Phelps Has Grown in Stature, Ability While Leading Irvine Into Playoffs

Mike Phelps, the one they called Frankie , is in control of Irvine’s future.

The Vaqueros start their run tonight for a third consecutive Southern Section championship. At quarterback will be Phelps, who was all but shunned by his teammates three years ago. Now he guides their fate.

There’s no Jason Minici, the feisty and ultra-competitive leader who took the Vaqueros to the Division II championship in 1991. There’s no Aron Garcia, the cool and logical quarterback who led them to the Division IV title last season.

No, it’s all in the hands of Frankie .

“Jason gave me that nickname when I was a sophomore,” said Phelps, now a senior. “I never could figure it out. I guess it was because I was a little guy. I was younger, I was smaller, I was, well, a Frankie .”

He’s grown up and up since then. Phelps is 6 feet 5, 210 pounds and casts a huge shadow over opposing defenses.

No one expected the little freshman to be anything but a role player. That role would be mainly a supporting one--clapping after big plays and handshakes to guys coming off the field. Phelps fooled them. They wouldn’t have it any other way.

“You had to see Mike when he was a freshman,” wide receiver Tommy Louie said. “He had a little-boy image. He looked like a little school boy with this high, squeaky voice. I didn’t even know he was a quarterback.”

Phelps walked into the job after two years as an understudy, first to Minici, then to Garcia.

The program hasn’t skipped a beat. Irvine (10-1) is seeded second in the Division IV playoffs. Phelps has passed for 1,531 yards and 15 touchdowns. But he has produced more than numbers.

There was that instinctive, almost insane, dash for a two-point conversion against Santa Margarita. Phelps scrambled, then flipped into the end zone over two defenders and got up grinning.

Such antics have earned him the respect of teammates.

“You should see Mike in practice,” Louie said. “He loves to be out there. Everyone else will be dragging, going, ‘Geez, another day of practice.’ Then we see Mike with a big, old smile on his face. He’s out there having a good time. It reminds the rest of us that this is suppose to be fun.”

Said Coach Terry Henigan: “That’s Mike Phelps. He’s a leader of men.”

That was never more evident than in the Santa Margarita game. Twice, Phelps brought the Vaqueros from behind for a 29-26 victory. He completed his last eight passes in the process.

Phelps has had his good days. He was 10 for 10 for 194 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-7 rout of Mission Viejo.

And he’s had his bad days. Phelps had three passes intercepted against Corona del Mar, then drove the Vaqueros 82 yards and threw a touchdown pass with three minutes left for a 23-20 victory.

“I’ve been waiting for this,” Phelps said. “When I was a kid, I was always the quarterback on the playground.”

Going from playground to playing took some time.

Phelps is only 16, a year younger than most seniors. He started kindergarten a year early because he was bigger than most kids. They soon passed him.

“Everyone else hit their growing spurts,” Phelps said. “All of a sudden, I was the little guy.”

Phelps was a reserve defensive end for the freshman team. He did play quarterback in freshman reserve games but was hardly a standout even on that level.

It was hard for a scrawny, 5-foot-11, 155-pounds-when-soaking-wet sophomore to get noticed. Still, Phelps found himself on the varsity as a sophomore.

It wasn’t a fluke. Nor was it a compliment.

With Minici as the No. 1 quarterback and Garcia starting at wide receiver, the Vaqueros needed someone to run the junior varsity.

Phelps wasn’t eligible to play in varsity games at the start of the season because he was 14.

But he began to impress coaches. By the time spring practice was over, Henigan began to think of Phelps in terms of the future.

“The coaching staff fell in love with the kid,” Henigan said. “Then we found out that he was a year younger than the other sophomores. Then we saw his dad was tall and that he might grow. After about two weeks of practice, we felt Mike was going to be the starter when he was a senior.”

That gave Phelps two years to develop. He was 6-3, 200 as a junior, then grew two more inches. He also got time to study Minici and Garcia.

He spent it absorbing the game and lifting weights. “I remember he was this little kid who was really determined,” said Minici, who plays baseball at Rancho Santiago College. “He was always in the weight room or listening to coaches. He wanted to learn everything.”

Phelps hasn’t been perfect. But he has been close. “Two years ago, when we brought him up, we thought he had a chance to be good,” Henigan said. “If he matured, if he got bigger, if he worked hard, he was going to be the guy.”

Phelps has matured. He has gotten bigger. He has worked hard. he’s now the guy. Said Minici: “Yeah, little Frankie has grown up.”