Kira May Have Opportunity in Another Field

Moorpark High Coach Rob Dearborn said three seniors from his Frontier League champion football team have a chance to play lower-level college football: tight end/linebacker Bill Finnerty, offensive lineman/linebacker Javier Solano and wide receiver/defensive back Jared Kira, who had 34 catches for 432 yards and seven touchdowns.

But Kira’s future probably lies in field hockey, not football. Field hockey?

“He’s a good athlete and he’s good in a lot of different sports,” Dearborn said of Kira. “He plays soccer too. But I hear he’s a brilliant field hockey player.”

Indeed. Kira toured with the U.S. Junior National team to England and Canada last summer. He plays on offense in field hockey, but he plays sweeper on Moorpark’s soccer team, which is the most important defensive position outside of goalie.

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After Nordhoff’s 42-7 blowout loss to Paso Robles in the Division IX quarterfinals last week, Coach Cliff Farrar said his Rangers were just happy to be there.

“A lot of people thought we’d be so-so this year,” said Farrar, who led Nordhoff to back-to-back league titles before an 8-4 finish this season. “This team came a long way.”

Not only did the Rangers start several underclassmen, six senior starters didn’t play as juniors.

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Division I coaches are interested in Nordhoff kicker Sean Leach, who made seven of 14 field-goal attempts, including a school-record 49-yarder. Some think Leach would be better served in tennis. He is related to touring pro Rick Leach and USC Coach Dick Leach. But he also has a cousin--Troy Scott--who is a walk-on kicker at Oregon State.

Sean Leach made 33 of 37 extra-point tries (three of his misses came on bad snaps) and he set two school records in punting. He had a long of 77 yards and averaged 44.7 yards per punt.

INDEPENDENTS

Turn Out the Lights

Montclair Prep knew it was doomed as soon as the La Palma Kennedy players stepped off the bus for their Division VII quarterfinal game.

Kennedy players outnumbered Montclair Prep’s, 90-24.

What hurt the Mounties most, however, was the loss of running back Wilbert Smith, who had suffered a knee injury against La Habra in a first-round game.

Smith gave it a try but after carrying twice for no gain he retired to the sideline. The 28-7 loss snapped Montclair Prep’s 29-game winning streak and almost as many hearts. “There were a lot of tears,” assistant John Hazelton said.

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Smith, who leads the state in scoring, finished the season with 41 touchdowns and a two-point conversion for 248 points. His 75 career touchdowns shatters the school record set last season by Eliel Swinton with 68.

Smith, who this season rushed for 2,512 of his 4,127 career yards, is not just another running back to succeed at Tailback High, according to Hazelton.

“Wilbert Smith is an All-American,” Hazelton said. “Recruiters like him more than (Bishop Amat’s) Rodney Sermons. Just the fact that he is compared to (Sermons) in the same breath says a lot.”

Might Smith be moved to defensive back in college like Swinton was at Stanford?

“Oh, no. There’s nobody that has talked about not having the ball in Wilbert’s hands,” Hazelton said.

FOOTHILL LEAGUE

Thanks but No Thanks

Dominguez High football Coach Willie Donerson commutes each day from Chino to Compton. Canyon High Coach Harry Welch suggested he move to the Santa Clarita Valley and take the head job at a yet-to-be-named, yet-to-be-opened high school there.

“No way I’d come up there,” Donerson said. “From what I’ve seen, it would be too much pressure.”

Maybe. But Donerson is 2-0 against Foothill League competition. His Dons beat Saugus in the first round of the 1992 playoffs on a last-minute desperation pass. They upset Hart in the second round of the playoffs last week, 44-42.

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Saugus High Coach Jack Bowman listened to the end of the Hart-Dominguez game on radio last week as he drove home from Eisenhower’s 37-19 victory over Loyola. The result didn’t surprise him.

“They’re just really, really good athletes and they’re the most disciplined, nice group of kids,” Bowman said. “Even Eisenhower, as good as they are (No. 2 in the nation by USA Today), don’t have as many good athletes as Dominguez.”

Saugus (5-4) surprisingly got bumped out of the playoffs after losing three of its last four games. Bowman said the Centurions might have been considered for an at-large bid in the Division II playoffs had they played a game on Week 10, but the only available opponent that week was Dominguez. And Bowman didn’t want to play Dominguez, which ousted Saugus from the playoffs in 1992.

“We weren’t chicken,” Bowman said. “We just thought we might get them in the first round of the playoffs.”

Staff writers Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Dana Haddad, Paige A. Leech, John Ortega and Jason H. Reid contributed to this notebook.