Craig Dennis, Millennium Hall of Fame

The first year Estancia High won a CIF Southern Section football

playoff game, Craig Dennis was deep in the trenches, providing key

tackles in the Eagles’ goal-line stand late in the fourth quarter as they

held on to upset Orange, 19-14, in the autumn of 1970.

“They had first-and-goal on the 1-yard line, and we stopped them on

four downs,” Dennis said of the Crestview League champion Panthers, whose

offense was stifled and never heard from again in that first-round CIF

3-A contest at El Modena High.

The Eagles that season, under Coach Phil Brown, enjoyed their first

winning campaign at 9-2 and established a school single-season record for

victories that stood for 19 years. In addition to Dennis, Cal Shores and

Doug Brant were All-Irvine League linemen, while quarterback Curt Thomas

and running back Dan Princeotto were the offensive stars.

“Then we barely lost to (top-seeded) Bonita in the CIF quarterfinals

(15-14) in the pouring rain at Orange Coast College,” said Dennis, a

junior that year. “We’d only lost two games my junior year -- by a total

of three points.”

In Week 3, Estancia lost to eventual CIF 3-A champion Edison, 14-12,

in the Irvine League opener, then ripped through the rest of the league

and captured second place, taking a seven-game winning streak into the

CIF quarterfinals. The Eagles had triumphs over Los Alamitos and Fountain

Valley and district rivals Costa Mesa and Corona del Mar.

“We had a great year,” said Dennis, a 6-foot, 210-pounder and a three-year varsity starter.

Dennis, noted for having never come out of a varsity football game and

never missing a practice, was a two-time first-team all-league offensive

guard and earned All-Orange Coast area by the Daily Pilot as a senior.

Dennis, who played in the 1972 Orange County All-Star game, lined up

at tackle with his older brother, Mark, as a sophomore in 1969, another

thrill for the player who epitomized team work, according to a Daily

Pilot story in August 1972 before the North-South clash at OCC, won by

the South, 14-0.

“I taught him everything he knows,” said his older brother, who

graduated from Estancia two years before him.

Dennis, a junior high standout in football, basketball, baseball and

track and field, decided to focus strictly on football and throwing the

shot put following his freshman year at Estancia.

As a junior, Dennis set the school record in the shot put at 55 feet,

then repeated the effort in 1972 and qualified for the CIF preliminaries

at Cerritos College.

Dennis, whose favorite memories are playing football in front of the

large, 5,000-plus crowds against teams like Edison and Fountain Valley,

continued playing at Orange Coast, but knee injuries ended his career.

“I never got hurt until I got to college,” said Dennis, the Eagles’

captain his senior year and a dedicated student in the classroom.

“My last game as a senior in high school, we lost, 7-6, to Corona del

Mar, and if we would’ve won that game, there would’ve been a five-way tie

for first place, because the league was so competitive,” said Dennis,

whose ’71 team finished 4-5 and missed the CIF playoffs.

Dennis, who was always too big as a kid to play Pop Warner football,

grew up in Downey, then his family moved to Costa Mesa when he was 10.

These days, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame,

celebrating the millennium, lives in Encinitas with his wife of 23 years,

Vickie, and two daughters.

Their oldest daughter, Kristen, 19, was the CIF San Diego Section

Division I softball Player of the Year in 1998 and was the Atlantic Coast

Conference Rookie of the Year last spring at the University of Virginia,

where she’s on a full scholarship.

Their youngest daughter, Lauren, 16, is a junior at La Costa Canyon

High.

“My work opened an office down here (in Carlsbad), so I decided to

transfer and it was the best thing I ever did,” said Dennis, an

underwriting supervisor for Farmers Insurance, who has been in North San

Diego County for 13 1/2 years.