SAN DIEGO HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL : A LOOK AT THE 2-A FINALISTS : San Pasqual Uses Tricks of the Trade to Its Benefit

Mike Dolan stood on the sideline Saturday as his team was in the midst of an amazing comeback against Lincoln. Suddenly, he heard soft chanting behind him.

He turned around, and, during the most crucial two minutes of the season for San Pasqual, Dolan’s players were standing, holding hands and chanting: “You’ve got to believe. You’ve got to believe.”

“I turned around and a chill went up my back,” Dolan said. “It’s not something we turned around and told them to do. They believed together they have an inner strength that can overcome and that is really the essence of our football team.”

There’s a long list of motivational strategies used by Dolan, his assistants and the players that band the team together.

And that’s a big reason why this team does so much more than running, passing, blocking and tackling to take on its opponents. It’s why San Pasqual will play Avocado League rival San Marcos in the Section 2-A final Saturday night in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“You look out on the field or compare rosters and we don’t match up with anybody one on one,” Dolan said. “But 11 on one, we have a chance, and that’s how we play.”

The rituals begin in the locker room at the beginning of each week. Pictures of each of San Pasqual’s opponents are hung on a bulletin board in the locker room with that team’s color represented as well. The pictures are taken from school programs.

During the week, each player looks at the bulletin board and studies the player he will be facing that Friday night.

“You look up there and see his height and weight from the roster and you get to know the guy,” said Andy Loveland, San Pasqual’s quarterback and cornerback. “It sits back in the back of your mind and nags at you the rest of the week.”

Then, just before game time, the players line up and, as they leave the locker room, each taps a sign that reads: “Today we play like champions.”

“We look at that as saying, ‘This is the only time we will play this team and we have to play like champions,’ ” Loveland said.

Then, as the players run onto the field, with their team jackets on, each removes his hood as he passes in front of the San Pasqual fans.

But what gets the crowd roused the most is when the kickoff team--called the kamikaze squad--takes the field. The players line up in typical fashion, then just before each kickoff, they turn toward their fans and bow, a device Dolan learned serving as an assistant to Bob Woodhouse at San Marcos.

“They are bowing to their parents . . .,” Dolan said. “It’s just a reminder to them that, ‘Hey, this is a one-way ticket down there. Pack your bags and say your goodbyes, you have just enough gas to get there.’ ”

But the most unusual ploy are the down-ups, grueling exercises feared by football players. It involves running in place, suddenly dropping flat to the ground and popping back up as quickly as possible.

Sounds easy, but it has becomes difficult when wearing a football uniform.

During the playoffs, the drill, normally a punishment, was transformed into a reward. After the first round the team did one down-up in the center of the field. After the second round, two and so on.

“Saturday (against San Marcos) all we want to do is one,” Dolan said.