City Isn’t Camera-Ready, So It Was Waiting Game

The kicker teed the ball up, a cheer rose from the crowdand . . . nothing happened.

It turned out that Van Nuys High and Wilson lined up five minutes early for the opening kickoff of Friday’s City Section 3-A championship gane.

A broadcast team from KLCS, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s television channel, had yet to go on the air.

When officials waved both teams off the field, Van Nuys Coach Mark Pomerantz chose to take his players back into the Coliseum tunnel, where they waited for five minutes, hopping up and down, trying to stay loose.

Finally, the clock struck 5 p.m. and the teams lined up again . . . only to stand around for five more minutes as KLCS went through its pre-game show.

Van Nuys began the game with a no-huddle offense, running the ball six consecutive times, four of those handoffs going to Carlos Mack. The scripted start worked well as the Wolves moved the ball from their own 39-yard line to the Wilson 41.

“We planned on doing certain things,” Pomerantz said. “We wanted to test the waters.”

Finally, facing fourth and one, the Wolves huddled. Grigor Boyadzhyan was stopped cold on the next play.

Prime-time nerves: Some of the Van Nuys players admitted to being dazzled by the Coliseum. Mack felt butterflies coming down the tunnel. Linebacker David Melo couldn’t help watching for replays on the giant screen at one end of the stadium.

“All the time,” Melo said. “It was a bad thing.”

Pomerantz chalked it all up to the experience.

“The kids are going to be a little awe-struck,” he said. “They should be.”

But Jeremiah Williams insisted the dizzying effects soon wore off.

“Once we got in the game, it didn’t matter that we were playing in the Coliseum. It didn’t matter where we were playing.”

Urban renewal: Last September, school district officials approached Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre with the hope of bringing the City Section finals back to the Coliseum for the first time since 1988. The primary obstacle was money. One night’s rental exceeded $50,000.

“I had a meeting with the Coliseum people,” the councilman said. “We found out how much it cost and I said, ‘Let’s go.’ ”

First, the school district discovered it could save a few thousand dollars by using its own police force as security.

Then Alatorre joined forces with Mayor Richard Riordan to raise the rest of the money from sponsors and private donors.

“Why shouldn’t the City championships be here every year?” the councilman said. “It’s a great field. There’s a lot of history here.”

Invisible lines: Jumbotron replays weren’t the only big-league touches to Friday night’s championship games. There were plenty of television timeouts. And the stadium was festooned with corporate advertisements.

The only thing missing were yard markings. There was nothing but green between the yard lines, so officials had to estimate.

“We’re used to it,” umpire Wayne Rhea said. “C’mon, we’re high school guys.”

Family affair: Despite the unusual surroundings, Taft quarterback Nick DiPadova might have felt right at home. So many of his family and friends attended the game that they had to rent their own bus.

“Fifty-two of us,” said Nick DiPadova Sr., the quarterback’s father. “Aunts, uncles, cousins and a lot of church friends.”

In fact, the Calabasas ward of the Mormon Church postponed its holiday party because of the game.

Valley connection: Behind the Coliseum, in the KLCS production truck, the production crew could hardly be considered impartial. Production coordinator Bob Greene, whose job it was to oversee seven cameras and more than a dozen workers, graduated from Van Nuys in 1959.

“I never thought I’d see the day when Van Nuys would get to a final game,” Greene said. “I saw a crewman walking around here in his Van Nuys letterman jacket. We’re all pretty enthusiastic.”

Greene’s partisanship did not end with the evening’s first game. His youngest son, Todd, played the line for Taft six years ago.

Small but mighty: Jaron Lawson is the smallest player on the Taft team, not counting the kicker. But the 5-foot-7, 150-pound defensive back turned in one of the game’s biggest plays.

Midway through the third quarter, linebacker Tyler Brennan hit San Pedro running back Rod Williams hard enough to jar the ball loose, and Lawson was there to scoop it up.

Twenty-seven yards later, Lawson had a touchdown and Taft had a 13-9 lead.

“Tyler knocked the ball out and I saw the opportunity,” Lawson said. “We practice that every day.”

Missed chance: Later in the third quarter, Keith Johnson, another Taft defensive back, had a similar opportunity slip through his fingers.

Johnson dove for an interception but the ball glanced off his hands, landing in the arms of San Pedro’s Tim O’Donnell, who rumbled for a touchdown.

Fleeting success: Taft receivers relied on speed to get open all season. Against San Pedro, they faced a secondary that matched them step for step.

Compounding matters, a strong rush forced DiPadova to get rid of the ball quickly most of the night.

“Their defense was strong,” said receiver Damon Coleman who had 10 catches for 97 yards. “But the way I played, I’m still the No. 1 receiver in the city.”