A Game Talker : Success of Royal Soccer Team Continues Under Vocal Direction of Peter Schraml

More than the cold wind disagreed with Royal High soccer Coach Peter Schraml as he wandered the sideline during a recent game at Westlake.

Attired in a blue overcoat as thick as his German accent and bushy gray tuft of hair, Schraml sparred verbally with an official. Twice the official made calls Schraml did not like and twice he told Schraml to keep quiet.

“Hey, referee!” Schraml pleaded, pulling out his arm from deep inside his coat pocket. The official jogged past Schraml, his eyes following the ball. He jogged back.

“Hey, ref!”

The man in the knee-high socks blew his whistle and stopped. Fumbling in his pocket, he produced a yellow card and flashed it in the coach’s face as a warning. Then again he less-than-politely ordered Schraml to button it--and he wasn’t talking about the overcoat.

As the official continued downfield, Schraml responded with an order of his own: “Hey! Don’t use those words, ‘Shut up!’ ”

The Highlanders, oblivious to their first-year coach’s tirade, went about the business of defeating Westlake, 1-0.

And that was not an isolated moment of success. Royal has built a record of 14-1-2 and is ranked third in the Southern Section 4-A Division.

A month earlier, however, Schraml’s sideline cries would have surprised the players.

“He looked like the quietest man ever,” said senior Luis Gutierrez, recalling Schraml’s first day on the job. “I was wondering if he was ever going to talk.”

Before taking charge, he first had to familiarize himself with the players. Schraml joined the team the day of the season opener against Crespi.

“I think he had to first sit back and see where we were,” striker Matt Rast said.

Said Schraml: “I looked at my bench and had to say, ‘What is your name? Where do you play? What are you good at?’

“That’s how the first game went. I didn’t even have a chance to practice with them.”

Royal won, 2-0. “I didn’t win that,” he said. “The kids won that. Then we had one practice and then we had another game.”

And Royal won again. Gradually, Schraml began to feel in control.

“He’s kind of come out of his shell,” Rast said.

The German-born coach has indeed shed his silence and revealed himself to be quite a soccer talker. The yellow card was the second he has received this season.

After a match, Schraml is less intense. He laughs a lot. Especially about how angry officials can make him.

“This referee,” Schraml said, pointing. “We don’t click at all. If I say one more word or say something he does not like, then I get a red card and I’m gone .” The coach raised a finger and smiled. “I have not gotten one yet.”

The season is young. But already the Highlanders’ ears are ringing. Schraml’s vocal style of coaching differs from that of his close friend, John Calpin, who in two seasons as the Royal coach was carded only once. But the players don’t mind the volume. In their eyes--and ears--Schraml, who was soccer coach at Cal Lutheran for five years, is an excellent replacement.

The players were saddened by the departure of Calpin, who abruptly resigned a week before the season began and moved to Idaho to concentrate on his job as soccer coach at College of Idaho. But the players’ spirits soar with every Schraml shout.

“He cares about the team,” Rast said. “He’ll voice his opinion when he feels it’s necessary. It’s his way of pushing us further and further.”

Last season, Calpin pushed Royal to its first Marmonte League championship and the semifinal round of the playoffs. The Highlanders also ended the dominance of archrival Simi Valley, which had won 11 league championships in 12 years while Royal made the playoffs only once. Royal clobbered the Pioneers three times last season, by scores of 4-0, 1-0 and 4-0.

This season, the Highlanders again may be more than seventh-ranked Simi Valley (13-3-2) can handle. That will be determined when the the teams meet for the first time this season today at Simi Valley.

But the Highlanders will be without their coach for the league showdown. Schraml, who is a commercial airline pilot, was forced to fly out of town Wednesday. He ordinarily frees himself from flying obligations during soccer season by securing reserve duty.

This will be the first game Schraml has missed, but at least the team has been without a coach before.

Although his schedule may be uncertain, one thing is definite: After a belated beginning, Schraml finally has taken firm hold of the Royal reins.

“This is my style,” Schraml said, repeating what he first told the team. “It differs from what John did. I didn’t try to change much, only when I saw a need. Then I tried to convince them that this needs to be changed.”

The players liked the way Calpin handled things, which made Schraml’s task of replacing him difficult.

“I’ve been playing soccer since I was 5 and I’ve had a lot of coaches,” Gutierrez said. “And John was the best coach I’ve ever had.”

After a disappointing 2-1 playoff loss last year to Mater Dei, in which Royal surrendered the winning goal with 10 seconds to play, the 15 juniors eagerly anticipated the next season. Instead, they found themselves coachless.

“It was disheartening,” Rast said. “We had every expectation that John would be back.”

Said Calpin: “It was a difficult time. I obviously would have liked to have stayed. I used to treat those kids as sons.”

Schraml is no father to the players, but he is also no stranger. His son, Kai, plays for Royal’s frosh-soph team and his daughter, Tania, is a member of the Royal girls’ team. He was not completely surprised when he was offered the job. “I heard rumors floating around,” he said.

In soccer circles, Schraml, 50, is well-known. After an amateur playing career in Germany, he moved to the United States in 1967 to take a job as a pilot. Settling in Simi Valley, Schraml immediately began coaching youth teams. He later served as an assistant to Simi Valley High Coach Andy Silva.

Schraml coached at CLU from 1977 to ‘82, but resigned because of an airline transfer to Chicago. He did not coach again until joining Royal.

“Pete is a demanding and tactical coach,” Silva said. “Technique is what he is most concerned with. He’s a good coach.”

But he replaced perhaps an even better one. Calpin’s credentials include a 16-year professional playing career in England and 17 years of coaching.

“The players loved John and they respected him as an excellent coach,” Schraml said. “Of course, they looked at me like, ‘You show us your stuff.’ ”

Before Schraml could show the players anything, he had some organizing to do.

“I did not know where anything was,” he said. “I was worried about where the nets were, where the water bottles were. It’s very important that all those little things be taken care of.”

Soon, the players learned that Schraml’s soccer stuff also differed from Calpin’s style.

“Peter likes to work the ball and get more of a mechanical movement up through the field,” Rast said. “John would like to move the ball upfield quickly and kind of go for broke. Not that John was wrong. It’s just a different style.”

Schraml says the difference is cultural.

“He’s from England, I’m from the Continent,” he said. “In England, they play more of a long-ball game. On the Continent, you play more of a shorter game--build up and passing. This way, the players can create things. That’s what excites me. Not this ‘kick as far as you can.’ I like the skill stuff.”

And he enjoys talking soccer. Schraml wears a smile whenever he’s on the subject.

“The players are very skillful,” he said. “They are wonderful, wonderful players and I have not had a single problem with them. I feel they took naturally to that kind of play.”

And they’ve begun to take to their coach. Like Calpin, Schraml is on a first-name basis with the players.

“Peter shows more of his emotions than John did,” Gutierrez said. “When we do something wrong, he tells us. I tried to tell him once what I did and he said, ‘I don’t want to hear any excuses. You know what you did wrong and what you need to do to correct it.’

“I respect Pete as a coach just as I did John. I know he and John are good friends.”

Said Calpin: “I’ve known Peter for eight years and I think we’re very similar. I think he’s a good coach and they’ll make the playoffs. Then you can bet I’ll be back to watch.”

And Schraml will be back next year. And the year after.

“I committed myself for three years,” Schraml said with a laugh. “One million a year.”