Editor’s note: This story was updated Tuesday morning to include new information regarding the number of wins for Mission Viejo coach Bob Johnson.
*********************
The headline was “Johnson one win shy of history.”
Upon further review …
The details of that game story, chronicling Mission Viejo’s 49-12 win over Redondo Union, were off just a bit.
It was thought going into this season that Mission Viejo coach Bob Johnson had 315 career coaching wins, and that John Barnes, who retired as Los Alamitos’ coach after the 2015 season, held the Orange County football coaching record of 321 wins. The win over Redondo made Mission Viejo 5-0, which appeared to put Johnson one win away from Barnes’ record.
However, Johnson’s correct total of wins is 327 from his years at Los Amigos, El Toro and Mission Viejo. Barnes has 324 via his 37 years at Los Alamitos and one season at Magnolia.
Johnson has the record. He got it on Sept. 9 when Mission Viejo beat La Habra.
Belated congratulations are in order.
High school records-keeping can be tricky. There is no Elias Sports Bureau or a BaseballReference.com for high school sports. Generally, media has compiled records.
Mistakes can occur, and the Barnes-Johnson case is a great example of that.
Cal-Hi Sports, which began publishing monthly magazines and newsletters in the mid-1970s, has been the go-to source for all sorts CIF records in a variety of sports. CalHiSports.com is trustworthy and reliable.
But CalHiSports.com does not assess a team or coach a loss when a win becomes a forfeit loss. For its records, that win remains a win. At the Register, a win that becomes a forfeit loss will be counted as a loss; the same goes for a loss that turns into a win by forfeit.
Reconciling that discrepancy in record keeping can be a challenge. Also it is not uncommon to learn that a statistic we’ve had for years, even decades, is wrong.
We had Barnes’ Los Alamitos team of 1982 with a 2-7-1 record. Over the weekend, it was learned that Los Alamitos actually was 3-6-1 because a Los Alamitos loss to Costa Mesa became a forfeit win for the Griffins.
A couple of other math issues or inputting issues were discovered, and we concluded that Barnes had 324 wins.
Johnson doesn’t pay attention to his wins total. But he was getting asked about approaching Barnes’ record and Johnson suspected that the numbers might not be correct so he put an assistant coach on the job. Orange County football historian Dennis Bateman, whose thorough “Orange County Football Book” published in 2009 helped fix Barnes’ total, helped again with Johnson’s total.
It was concluded that Johnson has 327 wins. His five wins this season were not included in the paperwork we received Monday. We added those five wins Tuesday.
Johnson did not coach for eight years, from 1991-98. He might be at 400 wins if he had coached through those years.
NO GAME
Fairmont Prep’s game this past Saturday against Blair of Pasadena was canceled because Blair did not have enough players. Some football programs that have experienced Blair’s problem made a successful switch to 8-man football, which Sage Hill did before this season.
THE WARRIOR
Christian Licciardi was Orange Lutheran’s honorary captain this past Friday before the Lancers’ win over Mullen of Colorado at Santa Ana Stadium. Licciardi, who was an excellent player at Lutheran six years ago and went on to play in college, suffered a traumatic brain injury last December as the result of a sinus infection that became a serious issue quickly.
Licciardi had four strokes. His prognosis was dark. Through physical, occupational, speech and cognitive therapy, Licciardi regained his sight and his speech and walking abilities and he continue to improve.
Licciardi got some help from family and friends so he could make it to midfield as the Lancers’ honorary captain. The way he is improving, maybe Licciardi won’t need the assistance next year.
O.C. STARS
Among the many stalwart offensive performances in last week’s games …
Katella receiver James Fatasia had six catches for 177 yards and one touchdown in the Knights’ 35-24 win over Ocean View. At 6-4 and 187 pounds, Fatasia is a tough matchup.
San Juan Hills receiver Jacob Huff had 10 receptions for 119 yards and three touchdowns in the Stallions’ 38-6 win over Huntington Beach.
Tustin running back Kenneth Carr rushed for 377 yards and three touchdowns in the Tillers’ 34-17 win over Beckman. The 377 yards was 1 yard short of Tustin’s single-game record of 378 set by DeShaun Foster, who went on to play at UCLA and in the NFL, in the Tillers’ 55-42 loss to Santa Margarita and its quarterback Carson Palmer in a 1997 CIF-SS championship game. That is one of the all-time classic games in O.C. football history.
Dana Hills quarterback Corey Cisowski tied a school record with six touchdown passes in a 46-13 win over Los Amigos.
Logan Montgomery continues to be an all-round star at Laguna Hills. In the Hawks’ 40-5 win over Irvine, Montgomery returned an interception 90 yards for a touchdown, returned a kick 71 yards for a touchdown and scored on a 48-yard pass reception.
Orange Lutheran’s Stan Berryhill scored on a punt return, scored on a kickoff return, scored on a reception and threw a touchdown pass in the Lancers’ 49-33 win over Mullen.
THIS WEEK
Many teams have a bye week this week. What they did was start their season with a Week 0 game, and once their five nonleague games were done they took this week off to get ready for league play that begins next week.
The schedule is thin but there are some good matchups Friday. Among them: Mission Viejo (5-0) plays at El Toro (1-4); Cypress (4-0) is at Capistrano Valley (4-1); and Trabuco Hills plays Corona del Mar at Estancia High.
Contact the writer: sfryer@scng.com