Outnumbered but Not Outclassed : Prep football: Some of area’s smallest teams are also some of its best.

If winning football games could be linked to the team with the most players, Saugus High would be among the most successful teams in the state, and teams such as Sylmar and Newbury Park would be hard-pressed to seize even a single victory.

But winning seems to have more to do with quality of players than quantity. As one successful coach so aptly said: “You can only put 11 guys on the field at one time.”

Still, a little intimidation couldn’t hurt. Take Fontana, a school with an enrollment of almost 4,000 and a squad of 90 players. To the casual observer, Fontana (8-0) looks insurmountable by sheer numbers alone. But look closer. Only 42 of those players are on the varsity; the rest are sideline cheerleaders, otherwise known as the junior varsity.

Area teams should be so lucky. Of the 66 teams competing in 11-man football in the Valley and Ventura County regions, Saugus is the largest with 69 players on its varsity. Twenty-seven teams in the region have less than half that amount.

But while Saugus is 5-3 and perhaps only the second-best team in the Foothill League, Sylmar and Newbury Park, each with 35 players and comprising the smallest squads in The Times’ Top 10 poll, are undefeated and poised to win league championships and possibly more. Except for Agoura with 33 players and Royal with 36, Newbury Park is outnumbered by at least 15 players by each of the other Marmonte teams.

Area schools with small squads aren’t the only teams enjoying success. Last year, Bloomington went 14-0 and shattered a state single-season record by scoring 880 points. The Bruins suited up only 24 players.

So can less be more? Do teams that start more than a half-dozen players both ways--such as Sylmar and Newbury Park--stand a better chance than the teams with several reserves and one-way starters?

Not always. But given the choice, coaches would rather have a small crew of talent than an army of mediocrity.

“Do we need another 20 kids that can’t play?” Newbury Coach George Hurley asked rhetorically. “What I’d like to have is about 45 kids and, of course, I’d like All-CIF-[caliber] kids. And I’d like to pick them from other teams we play now. Can we do that?”

Don’t lose the message in Hurley’s good-natured sarcasm. What he wants is talent, enough to put 11 players on the field at one time. If they happen to play on both sides of the ball, then so be it.

In 1993, when Newbury Park went undefeated in 14 games and won the Southern Section Division III title, the Panthers had only 32 players, three of whom were Keith Smith, Leodes Van Buren and Jason Toohey. All three are in the state record book. Talent speaks volumes.

Just ask Sylmar Coach Jeff Engilman, whose magic numbers are 32 and 34. In the last 12 years, Engilman-coached teams have won four City Section titles, two at Manual Arts (1983-84) and two at Sylmar (1992, 1994). Each of those teams had either 32 or 34 players.

“Whatever it takes to win,” said Engilman, whose Spartans have won 22 consecutive games. “I’d rather have less with better skill guys. Always.”

But while Sylmar has eight two-way starters, the Spartans lack depth. If Sylmar and Kennedy face off in the playoffs, the Spartans might find themselves out of gas heading into the fourth quarter. The Golden Cougars, ranked No. 4 by The Times, have 58 players, only three of whom start on both offense and defense.

Kennedy Coach Bob Francola said his last six teams have hovered around the 50-player mark. This year the numbers are up a bit. “I think it goes in cycles,” he said.

Engilman agrees. He hasn’t always been strapped for players. In 1990, Sylmar suited up 56 and finished 10-1 after losing in the first-round of 3-A playoffs. But the numbers have been dwindling since.

Sylmar isn’t the only team that has been thinning over the past five years. Antelope Valley has 2,404 students but only 37 players on the football team. And on any given day, the Antelopes, The Times’ top-ranked team, may have as few as 28 players at practice. Antelope Valley Coach Brent Newcomb said the decline in numbers has become a trend in that region for some time now--one that has him thinking about retirement.

“Every year we have about 1,200 students who are ineligible [to participate in sports],” Newcomb said. “There were 100 kids last year who didn’t pass a class, didn’t pass a single credit.”

Poor attendance has become another problem at the school, Newcomb said. “There’s just too many other things that their parents want them to do around here.”

In the past several years, players’ excuses for missing school and/or practice have taken their toll on Newcomb, who has excused players for everything from baby-sitting to grocery shopping.

“I gotta admit, I’ve changed a lot since I’ve been here,” said Newcomb, who has been coaching at Antelope Valley for 27 years, “and that’s what I don’t like about myself right now.”

To make matters worse for Newcomb, new high schools have been popping up all over the Lancaster-Palmdale region. Littlerock and Highland opened in 1991. Lancaster High, seven miles east of Antelope Valley, opened this year and already is luring away would-be Antelopes with its new equipment and facilities. How do you compete for student-athletes with a downtrodden school that opened in 1912? Newcomb says he can’t.

Newcomb said player participation hit its prime at Antelope Valley in the late 1970s when approximately 60 players suited up each year.

Some coaches believe the modern athlete has changed, that they are specializing in one sport instead of playing three, which used to be so common. Jack of all trades would now rather be master of one.

Others coaches believe many would-be players are not willing to put in the time and commitment required to be successful.

Perhaps that’s the trouble at Burroughs. Second-year Coach Robert dos Remedios has watched his team dwindle to as few as 19 players this season. A coach filling in at practice is not an uncommon sight at Burroughs.

Still, with only 24 players currently on the squad--and not enough talent to carry the team--it makes it tough for Burroughs to compete in the Foothill league where teams average 46 players. Tough to compete, tougher to coach.

“We could have a kid go in the tank and stay in the tank because he knows he’s gonna play regardless,” dos Remedios said.

“I think if I had 20 kids like Bloomington has we would be able to hang a lot better.”

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BIGGER ISN’T BETTER

Some of the best high school football teams in the region are those with the smallest rosters. But winning often has more to do with quality than quantity. After all, each team can only have 11 players on the field at one time.

TIMES REGIONAL TOP 10

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Rank School (record) Enrollment Roster size 2-way starters 1. Antelope Valley (7-1) 2,404 37 4 2. Sylmar (8-0) *1,817 35 8 3. Notre Dame (8-0) 1,806 44 3 4. Kennedy (8-0) 2,207 58 3 5. Newbury Park (8-0) 1,524 35 7 6. Hart (6-2) 2,116 53 1 7. Chaminade (8-0) 1,050 42 5 8. Quartz Hill (7-1) 2,549 45 3 9. Thousand Oaks (7-1) 2,246 53 3 10. Crespi (5-3) 476** 36 4

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* Three-year school

** All-boys’ school