No Title




 

 

It may be one of the biggest mysteries in the history of Ventura County sports.

How does a coach who grew up playing in one of football’s most primitive offenses-the Wing-T-become a pass-happy offensive guru who’s willing to chuck the ball downfield at any time?

Newbury Park head coach George Hurley says the answer is simple: Coaches make adjustments and go to battle with what they’ve got.

“The last couple of years that Ken Cook was the head coach in the late ’80s, his son, Wayne, who ended up at UCLA, was the quarterback here and he could really throw the ball,” Hurley, 58, said.

“There became a point where we weren’t able to compete with the size of some of the other schools, so we decided instead of running the ball 40 times a game and throwing it 10 times, we would try to throw it more. Instead of getting beat up on the line of scrimmage, we’d throw it over the top of the big guys.”

At that point, football in Ventura County and the Marmonte League in particular was forever altered. When Hurley was hired as the Panther head coach following the 1988 season, after 17 years as an assistant at Newbury Park, the wheels of change were already in motion.

No longer would the Marmonte League exclusively feature three-yards-and-a-cloudof-dust offensive schemes. High octane passing attacks would soon become vogue, and Hurley’s teams would pass their way to league championships in ’92, ’93, ’95, ’97 and ’98.

“It was pretty unique because we’d gone completely to throwing the ball around like crazy,” said Hurley, who’s primarily taught math, geometry, history and physical education at NPHS.

“We were throwing it 30, 35 or 40 times a game, which was completely unheard of,” he said. “We were ahead of the curve at the time. Now everybody in the Marmonte League throws the ball around. But at the time we were out in front of people, and it was pretty exciting being able to know you were going to score 40 points per game.”

Newbury Park quickly became a quarterback factory under Hurley and longtime assistant coach and current offensive coordinator Gary Fabricus.

A few years after Wayne Cook left, standout signal-caller Keith Smith appeared. Then came the Czernek brothers, followed by quarterbacks Cameron Merrill, Ryan Lombardo and Jordan LaSecla.

Entering his senior season in 1993, Smith had already thrown for 5,727 yards in two years and had led the state in passing during his junior campaign. In ’93, Smith would amass a then-school record 4,244 yards and lead the Panthers to a CIF championship.

Two years later, Chris Czernek broke Smith’s school record by passing for 4,360 yards. The following season, in 1996, Czernek tallied 4,034 yards through the air to lead the

state for the second consecutive year.

“We’ve had some remarkable athletes play quarterback here in the last 15 to 20 years,” Hurley said. ” T h e y ‘ v e continued to make us successful throwing the ball.”

During his playing career, Hurley spent time at offensive tackle, guard and center. He played high school ball in Taft, a small town 45 miles southwest of Bakersfield, where passing the football was a distant afterthought.

“The forward pass was for when you were down by 50 points,” Hurley said.

He said it was a big thrill in the early 1960s when his high school team was the first squad in the area to don plastic helmets, rather than the outdated leather caps.

“It was a pretty big deal,” Hurley said. “We were all very excited.”

Hurley earned a football scholarship to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he started for three years on the offensive line. During that time he was introduced to “scramble blocking,” a technique utilized by Paul “Bear” Bryant at the University of Alabama.

“Basically we were rolling around on all fours all day long,” he said, “nipping at people’s ankles and reaching back and grabbing their heels.”

Hurley graduated from Cal Poly in 1970 with a degree in history and earned his teaching credential the following year. He came to NPHS in 1972.

“And I’ve been here ever since,” he said.

George Hurley

George Hurley

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *