Making Pronounced Changes

It’s every coach’s fantasy: A remarkably gifted player arrives from another country on an exchange program.

Plug him in, and an electrical current supercharges your team.

To the chagrin of fellow Marmonte League coaches, such luck appears to have found not one but two basketball teams--Camarillo and Simi Valley.

Camarillo is the recipient of two players from Argentina. Mariano It (pronounced “eat”) is a 6-foot-2 junior guard and Leonardo Espelet is a 6-8 junior post player.

“Both are accomplished players with experience,” said a rival coach who has watched them play.

An even more touted player, 6-9 senior center Pero Vasiljevic (maybe just pronounce it “franchise”), fell into Simi Valley’s lap from Australia.

To listen to rival coaches, he jumps like a kangaroo and shoots like, well, a kangaroo hunter.

“He’s the best player in the league, hands down,” said a coach who has watched Vasiljevic play in American Roundball Corp. games. “Division I schools are all over him already.”

Camarillo Coach Mike Prewitt and Simi Valley Coach Dean Bradshaw downplay their good fortune. Both say the other guy’s transfers are wonderful but that the jury is out on their own.

“I heard an assistant coach say the kids from Argentina are the best in the league,” Bradshaw said. “As for Pero, I don’t know how he’ll do in game situations.”

Vasiljevic is one of three transfers to Simi Valley. Junior guards Ronnie Noel (from Palmdale) and Brandon Meissner (from Montana) will bolster a team that returns only shooting guard Scott Blough.

Four starters return for Camarillo, which puts Prewitt in the delicate position of not wanting to ruffle any feathers.

“It’s too early to say how good [It and Espelet] will be,” he said. “We haven’t had much time to do a lot of things. But this will make things competitive within our team. As an athlete, you like to compete, so that’s a positive.”

About all the coaches agree on is that the infusion of talent will make for an interesting season.

“I’ve been around the Marmonte League for 15 years, and this is the best it’s ever been,” Prewitt said.

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Two starkly different versions of one ugly postgame brawl. That’s not surprising. Each side in such incidents typically blames the other.

Cleveland defeats Granada Hills, a winless team whose homecoming has just been spoiled. A few players begin pushing, which leads to punches and kicks. Several adult spectators join in the melee before it ends with the Cleveland team boarding its bus.

The fight, according to Cleveland receiver Alex Kalinowski:

“They were taunting us the whole game. Then, apparently somebody from Granada spit on their hand before he shook our guys’ hands, then spit in their faces.

“One of our guys, Terry Lindell, had his helmet off and Granada Hills players were kicking him in the head. One of their parents took a swing at me. It was out of hand.”

The same fight, according to Granada Hills receiver Ernest Quinley:

“It was them that started it. With two minutes to go, they were saying, ‘You all better get ready.’ In our huddle, we told each other to watch out for yourself.

“Right after the game, one of our coaches had me and [linebacker] Dwayne Lewis together, one on each arm. All of a sudden, three Cleveland guys started at us. I said, ‘Coach, here they come.’ Then there was a lot of piles.

“I saw two guys in street clothes hitting one of our guys in pads. They were kicking me, trying to pull my helmet off.”

The opposing players agree on only one thing: There is no place for fights in high school football.

Said Kalinowski: “There was so much talk during the game. The refs should have foreseen it.”

Said Quinley: “Fighting is not my game. I don’t know why they wanted to fight us. They won.”

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Mike Barrett of Burroughs is easygoing, although not easy to tackle.

Playing running back only because of a neck injury to starter Robert Barillas, Barrett scored a school-record seven touchdowns in a 63-35 victory over Valencia. The senior rushed for six of the scores along with 226 yards, and also scored on a fumble return.

Barrett began the season at running back and scored five touchdowns in a game. But when Barillas turned 15 and joined the varsity, Barrett moved to receiver to make way for the sophomore.

With 12 rushing touchdowns in two games as a running back and 14 scores overall, will Barrett ask to remain in the backfield?

“I probably would like to stay at running back, but if Coach wants me to play receiver, that’s OK,” he said.

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Burroughs is only 3-4-1, but that is a whole lot better than winless crosstown rival Burbank, which is 0-8 after being drubbed by Hart, 56-0.

Funny, wasn’t Burbank where everyone in town wanted to play, even to the point that Coach John Hazelton has been accused of recruiting?

“There are teachers in our own school who thought we were going to be terrible and Burbank would do better than us,” Barrett said. “All that talk kind of made us think about where we were and the situation we were in. It motivated us.”

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At least two Camarillo alumni were smiling after Thousand Oaks ruined the Scorpions’ homecoming with a 48-7 victory--Lancer assistants Rob Elliot (class of ‘59) and Gary Wagner (class of ‘83).

The only damper on the victory were injuries to linebacker Greg Gallup (knee) and tailbacks Brandon Jackson (shoulder) and Byron Caballeros (arm).

“That made it a fairly expensive victory,” Coach Mike Kelly said. “We might hold Jackson out next week [against Channel Islands] and get him back against Newbury Park. We thought the worst at first with Gallup, but I think it is a stretched ligament rather than a tear.”

Caballeros, who rushed for 60 yards, suffered a broken arm in the fourth quarter. When his mother, Anna, rushed to the field to check on him, she passed out but was revived.

Also missing for Thousand Oaks is kicker Jack Wilson, who might be lost for the season because of a cracked spine. Nicole Straky (four extra points) and Eric Allen (one extra point and all kickoffs) shared kicking duty against Camarillo, but the Lancers will miss Wilson’s long-range ability. He has five field goals, including a 51-yarder.

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Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park will meet on friendly turf--a restaurant--before they clash Nov. 10 for the Marmonte League championship.

Boosters arranged a breakfast at 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, for both teams. Undoubtedly, some sort of eating competition will take place.

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Biggest Winners

The following is a list of the high school football teams from the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County areas with the highest winning percentages from 1990 through 1994. Playoff results are included.

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School Wins Losses Ties Pct. Sylmar 57 6 1 .898 Montclair Prep 52 6 0 .897 Hart 52 12 0 .813 Notre Dame 40 18 2 .683 Ventura 37 17 1 .682 Oak Park 39 18 1 .681 Nordhoff 40 20 0 .667 Quartz Hill 38 19 2 .661 Royal 35 19 1 .646 San Fernando 36 20 1 .640 Taft 37 21 0 .638 Crescenta Valley 34 20 0 .630 Buena 34 20 2 .625 Newbury Park 35 21 0 .625 Glendale 33 20 0 .623 Crespi 35 22 0 .614 Kennedy 33 21 2 .607 Westlake 32 21 2 .600 Canyon 33 22 1 .598 Kilpatrick 33 22 2 .597

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