Player of the Year

There’s never been math like this at Ventura High.

Fourteen games, 13 victories, 10 games of at least 300 yards rushing, two national records and one Southern Section championship.

Tyler Ebell, senior running back, kept statisticians busy while bobbing, weaving and bursting his way into history by setting national records with 4,494 yards rushing and 64 rushing touchdowns this season.

With stunning acceleration and jaw-dropping cutback skills, Ebell set state career records with 7,384 yards rushing and 111 touchdowns, and helped Ventura to 69 rushing touchdowns, the fourth-highest season total for a team in national history.

Ebell is The Times’ Ventura County player of the year, as well as the The Times’ Glenn Davis Award winner as the top player in the Southland.

The 5-foot-9, 175-pound Ebell, who has a tattoo of Mighty Mouse on his left biceps, excelled despite being a marked man.

“He had a big ‘X’ on his chest all year,” McCune said. “People knew they would have to stop him to stop us. And no one ever did. It was really amazing what he accomplished. Truly amazing.”

In a 35-14 victory over Arroyo Grande in the Division IV championship game, Ebell rushed for 276 yards and three touchdowns, recovering from a subpar first half--56 yards rushing--to lead the Cougars to their first outright section title. The Cougars tied Paso Robles in a lower-division final in 1951.

“I was saying [at halftime] that we were going to come down and we were going to win,” Ebell said. “We knew we had them where we wanted them.”

“You’re not the all-time leading high school rusher in the country without being outstanding,” Arroyo Grande Coach Jon Huss said. “He’s intelligent, patient, durable and he’s confident that things will break for him.”

Ebell spent the last two summers working out like a madman, his favorite exercise being a two-mile beach run in the sand . . . with his shoes on.

His added muscle came in handy when he carried 44 times for 393 yards and six touchdowns in a September game against Arroyo Grande, a team known for its defense. The performance changed the minds of college coaches who recruited Ebell as a cornerback.

Ebell committed to UCLA, among the few schools that recruited him as a running back.

After breaking the national record of 4,087 yards rushing in a season by Travis Henry of Frostproof, Fla., Ebell said, “It’s cool.”

One subject that gets him talking is his offensive line. Instead of taking credit for his achievements, Ebell routinely rattled off the names of linemen--Bill Griffin, Casey Andrews, Jason Gruber, Brandon Bailey and Kris Vasquez, and tight end Bryan Easterly.

“As I think back on it, the most amazing thing is that with all the publicity and all the media attention on him, it would have split our team into a lot of different factions had he focused on himself,” McCune said. “He never let that happen. He tried to get other kids involved in it and always gave them the proper credit.”

The payoff was a Southern Section championship.

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Coach of the Year: Phil McCune

School: Ventura

Record: 13-1

Assistants: Brad Steward, Dave Hess, Justin Werth, Sam Cathcart, Henry Jacinto, Andre Delgado, Jim Renshaw.