Paying Dues, Not Bills : CSUN’s New Assistant Coaches Sacrifice Finances for a Shot at a University Job

Two months ago, Rick Gamboa drove to Cal State Northridge hoping to coax new Matadors football Coach Bob Burt into hiring him as an assistant.

Resume in hand, Gamboa waited more than two hours while Burt finished his first meeting with his players. When the meeting finally ended, Gamboa was able to talk with Burt for only a few minutes.

But Burt was impressed enough during that first encounter that he asked Gamboa back for another, more thorough, interview. “I figured if he waited that long just to talk to me a couple of minutes, he must really want to coach bad,” Burt said. A few days later, Burt made Gamboa an offer he couldn’t refuse.

He could wear staff shorts, a staff shirt, a staff cap, blow a staff whistle and scream instructions to his heart’s content during practice. There was only one catch: He’d have to do it for free.

Said Gamboa: “When do I start?”

Now why, you might ask, would a reasonably intelligent man like Gamboa--a high school teacher, veteran football coach and devoted family man--want to drive from Los Angeles to Northridge each day, then spend five hours on the practice field and in the film room before battling traffic again going home . . . for nothing?

“Because my aspirations have always been to coach football at the university level,” Gamboa said.

And he’s not alone.

Gamboa, the inside linebackers coach, is one of six volunteer assistants on Burt’s nine-man staff. Dave Chauncey, Jerry Campbell, Jim Fenwick, George Naum and Scott Norris are the other men who have been promised no money for the time they put in coaching spring drills, summer conditioning and the regular season.

Said Burt: “We hope to get them each a little something at the end of the year, but nothing has been promised.”

The coaches say they each hope to receive about $1,000 for their trouble. “About a dollar for every hour they put in,” Burt said. “And that’s a high estimate.”

But Fenwick, who resigned as head coach at Pierce College to join the Northridge staff, said money was not a factor in his decision to volunteer.

“It may cost me about $3,000, but the money is not important,” Fenwick said. “I’m expecting nothing monetarily. It’s a chance to teach and learn at the same time. I’m still working with football players, but I’m also finding out that there are an awful lot of different ways to handle kids, structure practices, that kind of thing.”

Said Naum: “I’m just happy to be at the four-year college level and coaching. There are a lot of coaches out there who wish they were.”

Burt can vouch for that. He estimated that in his first 10 days as coach, he received 80 calls and 50 resumes from around the country, all coaches who wanted to know if he had a staff position for them.

It was an odd position for Burt, 44, after spending 10 years as a college assistant.

“I know what these guys are going through,” Burt said. “When I talked to some of them during interviews it was like hearing my own words in a tape recording.

To take a job at U.S. International University in 1975, Burt had to commute from his home in Garden Grove to San Diego every day.

“I look at someone like Rick, an experienced coach, who wants to get into college coaching,” Burt said. “He’s rushing from a paying job and driving in from L.A. everyday to get to practice. I did the same thing. It’s called paying your dues. It’s the same as a lawyer who has to do clerk filing for peanuts for a few years. You have to be patient, put in your time, and hope someday you get your big chance.”

Gamboa, 29, has been waiting for that chance for years now.

He had an 8-10 record in two seasons as head coach at Franklin High in Los Angeles, including a 6-3 record in 1985. Before Franklin, Gamboa coached at East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles City College, the National Institute of Sports in Mexico City, and Brea-Olinda High in Orange County.

But even with all that experience, jobs as an offensive or defensive coordinator--paying jobs--are not easy to come by.

“Right now I’m really more fortunate than most,” Gamboa said. “My principal at Franklin has known my interest in college coaching right from the start and he changed my class schedule to allow me to get to practice on time. I have a full-time job that pays well and an understanding boss and family. What more could I ask for?”

Gamboa said his wife, Dolly, keeps his two children up at night just long enough for him to see them before they go to sleep. They also get up at 6 a.m. so they can spend a little time with dad before he has to leave for work.

Fenwick, 33, is also making sacrifices.

He left a highly successful program at Pierce to join the CSUN staff. In his five years as coach, the Brahmas were 35-18 and won three straight Southern California Conference titles. He coaches the CSUN running backs and is still a full-time teacher at Pierce.

“I left a good job, a job many coaches on the four-year level right now would like to have,” Fenwick said. “I was paid good money to coach and teach there. If I would have had one or two full-time assistants, any kind of a budget, a trainer and fewer conflicts with the athletic director, I would have stayed and pursued my goal of coaching at the four-year level from Pierce.

“This is the next-best thing. Maybe better. I get the opportunity to coach under a coach who I believe is going to be successful and I retain my job as a teacher to make a good living. I’m getting the best of both worlds.”

Fenwick, who applied for the head coach job at CSUN, hopes that his experience at Northridge and success at Pierce will be enough to land him a job as a coordinator or head coach next time.

“Every time you talk to someone, every job notification flier that came out, said they were looking for coaches with four-year college experience,” Fenwick said. “I wanted the job here because my heart is in the Valley and I thought I could come in here and do I good job.

“I understand the administration’s side. If I had to make a choice between me and a guy with the experience of Bob Burt I probably would have made the same decision they did. I’m still only 33. I can afford to be patient.”

Chauncey, 37, coached wide receivers, tight ends and quarterbacks at Harbor College for five seasons before going to Northridge to coach the receivers. Before Harbor, he spent five years at El Camino College and five years at Lawndale High as an assistant.

Chauncey commutes to Northridge from Hawthorne High, where he is an English teacher.

Why does he coach for free?

“My wife askes me the same question,” he said. “I guess it’s in my blood. My dad was a coach for 13 years. It’s something that I enjoy. I’ve coached at the high schools and the JCs. I wanted my foot in the door at the four-year level and get a chance to see what it was like. Right now, that’s the direction I’d like to go. Unfortunately, in coaching, every time you take a step up there are sacrifices to be made.”

Naum, 34, defensive ends coach, is studying for his master’s degree in exercise physiology at CSUN. He works as a security guard at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Woodland Hills from 11:45 p.m. to 7:45 a.m. He sleeps about three hours each day before practice.

Campbell, 37, the defensive line coach, loads freight trucks at night from 8:30 to 12:30 and works part-time in the CSUN athletic department during the day.

“It’s a matter of suffering a little bit to get the kind of experience you need,” Campbell said. “It’s something a coach has to go through if he wants to stay in the profession and be successful. Being single, the money doesn’t bother me much. Your pay is the experience.”

Before going to Northridge, Campbell was defensive line coach at Butte Community College in Oroville, Calif., for two seasons.

Norris, 24, also loads freight trucks at night and works in CSUN’s fitness center during the day. He played for the Matadors in 1981 and ’82 and became a graduate assistant after his senior season. Norris and Campbell share an apartment across the street--where else?--from the CSUN football stadium.

Pat Degnan, 31, CSUN’s assistant head coach, filled the only coaching vacancy with a full-time salary. Mark Banker, the defensive coordinator, and Rich Lopez, the offensive coordinator, are both holdovers from Tom Keele’s coaching staff.

Keele resigned two weeks after the 1985 season ended. Northridge had a 4-7 record last season and finished in a tie for last place in the six-team Western Football Conference.

Improving on that 4-7 record is the common goal that draws Burt’s new staff together.

Only Baker, Lopez and Norris have worked together before.

“We have a diverse group, but we’ve all keyed in on a common goal,” Degnan said. “That goal is to win.

“Naturally you’re going to deal with some personality adjustments at some point, but it fascinates me and excites me that I can come together with guys I didn’t know from Adam and we can strive for a goal without letting personal things get in the way.

“As we get closer to the season there will probably be some conflicts--it’s inevitable--but I think we’re going in right direction.”

And, as Campbell said, up is about the only direction you can go from 4-7 and a tie for last.