SMALL SCHOOL, WITH BIG HOPES.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

WESTLAKE VILLAGE - It's searing, so hot shoes are surprised not to melt to the track, the air dry as the football team races and laughs and completes its final day of summer camp.

It could be any high school across the country -- only this is not any high school, and this is most assuredly not just any football team.

This is Oaks Christian, the most unique and remarkable high school team in the country. A team that defies logic and numbers and any rational person's original expectations. And it might be the nation's best high school football team, though should that recognition arrive, it will not be without much skepticism.

Unquestioned is that Oaks Christian has some of the finest talent in the country. It has three players ranked among the top 10 recruits in the country. It has nine players being recruited by big-time Division I-A programs.

The Lions have won 31 consecutive games, three straight CIF Southern Section titles, first-rate facilities and one of the Southland's most revered head coaches in Bill Redell.

At first blush, they have every ingredient to match Redell's expectations.

``I think we should be the No.1-ranked team in the country,'' Redell said.

Redell figures Oaks Christian will at least be ranked in the top five, though even that would prove a quantum leap from last season and no doubt rankle many of the traditional high school football powers.

Because Oaks Christian is a new school, graduating its first class in 2002. It is a small school, with only approximately 650 students; its three CIF titles came at the tiny Div. XI level. And it has never played a single team of real significance. Yet there is no questioning this year's team is something special. Something extraordinary happened in the foothills here, something so exceptional that people might be trying to quantify its greatness without true satisfaction all season.

``It's something I've never experienced in my 32 years,'' Oaks Christian athletic director Jan Hethcock said. ``I don't believe I will ever see a team like this again in high school. Something that comes through once in a lifetime.''

The Lions are highlighted by Jimmy Clausen, he of the famous family quarterback heritage and ranked by most is the No.1 recruit in the country. He has given an oral commitment to Notre Dame. In the backfield is Marc Tyler, son of former UCLA and NFL great Wendell Tyler, ranked the No.3 recruit by Scouts Inc. for ESPN. Clausen and Tyler give the Lions the most feared quarterback-tailback duo in the country. Safety Marshall Jones is ranked ninth overall by Scouts Inc. Both Tyler and Jones have given oral commitments to USC.

And those three are only the beginning of the abundance of talent.

Offensive tackle/defensive end Michael Ebbitt (ESPN No.132) is being recruited by Miami, Oregon, Colorado and Texas A&M. Cornerback Anthony Gildon has committed to Oregon. Linebacker Casey Mathews, son of USC and NFL great Clay Mathews -- the team's defensive coordinator -- is being recruited by Oregon, Cal and Georgia Tech. Wide receiver Sean Wiser is considering an offer from Stanford. Offensive tackle/defensive end Duke Lemmens is looking at Florida, Cal and Texas A&M. Guard Justin Landseadel is going to Air Force.

It would be an excess of riches at any high school, but at a new, small Christian school, it's unparalleled.

``I've never had anything like it,'' Redell said. ``The most I've ever had in one season before is three.''

Redell, 65, previously coached at Crespi of Encino and St.Francis of La Canada Flintridge and is hardly without credentials. He coached Crespi to the 1986 Southern Section big-school championship. He coached at Cal State Fullerton and the USFL. And now he has taken a new school on a meteoritic rise, to a level that perhaps only he envisioned.

``The school never intended to have a program of this level,'' he said. ``It wasn't even in their farthest imagination that they would have a team of this caliber. It was in mine.''

The arrival of Clausen immediately put Oaks Christian on the map. His sister was already a student here.

Others came because their parents wanted them to have to attend a good Christian school with high academic standards, because they couldn't get into the public school desired, because their girlfriend was going here.

There were mumbles of recruiting, but a wealthy new school and Redell proved an attraction.

Soon, the Lions were pounding people 57-0 on an almost weekly basis. The Lions romped through the playoffs last season, Clausen and several starters only playing a half.

Beating up other small schools was not helping their recognition cause. Despite the winning streak and consecutive titles, the Lions could not crack any national rankings. They finished 40th in the National High School Football poll and did not make USA Today's Top25, finishing only sixth in its West regional rankings.

This year Hethcock said the Lions tried to upgrade their schedule, but there was little for traditional powers to gain by playing a small school.

Promoters tried to match them in nationally televised games against teams in Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina and Moeller High in Cincinnati.

Redell wanted the Moeller game, but said a new CIF rule requiring a $10,000 fee scared promoters off.

Neither are the local upper echelon, traditional Div. I powers on this year's schedule. No Long Beach Poly, De La Salle of Concord, Loyola of Los Angeles, Mater Dei of Santa Ana, Edison of Huntington Beach, no Mission Viejo. No team to help legitimize this team's claim to greatness.

Easily the best matchup is at St. Bonaventure of Ventura, a team ranked No. 1 in the Southland at the end of last season despite playing in Div.IV. St. Bonny, however, will first have to beat powerhouses Hart of Newhall and Canyon of Canyon Country to make its third came against Oaks Christian truly meaningful.

Oaks Christian thought it had a game against Mission Viejo lined up, but Redell would not agree to the typical two-year deal, knowing he will start seniors this year.

``They just wanted to play us this year,'' Mission Viejo coach Bob Johnson said. ``A one-year wonder, I guess. I would love to play 'em this year and next. They wouldn't play us next year. I laughed.''

Johnson said he has never seen the Lions play except in a passing tournament, but questions whether they could hold up in a Div.-I schedule.

``I don't think they have the depth and the linemen for that,'' he said. ``When you haven't played anybody week in and week out, it's hard to say they're at that level.

``I would like to see them play a D-I schedule, or D-II, whatever they think they are, and see what came out of it. They wouldn't get my vote.''

If the Lions are as special as suspected, they could run the table, push their winning streak to a Southern Section record-tying 46 games and still no one will know for certain the greatness of this little school.

``This is the best team I've had in my 19 years as a coach,'' Redell said.

Special enough to deserve the Mission Viejo game, a chance to prove itself and quiet doubters, even at the risk of a bad defeat next season. Then perhaps many would look back on this phenomenal little team the way Redell hopes, leaving a unique legacy.

``If we can play like we're capable of and can avoid injury,'' he said, ``this could go down as one of the better high school teams ever.''

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