Columnist Ron Kantowski: Winning no longer an original idea

Friday, Oct. 29, 2004 | 10:41 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

To show you how long I've been around, when I moved to Las Vegas in 1987 there were only 10 high schools and football games were played on Friday afternoon. Because there were only five games, the Sun used to staff all of them, and when Basic was on the road the guy who drew the short straw usually got stuck covering Eldorado because it was the longest drive from the office.

Now there are 24 big schools in the valley, and last year when I went (way) out to watch a playoff game at remote Centennial High, I had to stop for directions, gas and water for my canteen. The Paris-to-Dakar Rally is an easier drive.

Las Vegas' booming growth is generally considered a good thing, unless you happen to be in the booster club at one of the Original Ten, as I like to call Valley, Eldorado, Chaparral, Rancho, Basic, Bonanza, Western, Clark, Bishop Gorman and Las Vegas High.

Actually, that could be amended to the Original 8 1/2. Las Vegas, which was the first high school founded in the valley in 1930, became a sports factor again when it was moved from downtown to the far eastern edge of town in 1993. And Bishop Gorman is like Notre Dame (or the Cheyenne basketball team) in that it can recruit who it wants, and thus hasn't been impacted by urban sprawl like the other established high schools.

Today, the Original Ten, with the exception of Basic in Henderson, are pretty much what somebody from Chicago would call "inner-city" schools. And if the past decade is any indication, it's getting increasingly more difficult for the kids who live in apartments to compete with the ones who grow up in ranch homes in master planned communities.

Discounting Las Vegas High II's state championship in 2001, Western (1996) is the only Original Ten school to wear the crown during the past decade. Valley's last state title came in 1978, Eldorado's in 1991, Gorman's in 1983, Chaparral's in 1977, Rancho's in 1998 and Clark's in 1993.

Bonanza and Basic are the Chicago Cubs of the local prep football scene. Neither has won a state championship in football, though the Bengals have been trying since 1976 and the Wolves since 1942.

This is an unusual year in that four of the Original Ten have winning records although only Valley (a surprising 7-2 after winning just three games over the past two years) and perhaps Eldorado (7-3) are expected to be factors come playoff time.

Meanwhile, their inner-city brethren continue to struggle amid zoning changes that, along with their itinerant neighborhoods, continue to deplete their talent pools.

"When I came to town (in 1986) it seemed like Valley and Clark won everything," said Darwin Rost, the veteran head coach at undefeated Palo Verde, which began playing football in 1996 with kids that otherwise would have gone to Bonanza.

Now, Clark is finding even moral victories hard to come by. It hasn't won a game in more than two years and the closest of its nine losses this year was a 33-21 defeat to Liberty in the season opener. Liberty is a second-year school which scored only two touchdowns all of last season.

Clark's other losses were 35-13 to Rancho, 40-7 to Silverado, 56-6 to Valley, 55-6 to Sierra Vista, 66-0 to Bonanza, 62-12 to Durango, 56-7 to Gorman and 44-6 to Western Thursday night. The once-vaunted Chargers have become the local prep football equivalent of Rutgers or Prairie View A&M.

"It's just the growth of the city, more than anything," Rost said of the growing schism between the local prep football haves and have-nots. "It seems like everything is kind of watered down.

"When we won at Eldorado in 1991 we had four (NCAA) Division I players. When you look at that year, we only beat Western 12-7, and we were lucky to get out of that game. And those Clark teams were loaded. They won the state championship in 1993 when Dallimore (Brian, who went on star at Stanford and is currently a reserve infielder with the San Francisco Giants) was their quarterback."

It was about that time that some of the valley's top coaches, such as Rost, began to gravitate to the new schools in the planned communities. The idea was that when the dust literally settled, they would have more players from which to choose and better facilities at which to play and practice -- not to mention a better view of Mount Charleston.

Last year, Palo Verde's enrollment of 3,500 made it the biggest high school in Nevada.

With an enrollment of about 2,400, Clark is about the same size it was during its glory days of the early 1990s, when stalwarts such as Dallimore, Nick Bell (Iowa), Rom Merkerson (Colorado), Phil Glover (Utah) and Randy Black (UNLV) were impressing the cheerleaders. It's just that many of the kids who might have followed in their footsteps are now scoring touchdowns at new schools that have been opening up like Starbucks coffee shops.

"In (the early '90s) we won state in both football and basketball. In 1992, I think we won about five or six state championships," said Roger Schumann, the athletic director at Clark since 1983. "Then Durango opened in 1993 and the next year, our starting point guard is playing up there."

After the players started switching schools, their coaches were soon to follow, forcing many of the older schools hire young and/or unproven coaches.

Three years ago when Ken Massey was coach, Clark was a playoff-caliber team. Then he left for Valley and turned around that moribund program while Clark's fortunes immediately plummeted.

"We change coaches around here like underwear," Schumann lamented.

Western also has a young coach named Brian Murray, who reportedly came out of halftime of a recent game clutching a plate of nachos from the concession stand.

Hey, even rookie coaches get hungry.

"When I left Eldorado, I was head football coach and head basketball coach and I was just starting a family," said Rost, who at 45 is considered a prep coaching graybeard. "Giving up one of those was appealing. But I'll tell you, opening up a new school is tough for an established young coach if you don't give it time."

When you do give it time, the standings show that victories are almost sure to follow, particularly with so many of the older schools struggling under the Friday night lights. But Rost, for one, doesn't believe the shift in power has to be permanent.

"I'm one of those guys who believe that everything runs in cycles," Rost said. "Here's a Valley group that hasn't been around a while and you look at Basic last year (when the Wolves went 7-2 and qualified for the playoffs). The new schools have been winning but there are still little pockets where the old schools have been coming through."

Maybe so, but on the local high school football scene, it's getting to where the deep pockets score most of the touchdowns.