La Cañada Gladiators football playing the percentages
In its 48 years as a youth football program in La Cañada Flintridge, the La Cañada Gladiators have helped cultivate players who have gone on to compete at the high school level, in college and even in the NFL.
But Gladiators president Kevin Lacey says the organization is not necessarily focused solely on readying players for the next level of competition.
“I actually crunched the numbers once and, even on a good year, probably between 25-30% of our kids will go on to play football in high school,” Lacey said. “So, that means for 70-75% of our kids, this is going to be their football experience. Because the vast majority are not going to play past this, this is going to be their memory of football.
“We’re really trying to direct the program to that 70 %, not necessarily direct it just at the players who are going to move on, because those players who will play past us will learn the skills as they progress. But for the vast majority, we want them to be able to have the good memories playing and maybe when they’re 30, they’ll look back on it and say, ‘Hey, that was fun doing that, I want my kid to do it.’”
Lacey said like many other youth sports, only a very small percentage of athletes from the Gladiators earn the opportunity to play on the collegiate or professional level.
“We’re in our 49th year as an organization this year and, in that 49 years, I have no idea how many kids have come through the program,” Lacey said. “But in that time, we have produced two pros; one who made it for about a season and he went off to coach somewhere and the other [cornerback Sean Smith] is up playing for the [Oakland] Raiders. That just shows you the percentages of how tough it is and just how many make it.
“But what is really rewarding is seeing the kids in the program who are able to improve in the sport and just have fun. You never know how a player is going to progress and what he might become. We really have a mix of kids, some who are serious about football and some who have to start by learning to tie their shoes. ...But we try and accommodate everyone.”
Another important aspect of the organization is that it requires all participants to maintain a minimum 2.0 grade-point average throughout the season and those athletes attaining a 3.3 GPA or greater are awarded a scholar-athlete patch at the end of the season.
The Gladiators have been practicing during the summer in preparation for the 2016 season, which begins Sept. 15. The teams will play their home games on Saturdays at La Cañada High.
This season, the organization will field one flag team and five tackle squads, comprising about 170 players.
Organized in 1968, the Gladiators are members of the Junior All-American Football’s San Gabriel Valley Conference. The organization is open to boys and girls between the ages of 6-14 who play on teams organized according to age and weight guidelines. The squads take part in eight to 10 games a season.
Last season, the organization’s most successful team was the Pee Wee squad, which won a conference championship and enjoyed an undefeated campaign. This season, the squad will move up to play in the Junior Midget division. The team has been together for three years, has won three conference titles and boasts a 31-1 record over that span.
“We win our fair share of championships,” Lacey said. “The last 12 or 13 years, we’ve won I think 14 conference championships. That’s quite an achievement taking into consideration that La Cañada’s the smallest franchise in the conference. My recruiting area is the size of a postage stamp compared to other conference teams like Glendale, Pasadena or El Monte.
“But I attribute our success to the fact that we have very good coaches and we keep our coaches. Most of the coaches we have this year have been through the program at least once. ...And the other thing is that we emphasize in the beginning that this is about fundamentals, it’s about teaching lessons in life in a football context. We truly believe if you don’t put the pressure on the kids, the winning will come.”
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Jeff Tully, jeff.tully@latimes.com
Twitter: @jefftsports
