The 1983 team was only 7 points from being undefeated, losing only to a strong Royal Oak team 8-6 and Valley Christian 6-3. This team was a young team that played good offense and great defense. The defense held opponents to an average of 4.4 points per game which helped the Heralds win many close games.

The CIF playoff games were almost all very close games: 27-7 over Desert, 17-14 over Orange Lutheran in overtime, 13-12 over San Jacinto and in the CIF Championship game, 10-7 over Bishop. Mark Ortega ran for over 1,800 yards and Mike Fuentes threw for 1,640 yards. The big story was the outstanding defense led by CIF Player of the Year Tom Gabriel who played middle linebacker for the Heralds and at 6’1” and 230 lbs was an intimidating player. He had 12 sacks, 39 solo tackles and a total of 153 tackles. This is one of the first times the Player of the Year was not an offensive player.

The Heralds had many other outstanding players that year. Three of them made All-CIF besides Tom Gabriel: David Abramian (OG), Kraig Johnson (S) and Chris Moreno (WR).