Wambolt (285) Weighs In at Camp

Coaches diplomatically skirt the issue, but truth be told, there are always players selected for the Shrine all-star football game who fail to measure up to the event’s high standard of talent.

Mike Wambolt isn’t one of them.

Not only has the Hart High center proved he belongs in this elite company, California team coaches say he ranks at the head of the state’s class.

“The best offensive lineman out there is Mike,” said Lee Evans, line coach from Oak Grove High in San Jose. “Fundamentally he’s sound. He’s intelligent. He’s strong. He has good feet. He has size. [He has] everything you want in a lineman.”

After making life miserable for defensive teammates in practice this week at Biola University, the 6-foot-4, 285-pound Wambolt will try to do the same against the Texas all-stars in the Shrine game at 7 p.m. Saturday at Cal State Fullerton. The game will be televised by Fox Sports West 2.

After that it’s on to Colorado, where Wambolt hopes to continue his winning ways. In three seasons as a varsity starter for Hart, he helped the Indians to a 34-6 record, three leagues titles, two Southern Section championship games and one section championship.

“I wanted to go to a school that had a winning tradition, because that’s all I’ve ever known,” Wambolt said. “That was definitely a deciding factor, to be able to contend for the national championship.

“I had my eye set on Colorado all through high school because I could see myself living there. That’s just me--the mountains and the snow and the cold. I wanted to get out of California. I was kind of sick of the heat. I wanted to go away to the coolness.”

Polite and articulate, Wambolt exhibits a coolness away from the football field that belies an aggressive nature when he competes.

Too big to play youth football, he donned a helmet and pads for the first time as a freshman at Hart and “fell in love with it instantly.”

He was a two-way lineman on the freshman team and enjoyed the hitting and chasing that goes along with playing defensive end.

“I loved defense,” he said. “Defense, defense, defense.”

But when he was promoted to the varsity as a sophomore, Hart coaches only saw a promising offensive lineman who would block, block, block.

Wambolt’s days on defense were over, but he still got his licks in when he could.

“Pass-blocking is my forte, but I love every type of blocking,” he said. “My favorite block is after the ball is tossed, going downfield looking for some little defensive back to hit. There’s something about that.”

Wambolt, a two-time all-region selection by The Times, flattened his share of defensive players at Hart but his primary responsibility, as with the rest of the offensive line, was protecting the quarterback.

Hart’s pass-oriented attack--one running back and no tight end--placed a lot of pressure on the linemen to form a secure pocket. If there was a breakdown, they heard about it from Hart’s volatile coaches.

“Many times at halftime we got tongue-lashings,” Wambolt said. “But for the most part, we did our jobs. We grew together as a line.”

Wambolt experienced the thrill of winning a section championship as a junior when Hart beat Antelope Valley, 35-28, in the 1995 Division II title game.

The victory avenged a 36-15 loss to the Antelopes in the 1994 final that spoiled an otherwise unbeaten season.

With a senior-dominated team returning, Hart was expected to again contend for a section championship last season.

But the Indians were upset by Ayala, 22-19, in the quarterfinals and finished 9-3, their worst record in Wambolt’s three varsity seasons.

“It was a shock,” Wambolt recalled. “It was like getting hit square in the jaw. Then it hits you the next morning, ‘There’s no more high school football.’ You’re just in a daze: ‘What am I going to do now?’ ”

A recruiting trip to Iowa the following weekend helped Wambolt take his mind off the playoff defeat. On his second trip he committed to Colorado, choosing the Buffaloes over Virginia Tech, the school that first offered him a scholarship in his junior year.

What sold him on Colorado?

“It was just everything,” he said. “The players, the coaches, the atmosphere. The campus is just gorgeous, and [the football team’s] style of offense is a pro set. If I want to go to the NFL, I thought this was a good place for me.

“[Colorado] Coach [Rick] Neuheisel loves to pass, and it looks like we’ll have a good chance to win a national championship in the next four or five years. I would like to be part of that.”

Wambolt also has a homecoming on the horizon. Colorado will play USC at the Coliseum in 1999.

In the past week he has become acquainted with three of his future Colorado teammates, including his roommate at Biola, defensive lineman Justin Bannan of Bella Vista High near Sacramento. Like Wambolt, Bannan has drawn raves from the Oak Grove coaching staff for his exemplary play.

“I couldn’t be on a team with any greater guys,” Wambolt said. “There are no head trips. Everyone has respect for each other. It’s really cool.”

In that regard, Wambolt says the Shrine team compares favorably to Hart. Two of his former Indian teammates also earned scholarships to Division I schools--wide receiver-defensive back Cody Joyce to UCLA and linebacker Todd Hourigan to Utah.

The difference, Wambolt says, is that for the first time in his football career, he’s no longer the biggest guy on the team.

“I can tell it’s a different level from a normal high school team, just by the speed and the size [of the players],” he said. “Now all the offensive linemen are as big as me or bigger. It’s a challenge.”

One that Wambolt has shown he’s ready to meet.