Comfortable Place to Land : Delmatoff Left Pierce for Valley Because of Run-and-Shoot

Before the rumor mongers get overly excited, quarterback Davis Delmatoff wants to set the record straight about his move this season from Pierce College to Valley.

“The Pierce players and coaches are good people,” said Delmatoff, a former Hart High standout. “It wasn’t anything they did or that happened there that made me come to Valley.”

Fair enough.

But few players who are as productive as Delmatoff (1,961 yards passing and nine touchdowns in ‘93) jump ship without reason. There has to be a hidden agenda, right?

Nice try but no touchdown, said Delmatoff. Not even a field goal. The decision was purely logical.

“I just wanted to be back with an offense I was more comfortable with,” he said.

At Valley, that offense is the run-and-shoot. It’s what Delmatoff executed with great precision at Hart when he passed for 3,196 yards and 36 touchdowns in his senior season in 1992. And although he adjusted well to the spread offense with four wide receivers used by Pierce, Delmatoff wanted to work in a more familiar environment.

“I already know how to make the reads (against the run-and-shoot),” Delmatoff said. “I know how certain defenses tend to react against that kind of an offense.”

Delmatoff, 6 feet and 220 pounds, actually had hoped to prove that at Valley last year. He enrolled at the Van Nuys school after graduating from Hart and practiced with the Monarchs, but just before the season started he moved to Pierce. Even now, Delmatoff can’t pinpoint what prompted last year’s switch.

“It was an uneasy feeling. I could never really put my finger on it,” Delmatoff said. “I just didn’t feel comfortable at Valley at that time.”

Perhaps some of that apprehension was caused by Sean Fitzgerald. The 6-5 rifle-armed quarterback set a school single-season passing mark with 3,134 yards last year and led the Monarchs (9-2) to a 21-19 last-second victory over Moorpark in the Western State K-Swiss Bowl. One glance at Fitzgerald in practice might have prompted Delmatoff to try his luck elsewhere.

“We had Sean Fitzgerald working with us and Davis didn’t want to take a chance of not playing,” said Jim Fenwick, the Valley coach. “We were disappointed (Delmatoff left) and it left us with one quarterback.”

That cleat is now on the other foot.

In 10 games at Pierce, Delmatoff hit the mark 174 times in 339 attempts (51.3%) and averaged 11.3 yards per completion. He was one of the bright spots for the Brahmas, who finished 5-5 overall and 2-3 in the South Division of the Western State Conference. With Delmatoff calling the signals, Coach Bill Norton knew he had a reliable and proven player at the position.

But his defection to Valley soon after the season left Norton with a hole to fill. The move didn’t surprise him but he wasn’t thrilled with the way Delmatoff handled it, Norton said.

“The only reason I was really upset about the deal is that Davis wasn’t man enough to tell me,” Norton said. “He had his dad call me. I believe his explanation about the run-and-shoot and I don’t have any hard feelings. I wish him luck.”

Delmatoff will need that, if only because he has a tough act to follow. Fitzgerald recently won the starting job at Pittsburgh and his shadow looms large over Monarch Stadium. There will be comparisons and Delmatoff will have the added pressure of trying to direct an inexperienced offense.

But Delmatoff doesn’t anticipate problems. He faced similar expectations at Hart when he replaced Ryan Connors, who passed for 4,144 yards in 1991, and Delmatoff, who played wide receiver the year before, responded brilliantly.

“I’m kind of used to filling big shoes,” Delmatoff said. “Sean is a great quarterback and he broke records, but I can’t go out there and try to accomplish what he did. It wouldn’t be smart to go into the season thinking that way.”

Especially not when he still is battling for the starting job with Jim Arellanes, a transfer from Northern Arizona. At 6-4 and 210, he’s a Fitzgerald clone. Arellanes completed 13 of 19 attempts for 160 yards and two touchdowns in a backup role for the Lumberjacks last season, but he could win the job at Valley because of his size and strong arm.

Delmatoff, conversely, apparently faces the stigma of being too short to play quarterback in a Division I program. He did not receive much interest from major four-year schools after high school, but Fenwick intends to help Delmatoff get noticed this season.

“He is not the prototype of a quarterback that Sean or that Jim are,” Fenwick said. “In some respects, they have somewhat of a recruiting advantage. A guy like Davis is going to have to prove himself all the time. But he is a good football player. He throws a very catchable ball and has a real good sense for timing.”

Particularly when it comes to switching teams, Delmatoff hopes.