Former Knights of the Living Dead Are on the Rise at Katella

These are great days to be a Knight.

And much of it has to with a pleasant, earnest man named Larry Anderson.

Katella High School is ranked in the Orange County Sportswriters’ Assn. Poll for the first time in the school’s 21-year history.

For the first time in almost as long, Katella is contending for a league title in football, something that would have seemed absurd a year ago.

The Knights are 5-1-1 overall and 2-0 in Empire League play going into tonight’s game with Los Alamitos (6-0-1, 2-0).

But to fully appreciate how well it’s going for Katella these days, it’s important to know how bad things were.

The school went 17 seasons--a lifetime for most varsity players--without a winning record. It had been that long since it had advanced to the Southern Section playoffs. It was in 1968 that the school had last won a league championship in football.

The school went through one coach after another, trying to find the one to right a program gone wrong. Trying as they might, though, none succeeded and the drought continued.

Losing became part of the Katella football tradition. Some tradition.

Then, there was yet another coaching opening before the 1987 season and Anderson got the job.

Now, it’s important to note here that Anderson was highly qualified. Perhaps overly qualified.

He had years of coaching experience, having started as a 21-year old assistant at Lynwood while still in college. He had been a huge success at Lynwood, where his teams were annually contending for a league title and were always being ranked among the top 10 in the Southern Conference polls.

Lynwood won a Southern Conference title in 1980 when Anderson was an assistant to S.K. Johnson. Anderson became head coach in 1982 and, though there were no more conference titles, league titles and playoff appearences became customary at Lynwood. The school has advanced to the playoffs 12 consecutive seasons.

About the only thing Katella had in common with Lynwood was the nickname--the Knights.

Nevertheless, Anderson, a 1968 Lynwood graduate, pulled up stakes after the 1986 season at Lynwood and took the job at Katella.

“I was starting to get stagnant,” Anderson said. “I had been a student there. My life there started in 1965. I just needed a change. I thought I’d take a chance on it. It was a scary move. I gotta admit I was almost too scared to go through with it.”

Anderson heard the horror stories: Katella was a basketball school and he would never be able to get any good athletes out for football.

Turned out to be false. Anderson’s most ardent supporter has been the basketball coach, Tom Danley.

Still, confidence was not high when practice started last fall. Overcoming the players’ skepticism proved to be a more difficult task than teaching the veer offense.

After all, the 1986 team had just 29 players on the roster. The previous coach was fired after compiling a 7-23 record in 3 seasons.

After an opening-game victory over Magnolia last season, Anderson saw the players’ confidence take a nose dive before playing a good Villa Park team the following week. It was a game the players thought they could not win.

“All of a sudden we were practicing for Villa Park the next week and there was this whole change in the team’s personality,” Anderson said. “The practices weren’t the same and we played like it.

“It was a rude awakening. Our kids at Lynwood thought they could beat anyone anytime. I could sense that for the Magnolia game, but you could tell it wasn’t the same for the Villa Park game.”

Gradually, though, the players began to believe in what their new coach was saying--that they could be competitive.

“I could see by the way he ran things that he knew what he was doing,” said Joe Pastorello, a senior running back and linebacker. “Everyone was excited to have a winning season. We just needed someone to lead us. Thank God, Coach Andy came and we finally got it together.”

With players such as Pastorello and senior quarterback Jeff Yourstone, Katella posted a 6-4-1 record, beat Loara in the regular-season finale and advanced to the playoffs.

Though the Knights lost, 28-0, in the first round to Mission Viejo, Danley sees that game as the turning point in the school’s football program. Danley would know. He has coached there since the school opened in 1966.

“That was the one, singular outstanding feat, taking a down football team in one year, not in two or three years, the guy came in and in one year turned it around,” Danley said. “Whatever he does, and he may win eight (Southern Section) championships here, the thing I’ll remember is that he turned it around in one year.”

The impact at the school has been tremendous.

“Football is so significant in getting the school year off on the right foot,” Danley said. “The band feels like it’s playing a little better these days. The cheerleaders are cheering better these days. It makes it so much easier for everyone. Even the gate receipts look better.”

Katella has picked up right where it left off last season. Though Yourstone has graduated, there remains a strong group of players such as Pastorello, sophomore quarterback Dennis Briggs and senior defensive back Ozzie Merino.

“Success, a lot of times, permeates through the whole football program,” Anderson said. “When the varsity is doing well, all the kids coming up through the ranks are excited.”

And in the process, Anderson has given the Empire League powers, teams such as Los Alamitos, Loara and Esperanza, someone else to contend with.

“I’ll tell you,” said John Barnes, Los Alamitos coach, “Larry’s had an unbelievable turnaround. In the old days, going into the Katella game with wins over El Dorado and Esperanza you thought it was a good deal. He’s done a great job over there.

“From what I’ve seen of him, I’d like my son to play for him.”