Maintaining the Order : Easygoing Manner, Attention to Detail Have Helped Lofrano Bring Chatsworth Structure, Organization and a No. 1 Ranking

John Trump stirred the cobwebs of his memory, searching for overlooked details about his former player, Bob Lofrano, a senior second baseman on Trump’s 1967 Chatsworth High baseball team. The image he drew of the 17-year-old infielder matches the portrait people paint today of Chatsworth’s current coach: bright, hard-working, even-tempered, a scrupulously organized personality wrapped in an affable package.

“It was obvious he was an intelligent young man, more mature than the average kid,” said Trump, 62, who serves as a scout for the National Football League’s Detroit Lions. “He was easygoing and patient and had a good feel for other people’s feelings. He was the kind of kid who coaches say if you had a whole team of them, your job would be ridiculously easy.”

After a moment’s reflection, Trump added: “I’m sure he must have some deep, dark vices but I couldn’t find what they were.”

More than 20 years later a search into Lofrano’s dark side sheds no more light. While many of us go through life searching through cluttered desk drawers for lost keys and missing checkbooks, Lofrano stands serenely to the side, unruffled by such vagaries.

Neat, trim--at 38, he weighs just five more pounds than his 1967 playing weight of 155--he is the kind of guy who makes you feel under-dressed when he’s wearing nothing more than shorts and a T-shirt. He meets the world armed with meticulous files, detailed practice schedules that account for each minute of his players’ time and his Chatsworth Varsity Baseball Playbook--a 47-page work that covers everything from bunt defenses and the hit-and-run play to baseball philosophy and game-day procedure (1--Wear game top to school to publicize game that day).

Perhaps a fetish for organization is Lofrano’s vice, but fastidious preparation has worked for him. He has led Chatsworth to eight consecutive West Valley League titles, one City Section 4-A Division championship and has posted a 165-51 record (.764 winning percentage) in 10 seasons at his alma mater.

Not even the 1983 City championship season can match 1988 thus far. In the 25th anniversary year of the high school and the centennial of the community of Chatsworth, the Chancellors have put the school on the national map, winning a prestigious tournament in Florida during the spring break that vaulted the team to the No. 1 ranking in the nation by Collegiate Baseball.

Chatsworth twice has been featured on cable network ESPN and opens the playoffs Wednesday as the top-seeded team with a 23-1 record.

Chatsworth’s baseball acclaim has stretched only slightly further than Lofrano’s reputation as the Valley’s Most Organized Coach. His colleagues point to Chatsworth as a model program, with Lofrano attending to every detail from dispensing baseball instruction from the dugout to smoothing the infield from the seat of the school tractor.

Attention to detail is a family obsession. No morsel of information is too insignificant to go without being catalogued or cross-referenced in the Lofrano household.

Buying a used car? Call Bob and Carolyn Lofrano. They have a file on automobile shopping do’s and don’ts. Taking a weekend trip? The Lofrano File catalogues the best bike trails in Southern California.

Lofrano brings a similar mind-set to high school baseball. After numerous revisions and additions through 10 years of coaching, his playbook has evolved into the ideal primer for a coach starting a program.

Baseball is a 12-month commitment for Lofrano. In the fall, he coached a Chicago Cubs scout team that included many of the Valley area’s top players, and in the winter he administered the Valley’s 26-team winter league baseball season, scheduling games, arranging for officials and trouble-shooting.

But that’s child play to this organizational whiz. A more challenging task arose this spring when Lofrano served as director of the Holt-Goodman tournament at the same time he led Chatsworth to a tournament championship 3,000 miles away in Orlando, Fla. Even Lofrano was amused by that accomplishment.

“I had everything mapped out, all the officials assigned and game sites worked out. I called once from Florida to see how things were going and it ran smooth as can be,” he said.

Not only does Lofrano tend to tournaments not involving his team, he serves as the Valley’s unofficial shop steward for City baseball coaches. When a baseball item is placed on the agenda of the City’s Interscholastic Athletics Committee, Lofrano is sure to follow. With the aid of San Fernando’s Steve Marden, he helped change the playoff format, allowing the Valley’s three leagues to send four teams each to the playoffs. He also was instrumental in loosening City rules on preleague tournament play, allowing City teams to compete in five-game tournaments along with their Southern Section counterparts.

“He’s a good spokesman for the whole section, not just the Valley,” City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness said. “He’s articulate and intelligent. When Bob calls, he’s got something worthwhile to discuss.”

All this efficiency might unnerve those around him, but Lofrano is not baseball’s version of Felix Unger. If the drive behind his need for order is some neurosis, he keeps it well-checked under an even temperament, a disposition that seems ideally suited for baseball.

Lofrano agrees that baseball and his coaching style are well-matched. “I’d probably never be a good football coach. I’m not sure my personality would go over in football,” he said.

In the Lofrano Litany, he psyches his teams “down” for games. Stay calm, stay loose, keep your head clear.

“We play hard and aggressive, but we have fun out there,” senior third baseman Joel Wolfe said. “He wants us to be very loose when we play, not all tensed up and fired up. Not all go, go, go.”

If a player needs a reminder during a game, Lofrano provides an ideal model.

“Kids have to look for someone in a tight situation and they don’t want to see you pacing down the left-field foul line,” he said. “They want control in the dugout. They’re going to look for leadership.”

Doug MacKenzie, Canoga Park’s coach for 37 years until he retired last year, admires Lofrano’s control and his ability to keep the game in perspective.

“We could always talk during a game. He never gave the impression that any one game was the end of world,” he said. “That wasn’t always the case with other coaches, who were wound so tight you couldn’t talk to them. They thought that a game was more important than war with Russia.

“I never saw any instances where he embarrassed a boy. His temper, if he has one, seems to be well in check.”

Control is a learned characteristic, according to Lofrano, who has been ejected from games twice in his career. He claims he was more intemperate in his younger days and defeats often brought restless nights. Although baseball is still a year-round avocation, Lofrano now takes evenings off.

“There’s never any lingering frustration,” his wife Carolyn said. “He doesn’t take it all so seriously. I don’t have to humor him after a loss. He lets go of it after it happens.”

Mike Gillespie, USC’s baseball coach and the former College of the Canyons coach, is a longtime Lofrano friend. The two frequently attend clinics together and make an annual trip to the American Baseball Coaches Assn. conference. Gillespie is further along in his career than Lofrano but envies his friend’s calm approach.

“He has that demeanor about him and it just seems to be part of his makeup. He’s stable, in control. He’s able to make his points without losing it, without going off. And the kids play hard for him,” Gillespie said.

Players say they flourish under Lofrano’s tolerant nature. He steadfastly refuses to criticize a player for making a physical error. If a ground ball shoots through your legs at second base, Lofrano won’t shoot off his mouth on the sidelines. But find yourself out of position on a rundown play and prepare for Lofrano’s version of a dressing down.

He demands intelligence. Lofrano’s playbook is the team’s textbook. Players must study it, homework is assigned and tests must be passed. On an extra-base hit to right-center field with runners on first and third, every Chancellor must know where each player on the field should be.

“You have to be bright to play at Chatsworth. A dumb person can’t play on our team,” Wolfe said. “He doesn’t think you’re a stupid robot out there. He makes you feel important because you have to make decisions for yourself.”

Other teams notice. Said Adam Schulhofer, a senior pitcher and outfielder for Canoga Park: “One thing I recognize from watching Lofrano’s teams, every player is at their best. They don’t make errors in crucial situations.”

That’s part of Lofrano’s plan to promote independence. He wants his players to develop as individual personalities as well as members of the team. When the team gathers for stretching exercises before games and practices, Lofrano purposefully keeps his distance.

“I don’t want to be listening to what they say,” he said. “They’re individuals and you can’t take that away from them. They’re at a unique time in their lives, a great age to be, and I want them to enjoy that.”

Lofrano has had no trouble enjoying this season that has thrust his program into the spotlight. Once he sat in the crowd at coaching clinics, scribbling notes and picking the brains of his more experienced colleagues. Now he’s at the podium, a respected authority among area coaches. After the ESPN segments on Chatsworth, he received calls from a coach in Oklahoma and another in San Diego to pick his brain about coaching technique.

He might spend the rest of his life as Chatsworth’s Captain Calm but he is not above ambition. He said that he will apply for the vacant head coaching job at Cal State Northridge--another alma mater--when the job officially opens for candidates. He has earned consideration for a college job, according to Gillespie.

“All he needs is the opportunity. With his knowledge of the game and ability to teach, he’ll no doubt succeed. It’s no accident what he has accomplished. Bob is one of the guys now that other people can learn from.”

But Lofrano is in no rush to leave. He lives two miles from work and looks out of his office onto one of the Valley’s best-kept fields with one of the few electric scoreboards among City schools. He traveled to Florida in the spring and may coach a high school all-star team in Japan this summer. The Cubs have made him a guest at their spring training facility in Mesa, Ariz., and to a guy born in Chicago, that’s no small gesture.

And there is no reason to think Chatsworth’s championship run will end. Lofrano’s teams are 99-21 in West Valley League play the past eight years and his worst league season produced an 11-4 mark. And the former Chatsworth player still looks forward to 2 p.m. every day when he puts on the Chancellor uniform.

Except for a brief stop at Pierce College as a player and two years as a junior varsity coach at Crenshaw, Chatsworth has encompassed Lofrano’s baseball experience.

“What separates this year for me has been the national publicity,” he said. “It would be great at any school, but because of my affiliation with Chatsworth, this has been special. At our game Wednesday it was hard for me to get to the umpire before the game because there were so many old friends and classmates congratulating me. It was especially nice seeing some of my old teammates. That’s the feeling I’m going to remember from this season.”