Vikings Shine In The 70s and 80s

As we continue our walk through Viking athletic history, we now take a look at the 1970′s and 80′s.  Remember that for the past two weeks we have briefly covered the highlights from the 1920′s to the 60′s; and up to this point it was only the boys’ sports that were featured; but in 1972, Title IX was implemented in high school athletics and the girls now had equal footing in CIF organized leagues.  Interestingly enough, Holtville’s athletic success in the 70′s was pretty much dominated by the girls’ teams, especially in tennis where coach, Madeline Magan, had a dynasty of 6 consecutive championship teams.  From 1974 to ’79, the Vikings won 5 DVL tennis championships and 1 CIF Championship (in 1977).  They went undefeated in valley play for 6 years, and began a rich tradition of girls tennis at Holtville that continued long after Magan’s retirement.  Players who starred on those championship teams were: Laurie Magan, Geraldine Romero, Annette Romero, Lori Sharp, Debbie DePaoli, Laura Rodahl, and the doubles-team of sisters, Stephanie & Michelle Romero.  In 1971, the football team graduated All-CIF running back, Mike Sudduth, who went on to star for Imperial Valley College.  The next year coach, Jan Northcutt, with all-league players: Luis Samaniego, Mike Horn, Tom Gibbs, and Robin Rubin, were co-champions of their league.  In ’75, the boy’s basketball team under coach, Bob Bennett, won their 2nd league championship in a row led by David Angulo, who was an All-CIF selection in basketball and an all-league player in 3 sports: football, basketball and baseball.  Also in ’75, future Green & Gold Hall-of-Famer, John Kurchenbauer, took one of his many outstanding wrestlers, Tony DePaoli, to the state finals.  Then in ’76, John Soto was named to the All-CIF basketball team.  And finally, it would be remiss for this decade not to mention the accomplishments of Holtville’s longtime baseball coach, Ike Romero, who had a very successful program throughout the late 60′s and early 70′s (The records have been lost) and produced some great All-CIF talent in Curt Beaman (69), Jim Layton (72), Steve Rodriguez (74), and Paul Serna (75), who went on to play major league baseball with the Seattle Mariners.
    The 80′s were an exciting time to be a Viking student-athlete as several programs began to show dominance.  First off the baseball team under coach, Sam Faulk, won the CIF Championship in ’82, and ’84, and likely would have won it in ’83 as well except there was no CIF playoff that year.  In ’85 they lost the final championship game at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, making it a five year run of 5 consecutive league titles, 2 CIF Titles, and a 33-game winning streak.  They were led by 4-year starters: Ignacio Ibarra, Ricardo Vasquez, Travis Larios, and Manual Villareal.  The football team with coach Don Jones and 3 sport star Ricardo Vasquez won another CIF Title for Holtville in 1984, along with coach Jan Anderson who guided the girls basketball team to its first ever CIF Championship.  Girls basketball continued their success with 6 straight league championships from ’84 to ’89, as Mike Pacheco took over as coach in ’88 & ’89, and led the girls to their 2nd & 3rd CIF Titles.  Throughout this decade a consistently successful program was the Viking wrestling team under coach, John Kirchenbauer, who produced some great individual champions such as Max Leimgruber (’81), LeRoy Ligghins (’84), Jim Toten (’87), and Tommy Provincio (’88).  At the conclusion of the 1980′s, the football team under coach Sam Faulk along with the leadership of record-setting quarterback, Alex Wells, nearly went undefeated for both ’88 & ’89, winning 20 of 21 games with two league titles and a perfect CIF Championship year in ’89.  All in all, it was exciting times for Holtville for nearly all of their boys & girls teams.

By Luke Phillips

   The Holtville City Council voted 4-1 to appoint John Paul Wells to a vacant seat on the Planning Commission at their meeting Monday and voted unanimously to re-appoint commissioners Jim Predmore and Ginger Ward and accept the resignation of commissioner Frederico Garcia.

   Council member Colleen Ludwig cast the lone dissenting vote against appointing Wells to the planning commission saying that he would bring controversy to the post.

   “I don’t want to offend Mr. Wells,” she said. “But there is some controversy there. Mr. Wells is the finance officer for the school district and we’re being sued by the school district.”

   Ludwig agreed that Planning Commission, which has had vacant seats for several months, needs to be filled out but said she has received calls from others who are interested in the seat and would like to give them time to submit an application, despite the deadline for applications having already passed. She called for the item to be tabled but the motion died for lack of a second.

   Council member David Bradshaw said that he though Wells would make a good addition to the board.

   “I’ve served with Mr. Wells on other boards and he was good,” Bradshaw said. “And I think he’d be good for our commission.”

   Terms for commissioners Predmore and Ward were scheduled to end, but both expressed interested in continuing to serve on the board and were reappointed by a unanimous vote from the council.

   The council also voted unanimously to accept a letter of resignation from commissioner Frederico Garcia who says that work duties will prevent him from continuing to serve.

   “I would gladly like to continue my status as a Planning Commissioner but the tenuous nature of my employment with the Imperial Valley College which is being adversely affected by the roller coaster State budget has impacted my ability to continue my duties as Planning Commissioner,” Garcia said in his letter. “I sincerely believe the Planning Commission is a valuable part of the network of interested citizenry which has made Holtville one of the better governed cities in the Valley. The members of the city council, city hall personnel and its inaugurated auxiliary groups in addition to other active organizations in Holtville make me proud to be a member of this robust community.”

   The seat left vacant by Garcia will be advertised and is open to any Holtville resident interested in serving.

It was an evening of “Faith, Fashion, and Flair” as the Women of Virtue Empowerment Network (WOVEN) hosted the 2^nd Annual Purse Auction Gala.  This spectacular event was held at the Old Eucalyptus Schoolhouse in El Centro, and included a delicious dinner, two heart-touching testimonies of WOVEN clients, and a live purse auction where 29 purses were auctioned off to the highest bidder.

With retail values ranging from $60 to over $1300, there was something for everyone to choose from.  Each purse was bid upon based on the purse itself.  For a little added excitement, each purse was filled with contents which were not revealed until the winning bidder opened the purse.  Creative auctioneer Alexis Brown did a great job in her descriptions to give the ladies a clue of what might be inside.  The highlight of the evening was a $1000 Louis Vuitton bag which was auctioned off for $1600.

The purses were modeled for the ladies by 2012 Holtville Carrot Princess Emily Acosta, who sashayed through the crowd, showing off each purse without revealing the contents.  Spotters were positioned throughout the room to keep up with the frenzy of bidding that went on throughout the evening.

Betty Predmore, Co-director, Co-founder, and facilitator of WOVEN, had this to say about the evening:  “We are so blessed to have so many wonderful ladies come out and support WOVEN and our mission of inspiring women to be their best!  It is humbling to see how many of them care about our ministry and the work we are doing.  This event will just continue to grow each year and we are already looking forward to next year!”

Betty, along with co-director & co-founder Stacie Chandler, and board members Debbie Cameron and Sara Hilfiker wish to thank all those who donated purses, bought tickets, and supported this event in any way.

Holtville’s Four Horsemen

We started down memory lane last week with the Green & Gold’s brief restoration of Holtville High School athletics from 1915 to 1949. This week let’s look back at the significant Viking achievements of the 1950′s and 60′s, keeping in mind that this had to be dug out of the archives at Pioneer Museum across the road from IVC or from the vault at Holtville High School.
In the early 50′s, football was the favorite national sport, and, a la Notre Dame, Holtville had its own “Four Horsemen” in the backfield with Pete Covington, Buck DePaoli, Richard Ferguson, and Charles Stephens. Enthusiasm spread to other sports as well and in 1951 coach Ed Covington led the Vikings to league championships in both basketball and baseball for the first time in school history. The baseball team featured catcher John Durham, pitcher Earl Tankersley, and Buck DePaoli (who was All-Valley in both baseball & football in ’51 and ’52. In ’52, Tinkersley pitched a perfect no-hit game; and in ’53 the baseball team led by pitcher, Val Macliz, was league co-champion. 1954 saw the football team, coached by Mr. Brevick, become league champions for the 1st time since 1937.  They were led by quarterback, Eddie Copeland (remember Copeland Lumber?) and runners, Danny Delgado & Tommy DePaoli. An interesting note of the period was that future ‘Green and Gold Hall of Fame’ founder, Marv Wood, was an All-Valley performer in both football & baseball in the years ’57 to ’58. Also in 1958, the boy’s basketball team under coach Clarence Lowe was co-champions of their league and became the first Viking basketball team to go to CIF playoffs. At the time they were the most successful basketball team in school history and had star-players, Danny Wheeler & Jim Hughes, leading the way.
In 1960, coach Don Turner led the Viking wrestlers to an MDL Championship and on that team was Bob Munger, who went on to become a state champion while at IVC, team captain of UCLA’s wrestling team, and a candidate for the USA Olympic Team in 1976.  Also in 1960, Coach Turner led the football team to another league title, and in ’61 they repeated as league champions under Coach Jack McBride. Ironically the best team was probably in 1962 when they finished 2nd in league play to Imperial but went on to win the Southern California Small Schools Championship – at the time, the greatest achievement for athletics in Holtville history. They won another league title in 1963, making it a fabulous 4-year run of great Viking football teams. Outstanding players on those teams were: Joe Marini, Jim Martin, Larry Mandrell, Rich Lay, Roger Rodahl, and Jim Brown. In 1968, the football team led by All-CIF running back and MDL Player of the Year, George Hoyt, and coached by Charles Wilson, went undefeated and captured another CIF Championship for Holtville. In terms of just football, the 1960′s may have been the best decade of all for the Vikings.
Next week we will take a look at Viking athletics of the 1970′s and 1980′s; with a head’s up here that girls’-sports will become the dominant success stories. The Green & Gold Hall of Fame organization has done extensive research to preserve all of this; and we invite anyone to contribute more to it in any way that they can. Contact Bob Wynkoop (1-760-356-2320) to contribute.