Football: Ganesha ditches ‘unfair reputation’ in victory

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Handing out French class textbooks in the school library Friday morning, Ganesha first-year football coach David Fleming did his best to not look like a school hero. But his quest to avoid attention on the morning after Ganesha broke its state-record 49-game losing streak wasn’t very successful.

‘Yeah, it’s kind of a big thing around here,’ Fleming said. ‘People have been congratulating me all morning, and the cheerleaders are putting up decorations in the quad.’

Ganesha’s 7-6 victory over Gladstone at Citrus College may be a big deal to the school community, but it’s something Fleming realized would happen this season when he took over the program. Fleming says his team has been subject to a ‘tough and unfair reputation’ that was the legacy of the past -- not the present.

And although he realizes the Giants have a rocky road to traverse before they can relive their 1980s glory days, at least no one can describe Ganesha’s first on-field win since opening night 2002 as a fluke.

Ganesha played most of the game without starting RB Julian Garcia and second-string RB Julian Reyes after they went down with knee injuries in the second quarter. But that was after Garcia managed to connect with George Banuelos on a 17-yard TD pass that was topped off by Andrew Medellin’s game-winning extra point.

‘During the streak, this team hadn’t made an extra-point kick in almost three years,’ Fleming said. ‘I think it’s fitting that an extra-point kick is what ended [the streak].

‘We still have a long way to go. The community needs to embrace the game before we can turn this program around.’

-- Austin Knoblauch