1955 (1-7)

Hart's last year in the Ventura League.

In a 1955 pre-season article, the coach noted that the team was getting a lot of new safety equipment including "face masks for every player."

Date	Location	Opponent	Score
09-23-1955	Hart	Carpenteria	12-13
10-07-1955	Hart	Claremont	0-33
10-14-1955	Placentia (?)	Valencia	9-13
10-21-1955	OHS	Oxnard	0-46
10-28-1955	Hart	Antelope Valley	0-28
11-04-1955	VHS	Ventura	0-39
11-11-1955	Hart	Fillmore	6-0
11-18-1955	SPHS (?)	Santa Paula	0-33

1956 (0-8)
Another "Imperfect" Season

Hart bailed out of the Ventura League where the team was regularly pummeled and went to a freelance schedule. The Indians also implemented a "spread offense." It didn't seem to help much as the team went 0-8 in 1956. There were 536 students in the school.

The schedule:

Date	Location	Opponent	Score
09-21-1956	CHS	Claremont	12-27
09-28-1956	Hart	Arroyo Grande	0-22
10-05-1956	Hart	Valencia-Placentia	7-14
10-12-1956	SFHS	St. Francis	7-30
10-19-1956		Tehachapi	6-27
10-26-1956		Fillmore	0-21
11-02-1956		Ramona	7-25
11-09-1956		Millikan	0-21

1957 (6-2-1)
Finally - A Winning Season

After a year as a freelance program, Hart was in a new league - the Pioneer League. Hart also got a new coach, Don Stalwick, who stayed at the school for only one varsity season.

1957 was the real breakout year for the Hart program. The team tied for the League championship but more importantly had the first winning season in Hart history led by a defense that tallied five shutouts.

There were a few quirks: the team was so few in number that a flu epidemic caused the cancellation of a game. There were barely enough kids to play the next couple of weeks. One wonders if Hart would have had a couple of more shutouts without the flu.

It certainly was a traveling team with trips to Desert, Valencia-Placentia, a canceled game up in Arroyo Grande and a trips to Lompoc and San Luis Obispo.

The team made it's playoff debut, traveling to San Luis Obispo. If the Signal is any measure, the feat did not generate much excitement with both the fact of the game and result generating very little coverage.

Date	Location	Opponent	Score
09-20-1957	DHS	Desert	28-0
09-27-1957	VHS	Valencia-Placentia	14-0
10-05-1957	AGHS	Arroyo Grande	Cancelled (flu)
10-11-1957	Hart	St. Francis	6-6
10-18-1957	Hart	Carpenteria	7-13
10-25-1957	LHS	Lompoc	6-0
11-01-1957	Hart	Camarillo	34-0
11-08-1957	FHS	Fillmore	17-14
11-15-1957	Hart	Nordoff	21-0
11-22-1957	SLOHS	San Luis Obispo	13-14 (first playoff game)

1958 (11-1)
Shutouts, Win Streaks and Oh So Close to the Prize

What a turnaround! In 1956, Hart was 0-8. In 1957, the Indians - with a new coach - were 6-2-1 with 5 shutouts. In 1958, Hart - with ANOTHER new coach - went 9-0 in the regular season with an astonishing 6 shutouts and a Frontier League Championship. One factor in the success may have been the rapid growth of the school -- there were 957 students that year. The team had 38 players.

Two weeks after the end of the regular season, Hart got it's first ever playoff win against Arroyo Grande. The next week Hart beat up on Dominguez and headed for the AA Championship. Unfortunately, things didn't go Hart's that day and the Indians lost 14-6 to San Marino. The San Marino quarterback for that game: Bill Redell. Yes, the same guy that now coaches Oaks Christian (and coached at St. Francis and Crespi as well). There were an astonishing 8,000 fans in attendance. How many people lived in the SCV at the time? 12,000 to 14,000. Assuming half the attendance was from the SCV, that means about one-quarter to one-third of the entire population of the valley went to the game.

The firsts and bests:

(1) First undefeated regular season;
(2) Most shutouts (still the record!);
(3) First playoff win;
(4) First appearance in the championship;
(5) First sole league championship;
(6) Longest winning streak (11 games);
(7) Fewest points allowed in a season - 46 - and that in a 12-game season.

This group is on my all-time Hart favorite list even though I never saw them play.

The season:

Date	Location	Opponent	Score
09-19-1958	Hart	Harvard	12-2
09-26-1958	Hart	Victor Valley	41-6
10-03-1958	Hart	Valencia-Placentia	26-0
10-11-1958	SFHS	St. Francis	26-0
10-17-1958	NHS	Nordoff	34-12
10-24-1958	CHS	Carpenteria	62-0
10-31-1958	Hart	Lompoc	41-0
11-07-1958	CHS	Camarillo	40-0
11-14-1958	Hart	Fillmore	25-0 First Undefeated Regular Season
11-28-1958	Hart	Arroyo Grande	32-6 First Playoff Win
12-05-1958	Hart	Dominguez	34-6
12-12-1958	San Marino	San Marino	6-14 First Championship Game

1959 (8-2)
More Shutouts!

Hart once again was undefeated in the Frontier League and had a bunch of shutouts - four, five if you count a forfeit win over Nordoff. Unfortunately, the season began and ended the same way, with a loss to South Pasadena in South Pasadena. The last game was in the semi-finals of the AA playoffs (back then, the playoffs consisted of 8, rather than 16 teams).

John Sheeler was named all-CIF as a running back and his number - 30 - was retired.

Two other fun facts: Hart's enrollment exceeded one thousand students, 1120, an increase of over 170 from the previous year. The 7th and 8th grade students attended school on the Hart campus at that time. The school board approved a new junior high that year (Placerita) at a cost of 1.5 million!

The 1959 season:

Date	Location	Opponent	Score
09-25-1959	Hart	South Pasadena	6-7
10-02-1959	Hart	Clairemont-San Diego	19-0
10-09-1959	SPSH	Santa Paula	13-6
10-16-1959	FHS	Fillmore	19-8
10-23-1959	Hart	Nordoff	2-0 Forfeit
10-30-1959	Hart	Port Hueneme	34-0
11-06-1959	SMHS(?)	San Marcos	7-0
11-13-1959	Hart	Camarillo	47-0
11-27-1959	PRHS	Paso Robles	34-12
12-05-1959	SPHS	South Pasadena	6-12