Long Hours Still Produce for Sherbeck : Tireless Fullerton Coach Has Just One Losing Season in 29 Years

In his cramped, closet-sized office, where there is barely enough room for Hal Sherbeck to recline in his worn easy chair, the Fullerton College football coach is surrounded by hundreds of pieces of memorabilia.

Trophies and game balls are crowded together on the shelves. Plaques, framed team photos and newspaper clippings adorn the walls.

But what Sherbeck may value more than even his cherished mementoes is the 15-line poem that is displayed to the immediate right of his desk, where he can read its message during those moments when he feels that he needs inspiration.

Written by an anonymous author, the poem reads:

“Press on.

Nothing in the world

Can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not;

Nothing is more common

Than Unsuccessful men

With talent.

Genius will not;

Unrewarded genius

Is almost a proverb.

Education will not;

The world is full of

educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination

Alone are important.”

Ever since he was a boy growing up in Big Sandy, Mont., Sherbeck has lived by this credo.

During his 34-year coaching career, first at Missoula High School, then at the University of Montana, and then for the last 25 years at Fullerton College, winning records have set Sherbeck apart.

As a head football coach, Sherbeck has produced exactly one losing team in 29 years. That was with Fullerton in 1963, when the Hornets finished 3-5-1.

The reason for Sherbeck’s success, according to those who have coached with and against him, is simple: His work ethic. Overtime is the norm in coaching, but colleagues say they are amazed by Sherbeck.

Sherbeck, 57, who is also Fullerton’s athletic director and physical education department chairman, arrives at his office every morning around 5, and doesn’t leave until around 7 p.m. He watches films, plots strategies and runs lengthy practices--in addition to setting department policy, determining budgets and making schedules.

Players, assistant coaches and other staff members are in and out of his office all day. His telephone rings incessantly and there never seems to be a moment for Sherbeck to be alone with his thoughts.

This kind of pace would seem stressful for a man half his age, but Sherbeck isn’t about to slow down.

“If I’m not doing something, I start to get uneasy,” he said. “I’ve got to work. That’s the way I’ve always been, and that’s the way I’ll always be.”

Some coaches wonder why Sherbeck drives himself so relentlessly. The answer: Sherbeck was forced to be responsible at a young age.

In Big Sandy, life wasn’t easy. Sherbeck’s father, Embret, operated a general store on an Indian reservation and was rarely home. So when Sherbeck’s mother, Inga, was crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, it was Sherbeck, then 12, who had to rise early to start up the stove and help dress and care for his mother before making the long walk to school.

During his summers as an underclassman at Missoula High--where he starred in football, basketball and baseball--Sherbeck worked on farms, threshing wheat, and on railroad construction teams, laying track in remote areas of the state.

“Hal never knew the luxury of relaxation when he was young,” said Dona Sherbeck, his wife of 34 years. “That’s why he is the way he is.”

Things didn’t get easier for Sherbeck after high school. He joined the Air Corps to be eligible for education benefits under the GI Bill, but getting through Olympia Junior College in Bremerton, Wash., and the University of Montana was tough.

Still, at both schools, he continued to play three sports.

“I remember when I showed up at Montana,” Sherbeck said. “I had all my belongings in two big foot lockers. I didn’t have much money, and I didn’t have a scholarship.

“I told them I wanted to be a walk-on athlete. They asked me, ‘Which sport?’ I said, ‘All of them.’ ”

Sherbeck was more than an average athlete. In basketball, his tenacious defense made him an all-conference guard, even though he averaged only five points per game. In football, he starred as both a running back and defensive back. And in baseball, he was a good enough shortstop to be offered a minor-league contract by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

After Sherbeck married Dona, who was an excellent tennis player at Montana, he began to think about what he would do after graduation.

He decided he wanted to be a coach.

Sherbeck’s first job was at his high school alma mater, Missoula. Missoula, which played six-man football at the time, had suffered through several consecutive losing seasons and decided to take a chance on hiring an inexperienced 25-year-old.

It paid off.

Missoula won the Montana state title in Sherbeck’s first two years (1952 and 1953), finished second in 1954, and then won again in 1955.

Sherbeck knew his age worked against him, so he compensated by working harder. He even suited up for practice and blocked and tackled his own players to show just how he wanted things done.

Sherbeck then returned to the University of Montana for five years to coach--you guessed it--three sports. Sherbeck served as the head baseball coach, an assistant football coach and an assistant basketball coach.

That’s when Fullerton College’s former president, the late H. Lynn Sheller, went on a scouting trip to Montana. California schools, overwhelmed by the baby boom, were short of teachers and coaches.

Sheller heard about Sherbeck’s accomplishments and offered him the Hornet basketball job. Sherbeck declined.

Later, Sheller upped the ante, offering Sherbeck the Fullerton football job. Only then did Sherbeck, a Midwesterner at heart, decide to pack up his wife and three young children and move to Southern California.

Sherbeck arrived in Fullerton in July and his coaching duties weren’t scheduled to begin until August. So, for a month, he trimmed trees and bushes and cut the lawns on the North Orange County campus to make ends meet.

Most local high school coaches had applied for the Fullerton job and were bitter that relative unknown such as Sherbeck was hired. They openly questioned Sherbeck’s credentials after the Hornets lost to Bakersfield in his debut, 50-0.

“People were asking us if we had unpacked yet, and they were serious,” Sherbeck said. “We were playing Cerritos, which had a very good team, the next week, and people were predicting we would lose, 70-0.”

What happened instead was a 20-14 upset win by Fullerton, the first of Sherbeck’s 199 career victories at the school.

The Hornets were 6-4 that year, reversing a long decline in the Fullerton program and establishing a winning tradition.

In the ensuing 24 years, Fullerton has won three national championships, gone undefeated four times, had a 47-game unbeaten streak (1966-1968), won 15 conference titles, a state title and seven bowl games.

Sherbeck has coached 90 community college All-Americans during that span and sent 397 players to four-year colleges.

Without a doubt, talented players and such outstanding, long-time assistant coaches as Al Feola (25 years), Marv Sampson (23) and Glenn Thomas (13) have had much to do with the Hornets’ success.

But everyone agrees that one man, Sherbeck, has been the key.

“Hal Sherbeck has accomplished more in community college football than anyone,” Ray Shackleford, Golden West’s veteran coach, said. “Year in and year out, Fullerton plays the best teams there are to play, and yet they have a phenomenal won-loss record. It is, without a doubt, the best program in the state.”

Frank Mazzotta, Cerritos Coach: “Hal is the best coach in the state. I think his biggest asset is that he gets his teams to always play their hardest. Even if Fullerton wins a big game, they rarely come back the next week and have a letdown.”

Sherbeck is good at strategy, good at motivation and good at organization. But what he’s best at is working on a personal level with his players--all of whom he refers to as “fine young men,” no matter their past.

He has taken players who had discipline problems in high school and turned them around by preaching the old-fashioned virtues of integrity, honesty and hard work.

One example is Brian Noble, the former Anaheim High star who is now a starting linebacker for the Green Bay Packers. Noble admits he was an immature 18-year-old when he left Anaheim to enroll at Fullerton.

“I don’t know if it was a matter of growing up or finding out what I wanted to do with my life,” Noble said. “Hal helped me find myself. I had always considered myself a good athlete, but he taught me that there is more to life than winning football games.

“He taught me to never give up on my dreams. He showed me the sacrifices that were necessary to realize my dreams. He taught me the values that will stay with me the rest of my life.”

Thomas, Fullerton’s offensive line coach, said Noble’s experience has been shared by many others.

“Hal treats everyone the way he wants to be treated,” Thomas said. “He believes everyone has integrity. And by giving some of these players with a terrible reputation a good experience here--maybe the first experience they’ve ever had being a winner--he’s turned their lives around.”

They say Sherbeck has mellowed in recent years. He does take part of Sunday off these days to engage in his only real recreation--maintaining his lush, meticulously landscaped backyard. And, last week, for the first time in 25 years, Sherbeck gave his team Thanksgiving off.

But Sherbeck still takes defeats as hard as ever. When Fullerton loses, Sherbeck isn’t much fun to be around.

“I’ve never been a good loser and I never will be one,” Sherbeck said. “I don’t think I want to ever become one, either.

“You never can accept losing. When you put a lot of time in preparing for a game, and then don’t get anything out of it, it does sour my appearance.”

Sherbeck is proud of his football program, but he’s prouder of his family. Sons David (30) and Eric (28) were both talented enough tennis players to have competed on Centre Court at Wimbledon and are now teaching pros. Daughter Lori (31) is also a tennis instructor.

Soon, it will be Christmas at the Sherbecks. There the family will gather--sons David (30) and Eric (28), two tennis players talented enough to have competed on Centre Court at Wimbledon, and daughter Lori (31), a tennis instructor. Along with the holiday, they’ll be hoping to celebrate Sherbeck’s 200th career victory at Fullerton, which the Hornets will be seeking Saturday when they meet undefeated Saddleback in the fifth PONY Bowl.

However, Sherbeck, already the winningest active community college coach in the nation, isn’t excited by the possibility of achieving the milestone.

“Winning 200 games is an accomplishment, but I take more satisfaction out of other things,” he said. “Like when a player from several years ago comes back to visit, and tells you how rewarding his time was here, and how playing at Fullerton College helped him later as a player, or his his profession or in his marriage.

“That’s what gives me satisfaction, not the records.”

Hal Sherbeck’s Coaching Record at Fullerton Year: Record 1961: 6-4 1962: 6-2-1 1963: 3-5-1 1964: 8-2* 1965: 10-0** 1966: 9-0-1* 1967: 12-0*** 1968: 8-1 1969: 10-2* 1970: 1-1* 1971: 5-4 1972: 4-4-1 1973: 10-1* 1974: 5-3-1* 1975: 7-2 1976: 9-2* 1977: 10-1* 1978: 6-4 1979: 7-3 1980: 7-4* 1981: 9-1* 1982: 9-2 1983: 10-0-1** 1984: 10-1* 1985: 9-2*

Totals: 25 Years 199-51-6 * - conference champion ** - national champion *** - state champion 3 national championships, 1 state championship, 15 conference championships.