PREP FOOTBALL ’99 : Former Griffin Stars Lead Alumni Charge : Colleges: BYU’s Feterik and Oregon’s Hartley are among former county standouts who appear on rosters of the nation’s major football programs.

Coach John Barnes isn’t surprised that two of his former Los Alamitos High players are expected to be among the prominent players in college football this season.

For four years, quarterback Kevin Feterik and wide receiver Tony Hartley formed a top passing combination at a school that is traditionally a Southern California football power.

“They’re both ‘football-holics,’ ” Barnes said. “Some guys find they’re good at football, so they play it, but both of them really live and die the game. They both have a great work ethic, and they had a great desire to play college football.”

Feterik is the starting quarterback at Brigham Young, and Hartley is the top receiver at Oregon. They are among 19 former Los Alamitos players on college football scholarships this season, according to Barnes.

Feterik, the career passing leader at Los Alamitos, passed for 2,718 yards last season as a junior for a BYU team that finished 9-3, the Cougars’ best record since 1996. The Western Athletic Conference’s top-rated passer in 1998, Feterik has thrown for 4,511 yards in three seasons.

Hartley, who caught passes for 3,181 yards during his high school career, is a threat to break all of Oregon’s career receiving records. He caught 48 passes for 1,015 yards and 10 touchdowns a year ago for a team that was 8-3 and tied for third in the Pacific 10 Conference. He has 1,863 yards for his three-year career.

Feterik and Hartley started practicing together when they were in junior high school, then were teammates four years at Los Alamitos. “Kevin could close his eyes and know where Tony would be, and Tony always knew exactly where the ball was going to be,” Barnes said.

They considered playing for the same college, but then decided to go their separate ways.

“It just didn’t work out,” Feterik said. “We made trips together to Kansas State and California. Kansas State really wanted us both, but they wanted us to redshirt our first year, and we both wanted to be able to play right away.”

Both enjoyed quick college success. Hartley caught 25 passes for 387 yards as a freshman and last year became only the fifth Oregon receiver to gain more than 1,000 yards in a season.

Feterik was a backup as a freshman, but moved into the starting lineup as a sophomore, throwing for 328 yards in his first start. He passed for 1,767 yards for the season despite missing three games with an ankle injury. He has completed 60.1% of his passes over three seasons.

Feterik said he’s hoping for 3,500 yards passing and 25 touchdowns this season. Those numbers would put him in the same class with former BYU quarterbacks such as Ty Detmer, Jim McMahon and Steve Young. And at BYU, those are the standards by which quarterbacks are judged.

Brigham Young has moved to a more pass-oriented shotgun offense this season in an effort to win the new Mountain West Conference, the spinoff of the WAC. The Cougars won their division in the WAC last season, but lost to Air Force in the conference title game, 20-13.

“We’re spreading out the offense with more receivers, and putting even more emphasis on our passing,” Feterik said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Hartley, who ranked fourth among Pac-10 receivers with an average of 92.3 yards per game last season, also is eager for a new season to start.

“If I can stay healthy, I feel like I can do some good things this season, and I’ve only missed one game in college with an injury,” he said. “But how the team does this season is the most important thing to me, and I want us to get to a New Year’s Day bowl game.”

Four quarterbacks with Orange County roots are playing key roles for nationally prominent teams this season.

Carson Palmer, who played at Santa Margarita High, took over as the USC starter in the last five games last season as a freshman, becoming only the second first-year player to start for the Trojans at the position. The other was Rob Johnson, the former El Toro High player who is with the Buffalo Bills. Palmer completed 55.3% of his passes for 1,755 yards and seven touchdowns.

Sophomore Austin Moherman, who played at Capistrano Valley and Mission Viejo high schools, earned the starting position for Ohio State in Sunday’s Kickoff Classic against Miami. He completed 10 of 22 passes for 107 yards with one touchdown and an interception, but the Buckeyes lost, 23-12. Moherman had attempted only one pass previously for Ohio State.

David Priestly, who signed with Ohio State out of Brethren Christian High, transferred to Pittsburgh. A redshirt sophomore, he will be the Panthers’ starter Saturday against Bowling Green.

Another former area quarterback, Chris Boden of San Clemente, is a standout for Villanova, which plays Division I-AA football. Boden, a senior, already holds several school passing records, and is within range of breaking school records for career completions and yardage. Boden has thrown for 7,088 yards and 75 touchdowns in three seasons.

Two former Orange County players--DeShaun Foster of UCLA and Reuben Droughns of Oregon--are expected to be among the top running backs in the Pac-10.

Foster, a sophomore who played at Tustin High, set a school record last season for yards gained by a true freshman with 673, an average of 5.3 yards per carry. He scored 12 touchdowns, four of them in UCLA’s victory over USC. Foster led all UCLA rushers despite missing the game against California as well as most of two others because of a sprained knee.

Foster also ranked third on the team in receptions and is a breakaway threat on punt and kickoff returns.

Droughns, who played at Anaheim High and then at Merced College, got his Division I-A football career off to an impressive start last season by gaining 824 yards in his first five games. He missed the last six games with a broken ankle.

When he went to the sidelines, Droughns was averaging a nation-best 7.4 yards per carry and was fourth with averages of 164.8 rushing yards and 13.2 points per game. Droughns rushed for more than 200 yards in three games.

Oregon has 11 other players from Orange County in addition to Hartley and Droughns. Jim Adams, a sophomore from El Toro High, and Josh Beckett, a senior from Santa Margarita High, are expected to start on the offensive line.

Other area players also are in key roles at both UCLA and USC.

At UCLA, Asi Faoa, a freshman from Anaheim, is a contender for a starting spot at outside linebacker, and Brad Melsby, a senior from Los Alamitos, is among the Bruins’ top four receivers. Melsby caught 16 passes, averaging 20.7 yards per reception last season.

At USC, senior David Gibson, who played at Mater Dei, has moved back to the secondary after starting last year at weakside linebacker. He also started as a sophomore at rover, but Coach Paul Hackett considers strong safety to be his natural position. He is the team’s top returning tackler.

Ifeanyi Ohalete, a junior from Los Alamitos, is expected to be the Trojans’ starting free safety. Ohalete started four early season games at strong safety last season.

Senior Brad Williams, who played at Mater Dei, is in his third season as a starter at defensive tackle at Notre Dame.