After Year Off, the Shrine Game Returns--to East L. A. College

The 34th Shrine All-Star football game for this year’s high school graduates will be played tonight at 7 p.m. at East Los Angeles College, a year late and in a stadium that seats only 21,500.

But the game’s sponsors, plagued for two years by stadium problems, are happy to be playing anywhere.

After 10 years at the Rose Bowl, the sponsors parted on the worst of terms with Rose Bowl management last year when the game had to be canceled because the field was unplayable.

Rose Bowl management claimed that natural factors had caused the damage. Shrine game sponsors said that the poor field condition had been caused by a motocross held during a hot spell.

So this year, with a lawsuit against the Rose Bowl pending, the Al Malaikah Shrine Temple, which sponsors the game to raise money for the Shriners’ Hospital for Crippled Children, investigated the possibility of using the Coliseum, the game’s site from 1952 through 1973.

But an off-road race was held there last weekend, and the sponsors, again fearing an unplayable field, chose East Los Angeles.

“We got a late start (in ticket sales),” John Barrie, ticket director, said. “I don’t think we will sell it out.”

As usual, however, many of the top players in Southern California will play in the game.

The South, which leads the series, 15-13--there have been four ties--will be coached by Mike Churchill of Riverside Poly and William Partridge of Gardena High.

Churchill, whose Riverside Poly teams have lost just one game in the past two seasons, will have two players from his 1984 Big Five championship squad, Mark Green and Steve Sigloch.

Green, the Big Five Conference Player of the Year, is a 6-foot safety and running back who ran for 1,345 yards, averaging 12.7 yards a carry, and intercepted four passes. He will attend Notre Dame in the fall. Sigloch, a running back who will attend Utah, was an All-Southern Section player last year, scoring 22 touchdowns.

Joining them in the backfield will be Steve Broussard, Manual Arts’ talented runner who led the Toilers to two straight City 3-A titles. Broussard, heading for Washington State, rushed for 1,576 yards and 21 touchdowns in 1984.

The North, coached by Joel Schaeffer of Reseda High and Carl Sweet of Placentia El Dorado High, will counter with one of the most highly recruited running backs in the country in Aaron Emanuel of Lancaster Quartz Hill.

Southern Section Division II Player of the Year, Emanuel rushed for 1,907 yards and 18 touchdowns. Joining him will be Richard Bell of Pasadena Muir, who averaged 8.8 yards a carry, and Lamon Fields of Ventura, who ran for 25 touchdowns.

Emanuel will go to USC, as will five other Shrine players: wide receiver John Jackson of La Puente Bishop Amat, linebacker Derrick Gatchett of Anaheim Esperanza, offensive tackle Chuck Kunsaitis of El Toro, defensive lineman Dan Owens of La Habra and defensive back Chris Martz of Hacienda Heights Los Altos, although Martz will be on a volleyball scholarship.

Each side will have three Trojans, since Jackson and Martz will join Emanuel on the North team, and Gatchett, Kunsaitis and Owens will play for the South.

UCLA will have four recruits in the game: offensive linemen Dave Hallstrom of La Canada St. Francis and Mike Beech of Newport Harbor, along with defensive backs Mark McGill of South Bakersfield and Tim McLain of El Toro. Hallstrom and McGill will play for the North, McLain and Beech for the South.

McGill is also the backup quarterback, having thrown for 22 touchdowns. On defense, he intercepted six passes.

Running back Carnell Lake of Culver City, another UCLA recruit, is being held out of the game because of an injury he suffered during the season.

At quarterback, the South will be led by Banning’s Jamelle Holieway, City 4-A Player of the Year who is Oklahoma-bound. Holieway, an all-around athlete, ran for seven touchdowns, threw for 10 more, had 2,100 yards in total offense, returned kickoffs and punts, intercepted two passes, recovered two fumbles and blocked a punt.

Mike McMaster of Bellflower St. John Bosco will also quarterback the South. Voted the All-Southern California Catholic Player of the Year, McMaster will attend University of Pacific.

Michael Johnson, Southern Section Division III Player of the Year, will quarterback the North squad. Johnson, who will attend Arizona State, is a 6-3 left-hander who led Baldwin Park to a 12-1 season, throwing for 3,087 yards and 24 touchdowns.

His targets will be Jackson of Bishop Amat and Lloyd Bailey of Claremont, who had 57 receptions in 1984 and 10 touchdowns. Bailey will go to Oregon State.

Both the City 3-A and 2-A players of the year, linebacker James Nichols of Manual Arts for the South and linebacker Fred Wade of Roosevelt for the North, were invited to play but withdrew.

Notes The South has been staying at Cal State Long Beach and the North at Cal State Northridge since July 18, but both practiced Thursday on the artificial turf at East L.A.’s Weingart Stadium. . . . Barring any last-minute changes, Mike McMaster is expected to start over Jamelle Holieway at quarterback for the South, with Holieway opening at defensive back. . . . When the teams got together for the first time in June, Joel Schaeffer decided to introduce himself to one player’s father. A nice thought, but the “father” turned out to be Reggie Gaddis, a 6-4, 260-pound defensive tackle from Pomona. Gaddis, an All-Southern Section pick headed for the University of Arizona, will be starting for defensive coach Schaeffer on the North team and has also been elected team captain by a vote of the players.