The Fighting Never Stops for Fullerton’s Luczaj

Things are pretty tough in the savior business these days. Martin Luczaj knows.

In 1981, at the age of 28, Luczaj was promoted from sophomore to varsity football coach at Fullerton High School. The Indians had won three games in the previous two seasons, yet in Luczaj’s first season they went 8-3 and won the Freeway League championship.

In 1982, Fullerton was 13-1, its only loss coming against El Toro in the Central Conference championship.

Last season, the Indians were 13-1, and won the Central Conference title, defeating La Mirada, 17-7, in the finale.

Going into its Freeway League game against Troy tonight (7:30 at Fullerton District Stadium), Fullerton is 5-1, its only loss coming against highly regarded Sweetwater.

Luczaj (pronounced Lou-jay) isn’t resting on these laurels, but he admits he could use the snooze time. He’s 32 and he’s tired.

Oh, Luczaj is still active as ever at practice, darting in and out of drills like an overworked waiter. Energy is in ready supply at workouts or game time. But he has discovered this phenomenon. After he goes home at night and settles onto his couch, he can’t move. Like loose change, all the enthusiasm and excitement of the day seems to wind up somewhere under the cushions.

“Once I get home, I’m exhausted,” Luczaj said. “I’m working harder this season than I did last season. Once I sit down, that’s it. I’m not getting up.”

Poor old “Pops” Luczaj, it’s finally getting to him. Not the work; he loves that.

It’s all the fighting.

Fighting with the school’s administration for teacher/coaches. Fighting a reputation that says he is brash and arrogant. And it seems the better he does his job, the worse it gets.

In five seasons, Luczaj has won 78.6% of his games using nothing but walk-on assistants. Sure, Chip Steves, a former defensive coordinator, worked at Fullerton. But he was the equipment manager, not a teacher. Presently, defensive coordinator and offensive line coach Greg Shammel is also employed by the school. He’s the campus supervisor, a fancy title to say he’s the school truant officer.

“I’ve told them (school administrators) time and time again that I need on-staff coaches,” Luczaj said. “But they don’t seem to want to listen. I’ve really been getting fed up with the situation.”

By on-staff, he means coaches who are hired as teachers and therefore, after school, have no other responsibility.

At the present time, coaches--walk-on coaches--come and go at Fullerton practices like they’re waiting for a bus.

OK, the pulling guard comes off the line and... Oops! Look at the time. Gotta run to my real job. But hey, let’s do offense sometime. Ciao.

Bill Fallon, who works for United Parcel Service, must leave practice at 3:30 to get to work. Ray Mitchison, a volunteer fireman, can be called away on a moment’s notice. The average age of a Fullerton assistant is 22. During the summer there was more than a few occasions when Luczaj and Shammel had to run the program by themselves.

Mitchison is a good example of how desperate Luczaj is for help. Last season, he was the Indians’ center; this year he’s a coach.

Indians quarterback Victor Williams admits it’s a little strange taking orders from a guy he took snaps from last season.

“You listen to what they say, but you don’t have the same respect for a guy you played with as you do for a regular coach,” Williams said.

Luczaj says he’s tried every selling technique he knows--and those are considerable. When he took the sophomore job at Fullerton, he walked out to the first day of practice to find a total of 10 players. Mitchison was on that team.

“After a day, another guy came out. I yelled, ‘All right! We’ve got a team.’ ”

Luczaj made phone calls and talked to kids in halls. He ended up with 25 players and a 7-3 record.

Cal Worthington would be proud.

“They hired nine teachers last year,” he said. “But I’m still without an on-staff coach. It seems like they didn’t understand what I was talking about.”

Luczaj may be a victim of his own success. He’s won consistently without on-staff coaches, so what’s the rush? Luczaj said the fighting has made him feel a little unappreciated.

Unappreciated? Parents, all together now.

I do and do and do for you . . . and this is the thanks I get? “We think we’ll have a teacher/coach by next season,” said Dr. Sally Gobar, Fullerton principal. “We wanted to get one last season, but the applicants who were coaches were not of satisfactory teaching ability. Teaching ability is our first priority.”

Luczaj: “I think things are going to change by next year. They better.”

Newspaper stories about Martin Luczaj invariably have comments from fellow Freeway League coaches.

They have called him arrogant and overly aggressive.

And those are the coaches who like Luczaj.

In a 1982 Times article, La Habra Coach Bob Rau said, “Marty’s a little brash and egotistical . . . .”

Rau was the head coach at Lowell High in Whittier when Luczaj was an assistant. Luczaj was upset by Rau’s comments, and said so in print. But, as Paul Harvey says, the rest of the story . . .

Rau also said in the article that Luczaj, “has a great deal of talent.” Ten days after the article, Fullerton beat La Habra, 7-6, for the league championship. Rau and Luczaj embraced at midfield after the game . . . Good day.

Rau knows Luczaj is a prisoner of his own vibrant personality.

“I can’t help the way I am,” Luczaj said. “I’m a hyper person. I yell and scream a lot. I’ve been this way for a long time. Maybe when I get older, I’ll sit in front of the television and be quiet, but not right now.”

Driven, aggressive, loud--there is nothing subtle about him. Luczaj believes in tangible signs of change and success. When he took over as varsity coach he had his team repaint the locker rooms, wiping out the past.

If he thinks a player has the ability, he’ll try to get him a record. In 1981, his quarterback, Mike Willes, broke the CIF single-game passing yardage record against San Bernardino. He threw for 477 yards.

Last season, against Buena Park, Luczaj altered his offense so wide receiver David Sepulveda, a three-year starter, would get the ball as much as possible. Sepulveda caught 26 passes, breaking the CIF single-game reception record of 20.

After the game, Luczaj said, “At the end, we were trying not to score. We didn’t want to embarrass them, so we did little hitch passes to him at the end.”

Not trying to score? Going for individual records?

“Records and such make players think if they work hard here, they can accomplish something ,” he said. “We don’t have the greatest athletes here, but all these kids are hungry to learn. I think they should be rewarded for their work.”

But Luczaj’s devotion to players has many times earned him criticism. With 41 seconds remaining in the Indians’ title victory over La Mirada, timeout was called and reserves were sent out to carry Sepulveda, who had set an Orange County single-season reception record with 81, off the field.

“I thought it was bush,” La Mirada Coach Ray Mooshagian said after the game. “I’m not against a kid getting recognition, but the way it was done was improper . . . Both teams work hard to get to a Southern Section final, and nothing should be done to demean either team.”

Like his fight with the front office, Luczaj is tired of fighting the image in which he’s been cast.

“We have a lot of fine kids here. I don’t know why coaches always want to talk about me,” he said. “I’m pretty tired of it. I know when I’m coaching I don’t have time to see what the other guy is doing on the sideline. I don’t know where these other coaches find the time to observe me during a game.

His actions may incur the wrath of a fellow coach, but it commands a fierce loyalty from his players. A lot of coaches have respect; Luczaj’s players seem to like him. It’s his ability to motivate his players that most people list as his strongest coaching skill.

“Sometimes when I’m in the huddle and we have something tough to do I think of Coach Luczaj,” Williams said. “He’s such a perfectionist and he won’t quit until he gets what he wants.”

What he really wants is a full-time assistant coach or two and his name a little less prominent when coaches are talking. Maybe those things will come.

But, not without a fight.

Martin Luczaj / Year-by-Year

1981: 8-3 Lost in first round to Esperanza.

1982: 13-1 Lost to El Toro in Central Conference final.

1983: 5-6 Lost to Valencia in first round of playoffs.

1984: 13-1 Won Central Conference championship.

1985: 5-1.

The Big Game

Troy vs. Fullerton

Records--Fullerton (1-0, 5-1), Troy (0-1, 3-3)

The site--Fullerton District Stadium

Key to the game--Troy started the season with an inexperienced defensive secondary. Now its an injured , inexperienced secondary though Coach John Turek has a quality defensive back in David St. Clair. But St. Clair also is the quarterback and Turek is nervous about using him too much. Such news could mean Fullerton quarterback Victor Williams, who’s thrown for 1,205 yards, and receiver Curt Daggett, who’s caught 21 passes for 461 yards, could have good games. To make up for the secondary, Turek has been blitzing. However, if his defense can’t get to Williams consistently, such a ploy could be disastrous--Daggett is averaging 22 yards a reception. Offensively, Troy depends heavily on St. Clair. He’s thrown for almost 600 yards and is the Warriors’ leading rusher.

Consensus--Turek joked he doesn’t mind this game being high scoring--as long as his team has more points. Actually, Troy will have to control the ball offensively to have a chance. In this case the Warriors’ best defense is their offense. However, its offense is basically St. Clair and a cloud of dust. It’s difficult to imagine the young Troy secondary stopping Williams and Daggett. Blitzing may help, but Williams is an experienced quarterback with nearly two seasons as a starter. Give Fullerton the edge.