SOME PREP STARS LEAVE THE BIG TIME BEHIND WHEN THEY FIND . . . : The Slipper Doesn’t Always Fit

In the Big Time--which is to say Division I--there are massive stadiums, tremendous weight rooms and enormous opportunities.

All too often, it seems for some athletes, there are disappointments of similar proportions.

Signing day, the first day for high school players to sign national letters of intent for college football scholarships, is a week from today. For those who have not made their decisions already, it’s time.

For the top high school stars, the path to Division I success may be simple, but for some--particularly those on the margin between Divisions I and II--it can be anything but.

Division I: The words may sound like an easy math class, but to players, their friends and families, they go hand-in-hand with the biggest sports trophy of all--a full-ride scholarship to a prestigious school.

Klaus Leitenbauer, a second-team All-CIF quarterback who graduated from Mission Viejo High School in 1983, accepted an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. He left after six months, played at Saddleback College one season, then transferred to UC Santa Barbara, where he played club football in 1985 and without a scholarship this past season in the school’s first-year Division III program.

Leitenbauer left in part for the same reason a lot of other plebes leave--the military life was not for him. But he went to Air Force for a very different reason. By late January, Air Force was the only Division I school recruiting him.

“I thought if I wanted to go Division I, I’d better sign with them,” Leitenbauer said. “That was all I cared about, playing on TV in front of 70,000.

“There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s what every kid wants to do, but there’s a lot more to it than that. . . . I was looking at the football all the way. That’s something that can happen to all the kids. They don’t think about how it would be to live there, what the climate’s like, how people are treated.”

Pressures to go to a Division I school came from all over, Leitenbauer said.

“The (high school) coaches, they want to see you go big time,” he said. “When you’re being recruited, sometimes you almost feel like you’re in a corner--look what all these people are doing for me. You feel like you need to sign with them.”

Steve Brazas, a Newport Harbor running back who graduated in 1984 and was recruited by Arizona, Arizona State, Washington and USC, signed with Illinois, but stayed only a semester. He then played at Saddleback College, and is now enrolled and plans to play at Cal State Fullerton.

“If I had it to do over again I might have just gone to a junior college,” said Brazas, who was unhappy with his playing time at Illinois. “I’m not into the big-time politics of football.

“First, when you go in they just expect you to sit out a year. They’ve scheduled your life for four or five years. If somebody minds that, there’s a conflict,” said Brazas.

Another player who regretted signing with a Division I school was Ray Pallares, who became the state’s all-time leading rusher at Valencia High School. Pallares, who graduated in 1986, recently left Cal State Long Beach after just one semester. He is enrolled and plans to play football at Fullerton College.

“Everyone wants to play in Division I, the big schools, major-college ball,” said Pallares. “I’d say go to a junior college, if playing’s the most important thing.”

Fullerton College football Coach Hal Sherbeck, one of the community college coaches whose teams benefit when Division I players such as Pallares transfer, has seen this scene before.

“In my 27 years here, I’ve seen players who gained a lot of notoriety in high school feel the pressure to sign with a Division I school and then they’re not comfortable. The sad part is that (many) of them drop out of football and are never heard of again,” Sherbeck said.

“In Pallares’ case, he’s a very fine young man who has done very well, won a lot of honors. Because of all the honors, he was just about compelled to go Division I.

“I don’t think there are many who could not handle themselves physically. But some are not ready to be involved with the psychological, mental and educational pressures.”

Mark Otta, a basketball player who graduated from Capistrano Valley High School in 1984, had been contacted by several Division I programs but chose Division II Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“I know a lot of people who either had to play Division I or not play,” he said. “They couldn’t be disgraced to play Division II.”

Jon Samuelson, a 1983 Sonora High School graduate who stars on the basketball team at Division II Chapman College, left after a season at Cal State Fullerton. He played one season at Fullerton College before going to Chapman.

“I just didn’t feel I was going to get as much playing time as I wanted at Fullerton,” Samuelson said. “I think I kind of wanted to go Division I (out of high school), and they kind of recruited me at the end. As a kid I used to go to their games, so it was a big thing.”

Cal State Fullerton football Coach Gene Murphy, who previously coached at Division II North Dakota, is well aware of the difference a division makes.

“When you’re talking to 17-, 18-year-old kids, when you say Division I it’s a different thing, there’s no doubt about that,” Murphy said.

“You’re talking notoriety, prestige, a lot of peer pressure and parental pressure. The players don’t always use their common sense. They’re not realistic. When their friends hear that USC, UCLA or Cal State Fullerton is recruiting somebody, they tell them they better go.”

Larry Zucker, basketball recruiting coordinator at Division III University of Redlands, sees it even more severely.

“For some kids, it’s so important to play Division I that they’ll sacrifice a career,” said Zucker, adding that some players would rather sit the bench at a Division I school than play elsewhere.

Many players, even those who don’t play much, never regret their decision to sign with Division I schools.

Danny Thompson, a 1984 Huntington Beach High School graduate who was The Times’ Orange County Player of the Year and the Southern Section Back of the Year his senior season, is a junior at UCLA with two years of eligibility remaining. He has played behind Gaston Green and Eric Ball his entire career, but does not regret his choice.

“I had a lot of letters from Division II schools, but I just didn’t feel like that was what I wanted to do,” Thompson said. “If they were going to give me a scholarship to Division I, I’d better take it. I just felt like it was a great opportunity. It’s a good school and it was where I wanted to go.”

For every happy Division I player, though, there is probably a coach at a smaller school who would have liked to have lured him away.

Bob Burt, coach of the Division II Cal State Northridge football team, must do battle with the glorious image of Division I when recruiting.

“The thing they (recruits) need to understand . . . is that you need to look realistically at what you can do,” Burt said. “There are some guys who start on our team who might be one in five somewhere else.”

As for the big facilities at Division I schools that impress recruits on their weekend trips, Burt offers this:

“A stadium is nice, but in the middle of the spring when you’ve got a problem, you go sit in that stadium. It’s not going to solve your problems.”