(Sea) Kings of Soccer : Palos Verdes Kickers, Maybe the Best Preps Ever, Can Make History Friday By Winning 33rd Straight

Soccer aficionados have found reason to awake memories of great high school soccer teams in an effort to compare them with the reality of today’s Palos Verdes Sea Kings, arguably the best high school team ever.

That excitement stems from more than Palos Verdes’ 32-0 record and the fact that they can be the first team in Southern Section history to extend it to 33 Friday in the CIF 4-A championship game against Edison at 8 p.m. at Gahr High in Cerritos.

And it is more than just their second straight Bay League championship or 22 shutouts.

“I have been coaching for 19 years,” said Newbury Park Coach Jimmy Rolland after his team fell Tuesday to Palos Verdes, 3-1, in the semifinals, “and this is the best team I have ever seen. These boys are well disciplined and well organized. In fact, they are the most organized and unselfish high school team I have ever seen. They can destroy Edison. If they lose the finals it will be the biggest upset in sports history.”

Hawthorne Coach Bud Reagan, who lost to Palos Verdes three times this season by a goal total of 7-2, said the Sea Kings simply play the best soccer.

“I’ve seen better teams or, I should say, teams that should be better,” said Reagan, whose team lost to Edison in the semifinals, 3-2. “But I haven’t seen a team that looked strong and played up to their level (like Palos Verdes).”

But, Reagan adds, talent and potential run short lives in soccer. Motivation and strength must be utilized to continue success.

“It is amazing in an emotional sport like soccer that they can keep getting themselves up high enough to win every game,” said Reagan, who has coached at Hawthorne for 10 years. “They are consistently good and don’t make mistakes. I don’t see Palos Verdes making errors in judgment. They are just so consistent. It was probably the best season for a team in this league.”

But before there was time for consistency and the Sea Kings were still learning each others’ names, they decided to shoot for it all, aim for the zenith.”

It began with a 4-0 victory against Redondo in the South Bay Alliance Tournament, which Palos Verdes won by a combined goal total of 16-1, and continued through a 29-game regular season.

And that season can only be defined with words like domination and superiority . The juggernaut rolled to 21 shutouts, allowed only 8 goals (a CIF record) and answered with 83. No opponent in the regular season scored more than one goal and Palos Verdes was not involved in an overtime contest until the playoffs.

It has been utter destruction. In 32 games, the Sea Kings have outscored opponents 91-11.

Frightening as it may seem, Palos Verdes could have been even better if not for the injury of Jim Miller, who went down early in the season and has not played since. Miller was All-CIF last season.

“In the game he got hurt in,” Palos Verdes Coach Alan King explains, “he had five goals. If he was here our goal production would have been dynamite. But he is still our team captain and after he got hurt he said, “Let’s go coast-to-coast. Let’s win it all.”

And the Sea Kings are one step from fulfilling that goal.

“I’ll be honest,” King said. “I have never had a team like this. What do you do when you are undefeated all year and No. 1 all year? How do you play better? This team just doesn’t want to lose.”

What they want is to bring home the CIF crown, a treasure that has eluded King since 1973 when he started the soccer program at Palos Verdes. King led his team to the semifinals in 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1985 and last year. Only in 1977 did the Sea Kings advance to the final, to lose 1-0.

But King said the 1989 team may possess something different from teams of the past.

“They know what the task is,” he said. “These guys know their purpose and they go for that purpose. This team worked above their potential.”

That purpose is to start at the top and finish at the top without faltering. Posted in King’s office is a reminder of the coast-to-coast aspiration, and embedded in the players’ heads is its importance.

“We were cocky,” junior goalie Mark Antrobius said. “After the first game we knew nothing was going to stop us. Then, after we won a couple of games, we started thinking about going coast-to-coast.”

A 1987 All-CIF player, Gregg Swartz, agrees.

“We set a goal to go undefeated and win CIF,” said Swartz. “Early on we got the feeling nobody could beat us. We didn’t care who we played--we just wanted to go coast-to-coast. We feel we can do it.”

So does Rolland, who said he feels confident Palos Verdes cannot lose.

“They are the best,” he said. “They may end up walking the final by 5 or 6 goals.”

Even though there was no walking through the season, the Sea King players said they rarely felt pressure to win simply to keep the streak alive but rather to win for the sake of winning.

“I was always worried about the game at hand,” Antrobius said. “I just want to win. There is more pressure in the game than worrying about it (beforehand). I’d rather win CIF than worry about the streak. I don’t care about All-CIF and stuff like that. I just want to win.”

Although Swartz concurs, he said he felt pressure during the Bay League season.

“In the league season you find (the pressure) most,” he said. “When you start playing three games a week, that is when it hit us. And once you hit CIF, every game can be your last.”

And when the next game draws more reporters than the last and television crews begin appearing, pressure is taken to another level.

“The publicity really adds something,” King said. “The press adds pressure, and the other day we had television cameras out here.”

But there will be no pressure like Friday’s.

“It is going to be unbelievable,” Antrobius said. “We (knew we could beat) Hawthorne but have never played Edison.”

All agree that this championship game is intensified because of the undefeated streak and thoughts of becoming the greatest soccer team in Southern Section history.

“We feel we can prove (we are) the best team ever,” Swartz said. “We can do it.”