Among Disputes, Some Games, Too : Top Stories: Public-private debate No. 1 on list, but many will remember only the championships they won.

It was a year filled with championships and scoring records. There were hearings concerning transfers and proposals to cut high school sports. But most of all, the 1990-91 school term will be remembered for a feud between public and private high schools in Orange County.

Here’s a look at the top 10 stories of the 1990-91 high school season:

1. End to Long-Running Private-Public Dispute in Sight

What started as a request by Santa Margarita, a Catholic high school nestled near the foothills of Rancho Santa Margarita, to join the county’s public high school leagues turned into a bitter battle between public and private school administrators.

The issue heated up when three more Catholic high schools--Mater Dei, Servite and Rosary--requested to join county public leagues beginning in 1992. The debate continued for six months with eight county public school districts banding together to fight the inclusion of Catholic schools.

Finally, the Southern Section’s General Council and Executive Council voted to allow the four schools to join the public sector. Servite/Rosary are to join the Sunset League, Mater Dei the South Coast League and Santa Margarita the Sea View League in 1992.

2. Capistrano Valley Football Team Wins Division II Championship

Capistrano Valley’s Tomek Mikler kicked a 22-yard field with 18 seconds remaining to give Capistrano Valley a 17-15 victory over Paramount in the Division II title game in front of 9,500 at Santa Ana Stadium.

Capistrano Valley ended Paramount’s 21-game winning streak by driving 81 yards behind quarterback Tony Solliday in the final 2:11 to set up Mikler’s kick.

Paramount appeared to have won the game with 2:16 left to play when running back Leon Neal scored on a nine-yard run, but the play was nullified by a holding penalty.

3. Sparks Cousins Set Off Sparks with Transfer to Mater Dei

Seldom have student transfers made more headlines than when cousins Derek and Leland Sparks of Montclair Prep in Van Nuys decided to move to Mater Dei in the second week of the 1990 football season.

It took three sets of transcripts from Montclair Prep before Derek, a running back, could gain his eligibility in the third week of the season at Mater Dei. He debuted with a 281-yard rushing game against Santa Ana, scoring touchdowns the first three times he touched the football.

Leland, a defensive back, gained a fifth year of eligibility from the Southern Section before suffering a season-ending knee injury in a memorable 3-0 victory over Loyola. Both players will continue playing football at Washington State in the fall.

4. Three County Teams Win State Basketball Titles

Tustin capped an unprecedented day for Orange County high school basketball by defeating Danville San Ramon Valley, 66-54, to win the boys’ State Division II championship at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

County teams won three state titles; Estancia won the boys’ Division III title, beating Fremont Washington, 82-72, and Brea-Olinda claimed the girls’ Division III championship with a 54-46 victory over Hayward.

Brea won its second title in three years after losing in the 1990 title game to Auburn Placer. Estancia lost the Southern Section title but rebounded to defeat three section champions--San Diego Ramona, Servite and Pomona--en route to the State title. Tustin overcame a nine-point halftime deficit with a press in the title game.

5. Sunny Hills Wins Division VI Football Championship

Sunny Hills, seemingly going nowhere with a 2-3 record after the fifth week of the season, used a no-nonsense defense and just enough offense to upset Tustin, 7-3, in the Division VI championship game at Orange Coast College.

Sunny Hills won its ninth consecutive game with an 80-yard drive in the fourth quarter. Fullback Kenny Overby capped the drive that began with 6:41 remaining to play by scoring on a one-yard plunge. Sunny Hills had only 66 yards in total offense before beginning its winning march.

Tustin Coach Marijon Ancich was at a loss to explain the upset. “It’s beyond my comprehension that we were kept out of the end zone,” he said.

6. Loara’s Whitlock and Titus Set County Scoring Marks

Montes Yves Whitlock arrived from Tennessee as a baseball player but quickly developed into Tes Whitlock, the county’s most prolific scorer since Mark Wulfemeyer. Whitlock broke Art Worthy’s 80-year-old county record of 58 points set in 1910 by scoring 68 points in a victory over Saddleback in the Irvine World News Tournament.

Whitlock holds three of the top five single-game scoring marks in county history and finished his four-year career with 2,096 points in 83 varsity games, averaging 25.2 points.

Whitlock wasn’t the only scoring phenom at Loara. Center Tracy Titus scored a county-record 61 points in a 78-50 victory over Loara in Empire League play. Her total broke Amy Jalewalia’s county mark of 60 points set in 1990.

7. District Cutbacks Threaten Sports

Students, parents, coaches and administrators packed school board meetings from the Placentia Unified to Saddleback Valley Unified school districts in an effort to save high school sports programs from impending budget cuts.

Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed $2 billion in state education cuts for 1991-92 forced some districts to recommend that entire varsity programs such as golf, tennis, water polo, volleyball or wrestling be dropped.

The proposals met with strong resistence from coaches, parents and boosters and the budget battle is expected to extend into the summer months.

8. Capistrano Valley Baseball Team Turns Around Season to Win 4-A Title

Once mired in last place in the South Coast League, Capistrano Valley capped an unpredictable season by winning the Southern Section 4-A baseball title with an 8-3 victory over Canyon at Anaheim Stadium.

Capistrano Valley had to win a league playoff game, a wild-card game and then five playoff games before claiming its third championship under Coach Bob Zamora. It was hard to believe the Cougars were once 2-5-1 in league play.

Catcher Brand Caso hit a two-run homer over the left-center field fence in the final as Capistrano Valley won for the 12th time in its last 14 games.

9. Kennedy’s John Hangartner Dies in Car Crash

John Hangartner, one of the county’s most successful and popular football coaches at Kennedy and Magnolia high schools, died April 26 when he lost control of his vehicle and plunged 185 feet over the side of the San Gabriel Valley freeway and was struck by a train.

Hangartner, 54, was the Southern Section’s player of the year in 1954 as a quarterback at Glendale Hoover High and coached Kennedy to the section’s 3-A title in 1971.

10. Bob Johnson Retires at El Toro and is Replaced by Mike Milner

An era came to an end last December when Bob Johnson retired as one of the county’s most successful football coaches so he could follow the collegiate careers of his two sons. Johnson’s oldest son, Bret, is a junior quarterback at Michigan State and Rob will be a freshman at USC in the fall.

Johnson, 45, compiled a 119-45 record in 13 seasons at El Toro, winning six league titles and three Southern Section titles. Johnson’s teams qualified for the playoffs 13 consecutive years.

Mike Milner of Fountain Valley was named to succeed his long-time friend at El Toro. Milner, 44, was 77-63-2 in 12 seasons at Fountain Valley and won the Division I championship at Anaheim Stadium in 1988.