Frank J. Hernandez

In 1960 the City of Whittier inagurated it's first ever Pop Warner football program and the interest resulted with the addition of a second Midget program.  The first team "The Mauraders" was comprised largely of members of the 1967 La Serna Lancers team the won the CIF 3 A title our senior year including Dave Dalby and Lancers QB Jerry Maiques and Frank,. Tragically Both Dalby and Maiques died violently, Dalby in a traffic accident and Maiques in a botched robbery  Guy Rebentisch and I played on Whittier's second Midget team "the Valiants" with several members of El Rancho's 1966 CIF Title team, a team that at the time set the national High School single season scoring record with nearely 600 points and several members of El Rancho's 1967 team that beat Compton Centennial in the second round of the playoffs,. Centenial was ranked number 1 in the nation by Parade Magazine leading up to that game. Frank's athleticism even then was unmatched and may have resulted in him being the lone Latino on that Maurader team which went undefeated.  Fast forward to end of our Senior Year, Frank was selected the the 605 All Star Football Game and offered a football scholarship to Long Beach State, both of which he turned down to the join the military during the Viet Nam years.  Franks athleticism was unparalled, his abitity to open field tackle and cover in the open field in football and then winnng winning the CIF wrestling title at 148 lbs in matches in which he completely dominated his opponent set him apart athletically . We were fortunate during our high school days with Whittier winning it's last CIF 4 A football tiltle our freshman year, with George Buehler named CIF football  Player of the Year with George winning the Heavy Weight wrestling title and Ray Alger and George Buehler finishing 2nd and 3rd in the CIF shotput both over 60 and Bob Chandler winning the B CIF shot put title '.  Our Junior year saw both John Buehler and Mike Newton win State Track titles, John in the shot and Mike in the 440.  Mike beat both Wayne Collete and John Smith for the State title, Collete and Smith would later be half of UCLA's World  record setting 4x400 meter squad and later win Olympic Medals. Our senior year Gilbert Albitre finished second in basketball scoring over 32 pts per game behind only Aviation HS Paul Westphal with Bob Krommenhoek being named to the All CIF Water Polo Team and a Doug Thomsen led 4x400 relay team that finished second only to Compton Centennial in the CIF final, a race in which Compton Centennial set the National Scholastic record. My condolences to his family.