Quarterbacks Catching On for Panthers

The Newbury Park High football team passes for so much yardage--a region-high 1,954 to date--one would think the Panthers have three quarterbacks on the field.

That would be correct--although Chris Czernek has done all the passing.

Jake Farrel, a 6-foot-5 junior, and Nick Czernek, a sophomore and Chris’s brother, are prolific receivers who played nothing but quarterback until this season.

Farrel, who was Newbury Park’s leading hitter on the baseball team as a sophomore, showed great passing potential the past two seasons on the freshman and junior varsity teams. So did Nick Czernek, last season’s freshman quarterback.

But with Chris Czernek chasing state passing records, catching the ball is vastly preferable to standing on the sidelines. Farrel has 31 catches for 479 yards and Nick Czernek has 19 for 215 yards.

“It took a while to get it right, but I’m enjoying it a lot,” Farrel said. “Chris spreads it around a lot, so everyone gets balls thrown at him.”

Czernek has thrown touchdown passes to seven receivers. Chris Garty, a senior who had one catch last season, leads the team with 39 catches for 571 yards and seven touchdowns.

Patrick Reddick, who last season had 61 catches for 1,122 yards, has missed two games with injuries but has 28 catches for 465 yards.

Rebel yells: Quartz Hill football boosters are selling video-tape copies of Rebel games this fall. The popular items, many of them being purchased as Christmas presents and keepsakes, have just one disclaimer: the occasional outbursts of cameraman Don Hetinger.

“When they decided to do this, I said, ‘You want sound on these things?’ ” said Rebel defensive coordinator Ken Hetinger, Don’s brother, who dubs the tapes. “ ‘I can’t bleep out my brother. And he gets a little flamboyant.’ ”

Nobody seems to mind Don Hetinger’s colorful contributions.

“You can hear the announcer, too, which makes it kind of neat,” booster club member Rhonda Green said.

Flashes on blink: As expected, Norm Andersen has had anything but smooth sailing in his first year as Fillmore’s football coach.

Andersen, a longtime NCAA Division I assistant at UCLA and Iowa State, took over the Flashes last spring after he was not retained by new Bruin Coach Bob Toledo.

At Fillmore, Andersen inherited a team that has not qualified for the playoffs since 1991 and has not won a Tri-Valley League title since 1984--two streaks that very likely will be extended.

Fillmore (2-4) has had its moments, including a 35-0 victory over Frazier Mountain and a defeat of L.A. Baptist in which fullback Adrian Golson rushed for 135 yards.

But the Flashes all too often fizzle.

Andersen had to scrap his original one-back offense because he didn’t have the players to run it effectively. His first starting quarterback is now a defensive substitute. His current quarterbacks alternate “by the play,” Andersen said.

“We have some good football players but they need to learn to play their best when it counts the most,” Andersen said.

The Flashes defeated L.A. Baptist without Andersen, who was serving a mandatory one-game suspension after being ejected the week before during a 30-0 loss to El Segundo.

“I got in a little argument with the referee and that’s all I want to say about it,” Andersen said.

“I was sticking up for my team.”

Family ties: With 32 years of head varsity experience at the same high school, Crescenta Valley cross-country and track Coach Keith Gilliland could be the elder statesmen among area coaches.

Gilliland, 63, started out as an assistant cross-country and track coach at Crescenta Valley in the fall of 1961 before taking over both programs in 1965, the same year he had a student named Donna Torrey in his biology class.

Torrey later married and lived in Glendale from 1975 to 1990.

She and her family resided in Ohio for the past five years, but they moved back to La Crescenta in the summer and Gilliland has been coaching Torrey’s daughter, sophomore Torrey Groves, this season.

Groves finished 12th in the Ohio State Division III championships last year and has been the Falcons’ No. 1 or 2 runner this season.

“It feels great,” Gilliland said of coaching Groves. “Because there were times in the past when some talented kids moved out of the area.”

What does Torrey Groves think about the situation?

“She can’t believe that anyone is old enough to have gone to high school that long ago,” her mother said.

Fame game: Five athletes and a coach from the Valley and Ventura County region are among 100 charter members inducted into the California High School Sports Hall of Fame.

They are Anthony Davis, San Fernando class of 1971, football and baseball; John Elway, Granada Hills ‘79, football and baseball; Bud Hauser, Oxnard ‘22, track and field; Charles White, San Fernando ‘76, football and track and field; Robin Yount, Taft ‘73, baseball; and Joe Vaughn, current girls’ basketball coach at Buena.