Small wonders

Barry Faulkner

Call it the little football team that wasn’t supposed to.

Irvine High shared the Sea View League title en route to the CIF Southern

Section Division VI semifinals and a 10-2-1 record last season. But Coach

Terry Henigan, who guided the Vaqueros to three straight section titles

beginning in 1991, said goodbye to 42 graduates, one notable transfer,

and all but one returning starter.

And while the junior varsity matched Newport Harbor’s 9-0-1 record to

share the league crown, the buzz in the Orange County prep community

predicted the days of Vaquero gridiron success were numbered.

Adding ammunition to the doubters was a virtual two-platoon starting

lineup that included barely a handful of 200 pounders. This from a school

which perennially churned out near-three-quarter ton offensive lines.

“We’ve shocked people,” said Henigan, who is preparing his undersized

overachievers to meet Newport Harbor in Friday’s CIF Division VI

championship game at Orange Coast College. “There were people in this

community who didn’t think we’d be a very good football team.

“We never set lofty goals at Irvine, but, as coaches, we thought we could

be pretty good. We just liked our kids’ character.”

Proving it’s what’s inside that counts, the Vaqs forged a 10-2-1 record

against a schedule which included Division I finalist Mater Dei, Newport

(the Sailors won, 12-10, in the league opener), as well as section

semifinalists Loara (twice), Newbury Park and South Torrance. They lost

to Mater Dei, 35-14, and tied South Torrance.

But when the Division VI pairings came out, a potential quarterfinal date

against top-seeded and unbeaten Mayfair created, many believed, a

season-ending road block.

But, after a 33-6 first-round trouncing of Santa Ana Valley, Irvine

stunned the much-heralded Monsoons, 9-7, then beat Loara a second time,

15-9, in the semifinals.

“A lot of people felt sorry for us when they saw we had to play Mayfair,”

senior linebacker Jeff Paddy said. “But we knew we could beat them. Coach

Henigan made us believe.”

A starting lineup which averages 5-11 1/2, 189 pounds on offense and

5-11, 181 on defense (those from program numbers Henigan admits are

inflated), has inspired many disbelievers.

But with quickness, aggression and sheer determination, Irvine has earned

the opportunity to claim the school’s fourth CIF crown.

“It’s all about heart,” said senior middle linebacker Mike Patterson, who

at 6-1, 200 pounds has the defense’s most impressive physique.

Despite its lack of size, Irvine’s defense is yielding just less than 13

points a game, just more than six per contest in the playoffs.

“They have great tenacity and they all play hard,” Henigan said of the

group deployed from the 46 scheme made famous by Buddy Ryan’s Chicago

Bears in the mid-1980s. “We rely on our defense, no doubt.”

Patterson has been in on 132 tackles, including 8 1/2 sacks, while senior

Calvary Chapel transfer Keith Short, an All-CIF cornerback last fall who

has committed to play at UCLA, has seven of the team’s 16 interceptions.

Offensively, Short leads a four-man backfield rotation with 1,124 rushing

yards and 13 touchdowns. He also returns kicks.

“Keith does it all for us,” Henigan said.

Senior quarterback Mike Ricci (1,544 passing yards and 14 TDs) and senior

receiver James Whitted (23 of his 54 catches in the playoffs) are

additional stalwarts.

Whitted, Henigan said, is probably the only senior, besides Short, who

will get a chance to continue collegiately, most likely at a community

college.

“They don’t recruit many 195-pound kids,” Henigan, in his 19th year at

Irvine, said.