Take That! : Montclair Prep Shows No Mercy to Former Alpha League Foes

The results are the same. Only the motivation is different.

As in other seasons, the Montclair Prep football team has sliced through Alpha League opponents like a hot knife through butter. But the Mounties aren’t in the Alpha League any more.

Kicked out of the league last spring, Montclair Prep still has four of its five former league rivals on its schedule. So far, the Mounties have beaten Western Christian, 54-7; Maranatha, 53-7; and Marshall Fundamental, 56-0. They will play Village Christian on Friday at Valley College.

Are the Mounties trying extra hard to blow out Alpha teams, or is it merely business as usual? Depends on whom one asks.

“I’d like to score more on them,” Montclair Prep senior lineman Sean Anderson said. “They kicked us out of the league and they said some bad things about our school. I really took offense to that. I look at it that I want to get them back.

“I didn’t think much of them football-wise (before) and I think less of them (now).”

Last spring, the other five Alpha teams voted Montclair Prep out of the league, deciding the Mounties: A) were cheating, B) were simply too good for them, C) had a different philosophy about the role of athletics in high school, or D) all of the above.

The ouster followed a turbulent battle between Montclair Prep and the Southern Section. The section banned the school from postseason play in all sports for the 1991-92 school year after Montclair Prep admitted to recruiting violations in the football program. The Mounties, who won the Division X football title in 1990, are eligible for the playoffs this year in all sports.

While Alpha coaches have sensed no bitterness from Montclair Prep, obviously some exists. And it goes beyond the players. Montclair Prep assistant John Hazelton has criticized the Alpha League for its actions against the school.

“There’s a reason parents want their kids to come here,” Hazelton said. “They want them to get a good education and they want their children to be coached well, and we give them that. The other places that end up complaining (about us), no one wants to go there. They don’t even consider going to the Village Christians and the L.A. Baptists.”

Montclair Prep, 8-0 as a free-lance team, clearly was superior to other Alpha teams. From 1989-91, Montclair Prep was 15-0 in league play, winning by an average score of 44-7.

Now, when Montclair Prep, ranked fourth in the state Division IV by Cal-Hi Sports, takes the field against an Alpha team, the players have revenge on their minds.

The Mounties will face Village Christian (5-4, 4-0 in league play) in the regular-season finale. The Crusaders, who last week won the first Alpha League championship in the post-Montclair Prep era, are ranked seventh by Cal-Hi Sports in Division IV.

Village Christian is unbeaten on the field but it has had to forfeit four victories because it used an ineligible player. The Crusaders are the last Alpha team to beat Montclair Prep, winning the final game of the 1988 regular season, 23-20.

“When we play the Alpha League teams, we get pumped up because of the way they acted toward us,” Mountie senior lineman David Rosen said. “It’s not that we want to brutalize them, but we want them to see how good of a team we are.”

Despite the comments of his players, Coach George Giannini denies there is extra incentive to embarrass Alpha teams.

“Our disagreement is with the administrators and the schools, not with the players on the field,” he said. “We don’t have any animosity whatsoever. We’re just going to play the same.”

Marshall Fundamental Coach James McAlister, whose team was pummeled by the Mounties last week, agreed with Giannini.

“I know most of those Montclair Prep kids pretty well,” he said. “I talked to them after the game and I don’t think there was any animosity or bitterness.”

He also said Montclair Prep and the Alpha League are better off apart.

“I don’t think there was any competition for them in the Alpha League, and I think the league is more competitive now with them out,” he said.

Maranatha Coach Dave Hogan said he has not seen any vindictiveness from the Mounties.

“I’ve never had a problem with their athletes or their coaches,” Hogan said. “I’ve gotten more cheap shots from other league schools than I’ve gotten from them.”

Hogan said in his team’s loss to Montclair Prep, the Mounties “showed a lot of class. They were winning big and they could have scored more.”

Said Village Christian Coach Mike Plaisance: “I have never had any animosity or any ill feeling toward the Montclair players or the kids in the program. I love to compete against Montclair because I use them as a measuring stick for our program.”

Maybe this feud is one-sided. The Montclair Prep players continue to speak with little admiration for their former league opponents.

Star running back Eliel Swinton said some team members have particularly low regard for L.A. Baptist because the Knights are the only Alpha team that removed the Mounties from their schedule.

“The other teams we’ve always beaten, but at least they have enough dignity and pride to play us (this year),” Swinton said.

Hazelton called the people at L.A. Baptist “crybabies.”

L.A. Baptist Coach Mark Bates said his team dropped the Mounties because of a difference in athletic philosophy. Hazelton defended the practices at Montclair Prep.

“How much could you cheat when you’ve got 24 kids on the team?” he said. “(Opponents) know that we’ve got high school kids. It’s not like we’ve hired pros or something.”

Because the team is now freelance, the Mounties must rely on the discretion of the Southern Section for their playoff position. Although Alpha League members compete in Division X, Montclair Prep could be placed in any division. That has given Montclair Prep something extra to consider and has resulted in tougher practices.

“We can’t walk from drill to drill,” Swinton said. “We have to run. But it’s good for us.”

The practices for Montclair Prep have been perhaps more challenging than the games, which Swinton described as “not really a practice session but a good time to work on stuff and get the rookies in.”

Montclair Prep players said there have been few disparaging comments during games against their former Alpha opponents.

“You hear (comments) from the people that don’t belong on the field with you,” Hazelton said. “Their kids don’t expect to win and the coaches look to find an excuse. The Village Christians and the L.A. Baptists were looking for an excuse and they found it, but they don’t belong on the field with (us) anyway.”