PREPNET / SPEAK OUT

What is the greatest high school game or sporting event you’ve ever witnessed?

TRAVIS JONES

Esperanza, Football

The Concord De La Salle-Mater Dei football game [played Sept. 23]. It was real competitive, and there was a lot of hype behind it with the nation’s best team against [Orange County’s] best. It was a fun game to watch, with all the big plays and [Mater Dei] never giving up.

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ERICH MORENO

Edison, Cross-Country and Track Coach

Probably the [1987] El Toro vs. Santa Ana [Southern Conference semifinal football] game, when Bret Johnson’s Hail Mary in the rain went off the head of [Santa Ana defensive back] Bobby Joyce and into the hands of an El Toro guy for a touchdown. Or the [1981 Southern Division championship] game between El Modena and Foothill that went three overtimes. After that, they did away with overtimes in championship games [until this year].

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JASON HIBBARD

Mission Viejo, Football

The Laguna Hills game this year. We had never lost to them until last year. Before the game, they decorated and graffitied our locker room and I just really wanted to beat them since it was my senior year. I had a pretty good game and it felt great to see my team pull together.

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TREVOR AUSTIN

Businessman

In 1987, El Toro and Capistrano Valley football. Brad and Rob Johnson vs. Todd Marinovich. Back and forth all game. It’s second on my all-time list to that [1990] USC-UCLA game between Marinovich and [Tommy] Maddox.

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BOB HERRERA

Fan

The [Sept. 23] football game between Mater Dei and Concord De La Salle. It was as good as any college or professional game I have seen in 35 years. It showed a lot of character from both teams. How can a team be ahead 21-0 at the end of the first quarter and 31-14 at the end of the third and only win by the skin of its teeth, by 31-28? The Mater Dei team never gave up, no matter how far down it sank. Hard-fought, clean and tough game. You had to be there to believe how great this game was.

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CLINT STARK

Fan

The greatest sporting event in the history of high school athletics was the 1956 CIF football championship in the L.A. Coliseum between Anaheim and Mickey Flynn vs. Downey and Randy Meadows. There were more than 40,000 people that watched two great teams battle to a 13-13 tie.

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ALAN LOMBARDI

Cypress College, Sports Information Director

I was teaching at Downey Pius X in 1977 and our team finished third in the old Angelus League and had to play Edison, which was one of the top teams in Orange County that year, in the first round of the CIF playoffs at Huntington Beach High. It was a back-and-forth game, and Pius running back Darrin Nelson, who went on to play for Stanford and the Minnesota Vikings, broke about a 70- or 80-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage in the second half to put Pius ahead. Edison then went on a long drive to retake the lead, but Nelson returned the kickoff for another touchdown and I think that really broke Edison’s back.

NEXT QUESTION

How should high school coaches handle team members who are also playing club sports?