At Orange Coast College, Focus Is on Winning

Most of the attention around the Orange Coast College football program earlier this year centered on the new coach, Bill Workman.

In March, Workman left Edison, one of the most successful high school football programs in Orange County, where he was 109-33-5 in 12 seasons, to replaced Dick Tucker, who had retired after 24 seasons.

In August, Workman drew more publicity by suggesting that OCC have a drug testing program for his football team. The idea caused heated debate among the Coast Community College District trustees that govern OCC and Golden West College. The board members were mostly upset because Workman had gone public with his views.

These days, Workman and his team are concentrating on turning OCC in a winning direction.

There are only 15 returning letterman off the Pirates’ 2-7-1 1985 team. But last season was just part of a losing trend over the last seven seasons. The best the Pirates did in that period was 4-5-1 in 1983.

Workman has not taken over with visions of instant Mission Conference dominance in mind. In fact, his goals are very modest for a coach who won two Big Five Conference titles and tied for another.

“Just as a bottom line our goal is to win five games this season,” Workman said. “The school has not done that in eight years . . .

“We feel like we can beat some teams, but to say we are going to win more games than that (five) when your team is 75% freshmen with a new coach and a new system is not being very realistic.”

For a first shot of realism, all Workman need do is look at his defense. The Pirates have only one starter returning--tackle Jeff Shanks.

Doug Bennett and Mike Kriens, a pair of returning sophomores, join Iowa State transfer Tony Johann at linebacker.

“Past those three, we have a lot of people that could help out and should,” Workman said. “We are just waiting for them to show us, but that is true in a lot of positions.” Because passing is a bigger part of the Community College game than the high school game, OCC could suffer from a lack of experience in the defensive secondary.

The Pirates most likely will have to play four freshmen back there. Bill Craft of Marina and Bart Recktenwald of La Quinta, both All-CIF players last season, are expected to start at safety.

For Recktenwald, playing defense is a mild surprise. In the Orange County high school all-star game, he rushed for 46 yards, caught 4 passes for 129 yards, scored 2 touchdowns and was voted the offensive player of the game. Recktenwald also is expected to return punts and kickoffs.

The question of who would play quarterback appears to have been cleared up in the Pirates’ scrimmage with Santa Monica last Friday.

John Nowotny, who played for Workman at Edison before running cross-country at OCC last season, completed 7 of 10 passes for 80 yards and scored a touchdown. He appears to have the edge going into the season opener against Golden West Sept. 20.

Coach: Bill Workman, 1st Career Record: 0-0 1985 Record: 2-7-1 Returning Starters: offense-4, defense-1 Returning lettermen: 15