Crenshaw Reflects on Bitter End : Football: The team was one game away from erasing some of the distance between it and the school’s vaunted basketball program. Maybe next year.

Crenshaw High’s football team made strides in coming out of the shadow of the school’s acclaimed basketball program this season, but in the end, the Cougars had to settle for second place on the field and in the hearts of Crenshaw fans.

Sylmar beat Crenshaw, 38-6, in the City Section 4-A Championship game at El Camino College Dec. 10 before a small crowd of 2,000.

Running back Brandon Seals scored on a fourth-down run from the five-yard line to bring Crenshaw within one at 7-6. But that was as close as the Cougars would come, as Sylmar reeled off 31 consecutive points, including a late field goal that left Crenshaw coach Robert Garrett grumbling after the game.

Although Crenshaw (12-2) gained some respect for their runner-up finish in the City Section 4-A playoffs, the football program at Crenshaw may never be able to step out of the shadow of California’s most successful high school basketball program over the past 24 years.

In contrast to the sparse support at the football game, the school gym was packed two days earlier for a nonleague showdown between defending City and State champion Crenshaw and Santa Ana Valley, which brought along Orange County stars Olujima Mann and Ike Harmon. Crenshaw prevailed, 88-80.

Crenshaw’s basketball team has won 13 4-A City titles and six State Division I titles since Willie West began coaching in 1970.

The football team won its only championship in 1991, a 27-7 win over Chatsworth in the 3-A title game.

But assistant athletic director Juanita Walker-Deckard insists the football program’s success cannot be measured in victories alone.

“We have a strong football program,” she said. “The coaches are very caring, making sure that academics is stressed. No player was lost off this year’s football team due to ineligibility.

“We have a resurgence of football among the young people living in our neighborhood, who are now staying in the neighborhood. They were going to Westchester and Palisades and some of the schools in the valley.”

Athletic Director Moss Benmosche pointed out that football attendance grew over previous years during this year’s playoffs.

Although playing in the talent-rich Southern Pacific Conference with powers Carson, Banning and Dorsey will make it tough for the Cougars to get another shot at a title next year, there’s reason to hope: The Cougars return 27 underclassmen next season, including quarterback Ricky Lumford, running back Anthony Lowrance and lineman Earl Lillie.