THE HIGH SCHOOLS : After Informal Rite, Francola Graduates to the 4-A Division

One night last week, Bob Francola and John Haynes turned on the lights at the Kennedy High football stadium and walked out to midfield.

“He gave me the playbook and the personnel book and we shook hands at the 50,” Francola said.

And with that, Francola became the Golden Cougars’ head football coach, replacing Haynes.

As formal ceremonies go, it won’t rival the lighting of the Olympic torch. But for Francola, it helped extinguish a burning desire he had held since the early ‘70s.

Francola wanted to be a varsity football coach. But not just any coach. He wanted to be one of the select few to coach at the City 4-A level.

“What it boils down to,” Francola said early this week, “is that there are only nine schools willing to go through Banning and Carson.”

Banning and Carson have dominated City football in recent years, between them winning the last 10 titles. That pattern doesn’t figure to change anytime soon.

But Francola isn’t concerned that his Kennedy teams may never get past the terrible twosome in the playoffs. If he’s going to field a team, it’s going to compete against the big boys.

That attitude kept Francola from being a head coach sooner.

“I didn’t want to consider any school that was not willing from an administrative and coaching standpoint to compete against the best available,” he said.

Before he took the Kennedy job, Francola said he had been offered head coaching jobs at four different 2-A and 3-A schools. Each time he decided to wait for the chance at a 4-A job.

“You can say Roosevelt won the 2-A this past year and Fairfax won the 3-A,” Francola said, “but Banning won the City.”

Francola knows his sentiments may not be popular with coaches in the 2-A and 3-A Divisions. But he strongly believes that to be the best, you must play the best.

“We have a sign in the weight room that says, ‘The road to the City championship goes through Banning and Carson,’ ” Francola said.

Francola doesn’t like the idea of the City’s high schools being split into three divisions. “We’re rewarding mediocrity,” he said. “We ended last season with a loss to Banning, 14-0. And it was 7-0 with two minutes left.

“We lost, but those kids went back to Kennedy feeling like they had played the best. Can other schools say that?”

For a while, though, Francola wondered if his reluctance to coach in the 2-A or 3-A Division might keep him a 4-A assistant forever.

“There are 49 schools, 11 in the 4-A and 38 willing to compete in the 3-A and 2-A,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘Are the other 38 right and me wrong?’ ”

But each time he was faced with the decision of staying on as a 4-A assistant, or becoming a lower-division coach, he stuck with his original conviction.

Francola started his coaching career as an assistant at Hollywood High in 1971. Francola played football at Hollywood, then moved on to play at Valley and Cal State Northridge.

He stayed at Hollywood until 1976, when he got a job as an assistant at Birmingham. After four seasons there, Francola went to Granada Hills.

Had it not been for a bizarre ending to the 1984 Granada Hills football season, Francola might still be in Granada Green and not Kennedy Gold and Brown.

During the season, Wayne Quigley guided the Highlanders to their first league title since 1977. But after the playoffs, Quigley and the entire coaching staff were fired. Al Irwin, school principal at the time, said Quigley was let go for “philosophical differences.”

Irwin named Darryl Stroh, the school’s baseball coach, as the football coach. Francola was offered the B coaching job.

“I told him I was a B coach 10 years ago,” Francola said. “I was out of coaching at that point in time.”

For a few days, Francola’s dream to be a 4-A coach appeared shattered. Then the phone rang, and Haynes was on the line.

Francola joined the Golden Cougars as defensive coordinator for the 1985 season. Haynes decided after the season to step down as head coach and be an assistant. At 38, Francola was a head coach.

“It’s ironic,” Francola said. “I could have been Wayne Quigley’s assistant forever. That in my mind was better than to be in a place where no one wanted to win that badly.”

Francola wants to win badly. And he can’t wait to take on the other 4-A teams.

“Next year against Banning will be my seventh encounter against Chris Ferragamo,” he said, referring to Banning’s coach. “I’ve never beaten them. I’m on a mission.”

Francola also is excited about the encounters with Granada Hills and San Fernando and the rest of the Valley 4-A League.

“Although we hate each other, we respect each other,” he said. “Darryl Stroh will always have a 4-A program. Skip Giancanelli of El Camino Real and Tom Hernandez of San Fernando will always have 4-A programs.”

And now, so will Bob Francola.