HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK

By STEVE HENSON

Nov. 28, 2000 12 AM PT

Sylmar did not advance as far as its City Section championship teams in 1994 and ‘92, but the Spartans were flying high with John Valdez at quarterback.

Valdez set a season school record with 1,866 yards passing to break the old mark of 1,678 set by Greg Marquez in 1994. Valdez also holds the career mark with 3,015 yards, obliterating the record of 2,159 set by Chris Cervantes in 1995-96.

Felipe Samano had 46 receptions for 633 yards this season, ranking him second to Shaun Avalos, who had 50 catches and 726 yards in 1997.

High School Sports

Steve Henson

Steve Henson is a reporter with the Fast Break sports team at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as an assistant editor and reporter in the Sports department. Henson was a leader in digital-only newsrooms from 2007-19 as a senior editor and columnist at Yahoo Sports and as senior editor at the USA Today Sports Media Group. This is his second stint at The Times, having covered the Dodgers and UCLA as well as doing enterprise, investigative and features writing from 1985-2007. Henson was awarded first place in sports features in 2021 by the L.A. Press Club and has been honored several times by the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and also by the California News Publishers Assn., the Football Writers Assn. of America and U.S. Basketball Writers Assn.

HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK

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