HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
No decision sometimes best one
Scott, Mason were top players of ’89
The Buffalo News is celebrating the 50th anniversary of All-Western New York football with an alltime All-WNY team which will be published later this season. Along the way, The News will look back at the best of various eras with the reporters who helped select the teams. Mike Harrington covered high school football from 1987 to 1991.
Make a decision.
When you’re picking an All- Western New York football team, that’s the credo to live by. But it’s not always that easy. Especially when you’re talking about ones you just can’t make, the ones you agonize over long after the team is announced. Which brings us to 1989.
No offense intended to linemen, but people don’t argue too much about them. As for quarterback, that’s a different story. You better get that pick right. In ’89, it was just about impossible.
Years later, people remember the names of All-WNY signal callers. Think back to the likes of Brian Ross, Ken Hyer, Trevor Sajdak, Warren Miles, Malik Campbell, Randall Secky, Naaman Roosevelt. So when I kept waffling between Grand Island gunner Cliff Scott and West Seneca East scrambler Kevin Mason, I knew the choice between the two seniors would probably resonate for a long time.
Scott led Grand Island to the Class B-1 title while throwing for what was then a Western New York-record 1,714 yards. He had eight interceptions as a defensive back and punted for an incredible 46.2-yard average.
While Scott was a classic dropback passer who was favored by many coaches and scouts, Mason evoked comparisons to the top scrambler of the day, Philadelphia Eagles star Randall Cunningham.
In that ’89 season (East was a Class A semifinal loser by one point to Lockport), Mason passed for 625 yards and rushed for 735. He was an all-sides-of-the-ball guy as well, making seven interceptions and punting for an average of 39.6.
What to do? I went with Scott as the quarterback and Mason as a defensive back. And, in what a whole lot of people called one big cop-out, I named them co-players of the year. So sue me.
I felt their play that season deserved that recognition. The way things turned out years later, I was even happier with the choice.
Scott went on to the University at Buffalo and is still the Bulls’ alltime leader in passing yards (7,578) and total offense (8,479). Mason played at Syracuse, had a four-year Canadian Football League career, was an original member of the Buffalo Destroyers in the Arena league and just last year helped the Buffalo Gladiators win the New York Amateur Football League title.
The Scott-Mason quandary was the toughest one during a pretty good five-year run I had at the helm of the All-WNY team from 1987-91.
I had three NFL lineman (Lackawanna’s Mike Mamula, Frontier’s Dave Wohlabaugh and St. Joe’s Vaughn Parker), some terrific running backs like Ray Braxton (Lackawanna), Mark Anderson (Orchard Park), Jim Snyder (Medina), Chris George (Springville), Mario Reeves (Turner-Carroll) and Randy Smith (Lockport), and one of Albion’s early greats at wide receiver in Ray Callicutt.
Smith was named as a defensive back in ’89 and a running back in ’90, when he was the player of the year. He went to college as a DB and earlier this year was named one of the top 25 players at Division I-AA power Youngstown State as the Penguins celebrated the 25th anniversary of their oncampus stadium.
You can’t forget the dominance up front of Jamestown linemen Shawn Bowman and Mark Hilt. Some of the last Art Serotte-era Grover Cleveland stars like Tony Jones were still winning Harvard Cups. Kevin Brinkworth went from Williamsville South to the University of Miami. Another linebacker, Southwestern’s Pete Conley, became an all-time great at UB. There was even a dominant kicker in John Flood of St. Joe’s.
The one thing I still can’t figure out is the Connolly Cup voting. Maybe my indecisiveness plagued them. In ’89, they chose Springville running back George instead of Scott or Mason.
Strangely enough, the same thing happened in 1992 when The News also had co-players of the year (Grand Island QB Anthony Scott, Cliff’s brother, and Grover running back Teddy McDuffie). The Connolly Cup choice? Maryvale quarterback Cory Schemm. Decisions, decisions.
Next Saturday: Bob DiCesare takes a look at 1982-1986.
