GONZALES — Sixteen players and two coaches from the 1974 Gonzales High School football team entered the Salinas Valley Sports Hall of Fame (SVSHOF) on Saturday at the Storm House in Salinas.
The Gonzales football team became the first high school football team from the Salinas Valley to enter the SVSHOF.
Mission Trail Athletic League All-League offensive tackle Steve Wiley introduced his Spartan teammates and the coaching staff in front of a packed house at the Aug. 23 event.
“Everybody on our offensive unit scored touchdowns and we were led by David Raffile at running back and nose guard and Mike Silva at quarterback,” Wiley said. “After our 14-7 home loss to Pacific Grove, we became an outstanding defensive team and won our last four games holding our last opponents to 108 yards a game, while we produced 430 yards of offense.”
He added that the Spartans’ rival, King City, helped them by beating Pacific Grove, and they secured a share of the title by beating the Mustangs, 30-0, at home in the season finale.
“We also had All-MTAL players on offense with Silva at quarterback; Doug Arneson at offensive tackle; Ron Stanfield at tight end; and Mike Brusa at offensive guard. On defense, All-MTAL players included Richard Correa at defensive end; Carlos Nieto at defensive tackle Jeff Sommer at safety; and Raffile at nose guard. Raffile was the MTAL Defensive Player of the Year and the Gonzales Back of the Year as he ran for 988 yards and scored 11 touchdowns,” Wiley said.
Silva, the Golden Helmet winner, is on the Gonzales High School Hall of Fame along with Wiley, Arneson, Nieto, Sommer, Fred Ledesma and David Deleissegues.
Honorable mention All-MTAL players for the 1974 team were: Steve Brusa at offensive tackle; Tim Ryan at center; Kevin Piercy at linebacker; Steve Simonetti at running back; and Marty Corda at running back.
Head coach Larry Welsh entered the SVSHOF for the second time, as he was a selected as a coach in 2014. Welsh coached the Spartans from 1966-75. Gonzales went 69-18-1 during those years, along with producing 33 shutouts.
While Welsh spoke highly of his team, he also talked about the initial visit to Gonzales, where he took a teaching and coaching job after meeting Superintendent Dick Force and his administrative staff.
“After receiving a call to come to Gonzales for a job interview, we traveled by way of Las Vegas then worked our way down here to Gonzales,” Welsh said. “The optimism of Dick Force at Gonzales High School and the people in the District and the people in the local towns was out of sight. (Force) hired guys like Frank Hankin, an outstanding wrestling coach, and many others, and we formed a great coaching staff in all sports.”
Welsh said the football program had the best field and lights in the area.
“All the visiting teams could not stop talking about our pre-game show, when we would turn off the main lights and the varsity teams would run under spotlights — just a great atmosphere,” he added. “Our teams won championships and we would play anyone that wanted to add us on their schedule.”
