FOOTHILL FLIP A POSSIBILITY.

Byline: GERRY GITTELSON Community Sports

With one week remaining in the regular season, it's been a year of few surprises in Foothill League football circles.

In fact, there hasn't been a single upset, as powers Hart (6-3, 4-0), Canyon (8-1, 3-1) and Valencia (7-2, 3-1) all have clinched playoff berths by winning Friday.

Four teams qualify for the Southern Section Div. III playoffs beginning Nov. 21, and Saugus (2-7, 0-4) already is out even if the Centurions somehow manage a shocking upset against Canyon on Friday. The reason Saugus is finished is because the fourth and final slot will be taken by either Burbank (5-4, 1-3) or Burroughs of Burbank (4-5, 1-3). Both of those schools have beaten Saugus and play each other Friday.

There are four six-team leagues and 16 slots, so no wild-card entries in Div. II this year.

Of course, there remains the drama of the finale between Hart and Valencia on Friday at College of the Canyons. A Valencia victory, coupled with a Canyon win over Saugus, will force a three-way tie between Hart, Valencia and Canyon.

In such a case, the league bylaws dictate a three-way coin flip to decide which team represents the league as the first-place team in the playoffs.

The hard part will be finding a three-sided coin - but we assume no one is worrying about that until they have to.

--Hart High junior varsity football coach Pete Calzia, whose team is bidding for a fourth consecutive Foothill League title against Valencia on Friday, will retire after the game, ending a 20-year coaching career in football and baseball at the school.

``There's no hidden reason. I just think it's the right decision,'' Calzia said. ``It's been 20 years, and I'm tired of the 11- and 12-hour days.''

Calzia, who has two adult children, Andrew, 25, and Kelly, 22, will remain on campus as a geometry teacher.

Since taking over the JV program in 1998, Calzia, 51, has won four titles and finished second once. His career record is 42-13-2, including 3-5-1 this year, which is Calzia's first losing season.

--Hart's football team has won 62 league games in a row and 13 consecutive league titles (including this year). But here's another Hart football streak you probably didn't know about: Larry Fiscus, longtime equipment manager, said through the years he's never lost track of one of the team's 14 footballs allotted for each season.

--Erika Owen, a former Hart softball standout who has been at Dartmouth the past two seasons, has left the Ivy League university for a semester in San Diego on an exchange program. She plans to return to Dartmouth.

--Rosters for the 52nd annual Shrine Classic All-Star football game will be selected Jan. 26. in Los Alamitos.

Among the expected nominees: quarterbacks Nate Longshore of Canyon and Sean Norton of Hart; running backs Louis Montano of Canyon and Dan Howell of Hart; receivers Sean Coen of Canyon and Kevin Ciccone of Hart; linemen Kevin Bell of Hart and Fernal Vasquez of Burroughs; linebackers Andrew Schantz of Canyon and Brian Elledge of Hart; and defensive backs Matt Patterson of Burroughs, and Geoff Tisdale and Brandon Nichols of Valencia.