Thurs.-Fri., August 17-18, 2023
After months of planning, it was finally time for our 1973 Thousand Oaks H.S. Lancers Marmonte League Championship football team to hold our 50 year reunion!
Half a century, how is that even possible?
The 1973 Thousand Oaks Lancers
Marmonte League Champions
9 Wins - 2 Losses
1973 Season Results
T.O. 8 - Lompoc 7
T.O. 26 - Morningside 20
T.O. 14 - Hueneme 6
Agoura 26 - T.O. 6
T.O. 39 - Royal 18*
T.O. 48 - Simi Valley 13*
T.O. 22 - Camarillo 6*
T.O. 37 - Oxnard 0*
T.O. 24 - Newbury Park 21*
T.O. 6 - Culver City 0**
Crescenta Valley 35 - T.O. 8*
* Marmonte League Game
** C.I.F. "AAA" Playoff Game
Legendary Lancers Head Coach Joe Howell often said that this was the best conditioned team he ever coached.
An opposing coach commented that you would not beat this 1973 edition of the Lancers if the score was still close at the start of the Fourth Quarter. The Lancers superior conditioning would simply wear out their opponents if it was a close game.
In 1973, mud COULD be a factor
as it was in the Culver City
C.I.F "AAA" Playoff Game,
a 6-0 win for TOHS
Nowadays, with almost all Ventura County fields being synthetic, not so much.
On Thursday, I stopped by TOHS
to watch the 2023 team go through
their final paces
The Lancers would be taking on a dangerous Santa Barbara H.S. Dons squad that returns all 11 Offensive starters from a team that went 9-2 in 2022 while earning a share of the Channel League Championship.
Final walk-through practices are
more mental than physical
Friday was going to be a long but fruitful day, the reunion festivities kicked off at 9:00 a.m. on the track at Thousand Oaks H.S. for the recreation of the "Coach Joe Howell Six Minute Mile Run."
This was the conditioning test that all of the Lancers teams of the early 1970s had to take first thing in the morning on the first day of Fall practice.
Heaven help those who could not finish that glorious mile run in six minutes or less!
1973 starting Offensive Tackles
Stewart Black and Greg D'Haenens
were the only ones to accept the Six
Minute Mile challenge on Friday
Many of us cheered Stewart and Greg
on to glory though
From L. to R.: FB Doug Harmon, OT Greg D'Haenens, HB/CB Kent Rowe, TE Dave Peterson, C Doug Metzgar, OT Stewart Black, Coach George Contreras, Coach Robert Richards and C/LB J.C. Benedict.
Also watching the morning proceedings were wives Gail D'Haenens and Laurie Contreras.
Greg finished his run in a respectable 13:52 while Stewart ran a blistering 12:40.
Allowing for advanced ages and change of running surfaces from T.O.s pristine dirt track of 1973 to the I'm sure much slower synthetic surface of today, Greg's time translated into a 5:47 mile while Stewart's officially adjusted to 5:32.
It might be just a fanciful theory though . . .
No one was hospitalized so the morning event was deemed a rousing success!
From 3:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. the festivities moved to the Sunset Terrace Restaurant, a perfect venue for rekindling friendships, telling stories and swapping a few lies about long ago glory I'm sure.
A good turn out
Tim Ahtye's game worn,
battered helmet
Gail D'Haenens and Dave Peterson
sharing a moment
Greg Glasmeier and John Thorson
reliving the past
Rick Bollinger, Steve Rote and
Mark Rote were all there
A special thanks to Steve for tracking down so many of the players making it much easier to spread the word.
Coach Jim O'Brien made it!
As of Friday morning, he was not coming but rallied!
A much beloved coach and teacher, all of us were happy to see Jim at the event.
Tim Ahtye, Mike Ahtye and
Kurt Herman were all great
Lancers back in the day
Doug and Janelle Metzgar
J.C. Benedict reliving a moment
from that championship year with
our son Michael
J.C. Benedict telling our grandson
Jacob that playing Pop Warner football
with long hair was perfectly OK
J.C. had long locks when he played too.
It was GREAT to see Jim O'Brien
A special THANKS to Chuck Severns for taking the time to drive Jim to the affair.
It was time to leave the Sunset Terrace and head on over to Lancer Stadium for the game.
Lancers new Head Coach Ben McEnroe really made us all feel welcome when he invited to join the 2023 team for their final pre-game talk.
In the Lancers Weight Room
for that pre-game talk
Our 1973 team was overjoyed
to be included in the pre-game talk
I thought a few of them looked like they were ready to play after hearing what Coach McEnroe had to say.
The Walk Of Champions onto
the field one more time
The team captains trailed in behind us.
Lots of memories returned I'm sure
DL David Palmer had his
Game Face securely in place!
Champions ALL!
Waving to the crowd as the PA
announcer introduced our team
Joining the lines to welcome
the 2023 Lancers onto the field
Good times . . .
. . . INDEED!
Captains Out!
HERE . . .
. . . COME . . .
. . . THE . . .
. . . LANCERS!
Thanks to the efforts TOHS
Football Booster Club President
Donna Lloyd Lovretovich we were able
to all sit together on the 50 yard line
during the exciting, action packed game
Santa Barbara came out firing
on all of their Offensive cylinders
The Dons led 22-7 at the end of the First Quarter.
It was indeed a BEAUTIFUL night
for American football!
The gutsy Lancers settled down
after the rocky start and made some
noise of their own
This is the start of a 70 yard TOHS
TD pass play just before Halftime
At the other end of that same 70
yard TD pass play came a sensational
juggling catch by this Lancer WR
After finally securing the ball, he was able to outrun the Santa Barbara DB into the End Zone to narrow the Dons Halftime lead to 22-14.
The Lancers continued to battle in the Second Half but the Dons fast start was just a little too much to overcome.
The Final Score was Santa Barbara (1-0) 29 - Thousand Oaks (0-1) 21.
The Lancers showed a lot of grit, resilience and flashes of excellence in the last three quarters. I think that they are still going to have a good year from what we all saw.
2023 Thousand Oaks Schedule
Santa Barbara 29 - T.O. 21
Aug. 25 vs. Ventura
Sept. 1 at Westlake
Sept. 9 at Garces Memorial
Sept. 14 vs. Oak Park*
Sept. 22 at Newbury Park*
Sept. 29 vs. Royal*
Oct. 6 at Camarillo*
Oct 13 at Moorpark*
Oct. 20 at Agoura*
* Canyon League Game
Good Luck Lancers!
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