Mustangs open as favorites

During the 10-year period from 1992-2001, the Costa Mesa High

football team produced eight winning seasons, seven trips to the CIF

Southern Section playoffs, the lone outright league title in the

program’s now 43-season history (‘93) and a complete image

transformation from perennial doormat to perennial contender.

But the biggest victory the program may have collected during that

time took place in the Fountain Valley High library, where those

charged with Orange County releaguing plucked the school from the

Pacific Coast League and placed it in the Golden West League, for a

four-year cycle beginning this fall.

Perhaps Golden Opportunity League would be a more accurate title

for this configuration of football also-rans, whose win-loss records

during the aforementioned decade makes Mesa a comparative dynasty.

Totaling the combined records of Golden West “rivals” Estancia

(40-56-1), Ocean View (27-75-1), Orange (28-73-1), Saddleback

(38-63-1), Santa Ana (16-85) and Westminster (42-62-1) reveals a

cumulative 191-415-5 mark from 1992-2001. This translates to a

winning percentage of 31.7%, roughly half the number posted by Mesa

during the same time frame (63.8% with a 67-38 mark).

The six teams with which Costa Mesa will compete, beginning Friday

when the Mustangs kick off their first Golden West League campaign

against Ocean View at Westminster High, have posted just 11 winning

seasons in those 10 years, while also collectively recording eight

winless campaigns, seven with just one win and nine more with just

two.

Only Orange, co-champion of the Century League in 1992, and

Westminster, which claimed the Golden West crown last season in more

than a mild surprise, have topped their leagues during that 10-year

period.

With this as prelude to handicapping the 2002 Golden West football

race, it is difficult to pick the Mustangs (1-2) anywhere but on top.

There are additional reasons to like the Mustangs, including

senior running back Keola Asuega, senior receiver-linebacker Nate

Hunter and two-way lineman Andrew Carich. In addition, Costa Mesa,

ranked No. 9 in CIF Southern Section Division VII, has played three

solid preleague opponents.

Westminster (1-2), with losses to Pacifica and El Modena and a

victory over Rancho Alamitos, making it only one of two Golden West

teams with a victory over an opponent with a winning record (Ocean

View topped Century for the other), has also played a rugged schedule

thus far.

The Lions, who defeated Tustin last year to win the league crown,

appear capable of challenging the Mustangs, while Orange (2-1) and

Santa Ana (2-1) are the likely contenders for third.

Ocean View (1-2), Saddleback (1-2) and Estancia (1-2) are the

longshots.

Westminster senior quarterback Fidel Gonzalez, a three-year

starter, has thrown for more than 3,300 career yards and 21 TDs

heading into this week’s league opener against Estancia.

Orange senior all-purpose standout Durrell Moss has rushed for

2,366 yards since the beginning of last season and is clearly the

league’s most exciting player.

Santa Ana quarterback Omar Carrasco has thrown for 616 yards thus

far, while the Ocean View tandem of quarterback Alex Hickerson (413

yards passing) and Aaron Gonya (450 yards rushing) are additional

offensive stars.

Costa Mesa is at Westminster Nov. 1 in a game that could decide

who wears the crown.

*

On the lookout for future stars at the freshman football Battle of

the Bay Thursday at Newport Harbor, the individual I came away most

impressed with was Newport assistant coach Bryan Breland.

Just one year removed from a starring role on the Sailors’

offensive line, a career that ended in the regular-season finale when

his leg was severely broken in a pileup, Breland may be the latest in

a long line of solid coaches Coach Jeff Brinkley’s program has

produced.

*

Kirk Bauermeister, who resigned as Costa Mesa High’s boys athletic

director and baseball coach last week to become an assistant

principal at the school, may have taken one of the few jobs in

education as exhaustive as the diversified role of

teacher-coach-administrator in which he has served since 1998.

“When I was being interviewed for the assistant principal job,

they asked me if I was prepared to make the kind of time commitment

this job demands,” Bauermeister said. “I told them, ‘Yes, I was

willing to cut my hours.’ ”

* Another former Costa Mesa athletic director and football coach,

Jerry Howell, is back on the sideline this fall as an assistant

varsity coach at Irvine High.

* The recent news blurb about a proposal for state football

playoffs is, essentially, much ado about nothing, especially for

schools not in Division I.

With a 14-week schedule through the Southern Section playoffs, as

well as a preseason scrimmage and the existing overlap with winter

sports, any proposal that would add even one more postseason game

will be a very tough sell.

Even if such a proposal survives, it would almost certainly

include a single-game marquee, made-for-television “bowl” matchup.