RUNNING SHARED : Michael Jones and Derek Sparks Turn Potential Rivalry Into Powerful Alliance as Tandem in Montclair Prep Backfield

This fall at Montclair Prep, an academically demanding college preparatory school in Van Nuys, great expectations will not be found only on required-reading lists.

They also will be found on the football field where two standout running backs with abundant talent, senior tailback Michael Jones and junior fullback Derek Sparks, stand poised for high school greatness.

But it’s not as if there is an inordinate amount of pressure associated with those expectations. Most of them are self-imposed.

“Derek wants 1,000 yards in four games,” Jones said with a smile, “and I want 1,000 yards in five games.”

Let it be further noted that Sparks said that he would like to rush for 2,500 yards this season.

File this under the something-has-to-give department.

The last time somebody checked, only one football was allowed on the field at a time. But that doesn’t seem to faze either of these two backs. Especially Sparks. He recalls the day this summer that he, along with Jones, sat down with a piece of paper and worked out their season goals. His list topped that of Jones, the Valley’s leading returning rusher. Sparks’ great expectations drew a classic Hollywood double-take from Jones.

“Mike looked at me,” Sparks said, “and we looked at each other for a few split-seconds. He couldn’t believe it. But it can be done.”

Which, if you are a Montclair Prep opponent this year, is the most alarming possibility of all: It just might be done.

Are rival coaches aware?

“Unfortunately, I am,” Maranatha Coach David Hogan said. “I think the whole world is.”

In summation, we are supposed to look at these two players, both of whom rushed for more than 1,300 yards last season, and try to believe that there’s going to be no trouble when it comes to egos, play calling and piling up the stats?

The answer from the head of the Montclair Prep program: a resounding yes.

“There was every chance in the world for a negative rivalry to develop,” said Coach George Giannini, the immediate beneficiary of this wealth of talent. “But those two have become very good friends and very supportive of one another.”

Welcome to Mountie football, 1989. The situation is such that two Division I-bound running backs can become good friends and not only learn how to share the ball but plan to enjoy it thoroughly.

“When one runs, the other blocks--happily,” Giannini said, beaming.

This budding powerhouse backfield began to take shape at the end of the last school year when Sparks visited Montclair Prep with his uncle, Jerome, and expressed interest in transferring.

Giannini had dealt with transfers before. But, as he was soon to learn, Derek Sparks was no ordinary transfer.

Sparks was leaving the program at Banning, one of the state’s best in football, after a stunning season. The 6-2, 210-pound fullback rushed for 1,394 yards and 15 touchdowns.

He was an All-City selection.

He was named state sophomore player of the year by Cal-Hi Sports.

And he wanted to play football at Montclair Prep, a Division IX school.

“At first I was like, ‘Oh, that’ll be great. A fullback. That’s good for me’,” Jones recalled with a laugh.

Then, however, Jones found out just who Sparks was.

“I was shocked,” Jones said, still smiling.

Sparks was fulfilling the wishes of his mother in Texas--where Derek was born and raised--who wanted her son to be in a stricter academic environment than the one at Banning. Sparks was not convinced that a tiny school that looks like a converted Motel 6 on Sepulveda Boulevard was for him.

In fact, he was sure it was not for him.

“When I first got here, I was like, no way,” Sparks said. “It was hard for me to leave (Banning). When you get settled, it’s like home. I was up for two or three nights, thinking ‘This move is wrong.’ ”

And then he met Michael Jones, who has posted some impressive numbers himself.

Jones is 6-2, 205 pounds and quick. He runs hard and in an upright manner, conjuring images of NFL star Eric Dickerson.

As a junior last season, he rushed for 1,514 yards and 17 touchdowns. He carried the ball 7.2 yards every time he touched it. Recruiters from USC, West Virginia, Miami and Oklahoma State were camping on his lawn.

And the Alpha League, most thought at the end of last year, would be his own little romping ground for even grander days in 1989.

All of a sudden, he was faced with the prospect of, gulp, sharing the ball.

Strangely, he couldn’t be happier.

Because in Sparks, Jones has a good friend. And vice versa.

It all goes back to that summer day when they first met. Jones treated Sparks to lunch. With a hamburger and some pieces of chicken between them, it was the beginning of a friendship.

“I go by the house, we go out to movies, we go out with girls,” Jones said. “We hit it off like friends. Just friends.”

“We’ve grown pretty close,” Sparks said. “He comes to my house. We sit up and talk. We go out. He helps me out. Whenever I need anything, he says, ‘Hey, give me a call or tell me. I’ll help you out.’ ”

Said Jones: “We have never had a fight to this day or grudges or push fight or anything like that.”

It has been said that good-will begets good-will. And these two have been able to transfer theirs to the playing field.

It comes naturally to them--young polite men with easy smiles and congenial personalities.

For Giannini or any coach, it would seem to be too much to handle. Two Division I prospects who are the best of friends in the same backfield? You’d think he’d never stop pinching himself.

But as a coach, he seems to have a firm handle on this duo. Early on, he laid down the law.

“We sat them down and explained where they stood,” Giannini said. “That how, with both of them working together, it would help them and the team far more than if they were at odds.

“They’re both mature, intelligent young men and they understood completely.”

But go back to those yardage totals the two projected this summer. Jones wants 1,000 yards in five games. Sparks wants 1,000 yards in four games, 2,500 for the season. Cal’s Russell White, a virtual Valley legend, never totaled 2,500 yards in a single season in high school. Only three players in Southern Section history have eclipsed the 2,500 mark.

And Sparks wants it. Yet, paradoxically, he fully understands that the ball will be shared this season.

“If I get the ball 16 to 20 times a game, I’ll do what has to be done,” Sparks said.

And if he doesn’t get the ball that many times, which could well be a reality, given the presence of Jones?

“Look, I haven’t sat up saying, ‘If Michael gets the ball so many times a game, what do I have left?’ ” Sparks said. “The way I want it is, if we run ’24 Power’ five times in a row and the defense is pulling to Michael, let’s trick the defense and give it to me once.

“He can get five carries to my one, as long as it helps the team out. As long as we get to that final game and get the jackets, the rings, the trophy and the publicity.”

Ah, to the heart of the matter. Jones and Sparks have formed a power alliance in pursuit of the common goal: a Southern Section championship.

“Let’s put it this way,” Jones said. “Any time I get the ball, I’m trying to go for six. I’m not going to think about, ‘Oh, I’ll never get that many times to carry the ball, he’s going to get all the carries.’ I’m not gonna put it that way.

“I’m going to make it count every time. That’s the way I look at it.”

Hey, these guys truly are birds of a feather. Listen to Sparks.

“If four carries a game will win, I’ll do it,” he said. “But if I get the ball only four times a game, I’m gonna try to get four TDs. I’m gonna make something of it.”

There is a running (no pun intended) joke on the team that, perhaps, Derek Sparks might just be getting the ball a lot more than four times a game: His cousin, Leland, is the quarterback.

Leland came out from Texas this summer at the request of Derek, who said he saw “something good and potent” at Montclair Prep and called his cousin to tell him about it. Leland loaded up his truck and moved to the Valley.

The trio now happily calls itself “The Three Horsemen.”

Now, one might figure, while the Mounties are running an occasional option play, Leland will give a little pitch to his cousin instead of Jones. You know, keeping it in the family.

“Yeah, I say that I’ll do that,” Leland said. “But I never really mean it. . . . I just get them the ball and let them do their job.”

With that, Leland gives a laugh. And, in turn, the whole Montclair Prep program smiles with him. These are the salad days for these young men and they seem more than ready to enjoy them.

And holding the darn thing together is the strong bond of friendship. Sounds hokey, but it works.

“Since the first day,” Derek recalled, “(Michael) has been real nice and cool. You know, it’s hard for a person to walk up to another guy’s business or territory and say, ‘Hey, give me a piece of that.’

“He never said to me, ‘This is my show, my team, my backfield.’ All he ever said was, ‘Hey, I’m glad you’re here. Let’s do it.’ ”