Scene & Heard: Granite Hills, Mission Hills battle to be among best in San Diego

SAN MARCOS — The greatest intersectional college football rivalry, bar none, is Notre Dame-USC. Touchdown Jesus. Traveler. The physical Midwest Catholic kids vs. the flashy Left Coast speedsters.

In the CIF San Diego Section, a fascinating inter-conference rivalry between schools 43 miles apart is forming.

Friday night, unbeaten Granite Hills took a one-hour bus ride from El Cajon to San Marcos to take on unbeaten Mission Hills.

It’s the third year in a row the teams met, with Granite winning the first two meetings, 27-17 and 28-17.

It’s a program with tradition (Mission Hills) vs. a program on the rise (Granite Hills).

Chris Hauser, 60, opened the Mission Hills program in 2004 and has posted a winning record 18 of the past 19 seasons. It took Granite Hills 62 years to play for its first section championship. And now Granite, behind 38-year-old Kellan Cobbs, has won three straight section titles in three different divisions.

Two hours before Friday’s kickoff, Mission Hills’ Jackson Fader, a 6-foot-4, 290-pound junior offensive tackle, sat on the Grizzlies’ bench during the JV game and talked about the showdown.

“It’s great to compete against them, see what they got, see what we’ve got,” said Fader.

Across the field, Granite Hills’ talented junior quarterback, Zac Benitez, chilled out, bobbing his head to tunes playing on his headphones.

“It’s cool,” said Benitez. “They’re a great program, a great coaching staff, great players. I love it.”

Mutual respect

The team’s coaching staffs couldn’t respect each other more.

“You see culture in their team,” Hauser said of Granite Hills. “You see chemistry. You see toughness. It’s impressive.”

Cobbs on Hauser and Mission Hills: “He started the school and has won over 200 games. (In four seasons at Vista and now his 22nd season at Mission Hills, Hauser is 209-89-2, the section’s 11th all-time winning coach.) You don’t do that by accident.”

Hauser the shutterbug

Hauser played at Vista High School and was a starting cornerback on the Panthers’ 1981 3A championship team. An avid sports fan, he worked part-time at the Vista Press newspaper in high school as a writer/photographer.

He remembers sitting in the photographers’ well at Angel Stadium and being awed at seeing Reggie Jackson standing in the on-deck circle. He shot a Chargers “Monday Night Football” game and listened as Howard Cosell, his foot in a cast propped atop a table, regaled listeners with yarns.

His senior year, Hauser shot the 1983 Rose Bowl game, UCLA’s 24-14 win over Michigan. His assignment that day: capture images of former El Camino High School star Dokie Williams.

Back at home, Hauser’s father took a picture off the TV screen with his son snapping away on the sideline.

Ode to Dick Haines

Hauser played under the legendary Dick Haines, who went 194-85-1 in 25 seasons (1970-94) as Vista’s coach.

Asked what he learned from Haines, Hauser recalled that at the end of Thursday’s practices, Haines called the team together and always left them with this reminder: “Mom knows best.”

More than three decades later, Hauser gives his Mission Hills players the same message on Thursdays.

“If you’re not sure about something,” said Hauser, “or have a decision to make, go see mom.”

True to their school

Ten of the 16 coaches on Granite Hills’ freshman, JV and varsity staffs are graduates, including Cobbs.

“It adds a little extra investment,” said Cobbs.

Of those 10 coaches, only one won a playoff game as a player.

Said Cobbs: “We survived not being very good and don’t want to go back to that.”

Food review

We opted for the $8 cheeseburger meal deal: burger, chips and a Diet Coke. The burger weighed at least a quarter pound, with the cheese perfectly melted. Soft bun. Verdict: four belches on the U-T five-belch scale.