14-1 91.2 158-37-1 80.9 114-27-2 80.4 211-48-9 80.4 211-49-9 80.1 128-34-1 78.8 206-54-5 78.7

* Still active ** Minimum 100 victories; records entering 1993 season

Source: Cal-Hi Sports State Record Book

Kennedy Cosgrove and staff writers Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Dana Haddad and Paige A. Leech contributed to this notebook.