THE COMMUNITY COLLEGES : Calhoun Believes in Making a Difference at Orange Coast

Gari Calhoun is an impact player.

Calhoun has made such an impact on the Orange Coast College defense that many formations and plays are designed to utilize his talents.

Calhoun, a sophomore who plays both inside and outside linebacker, leads Orange Coast in tackles. When his coaches talk about him, they can’t help but gush about his great strength, speed or other talents.

“He’s in the top 5% of any players I ever coached,” OCC defensive coordinator Barry Waters said. “In our Pirate defense, we design it to take advantage of the best 11 athletes we have on the field. We like to move him around, so the other team doesn’t know where he’s coming from.”

Calhoun and the defense are among the few bright spots for Orange Coast this season. The defense is allowing 246 yards a game--third best in the Mission Conference--but OCC is struggling with a 3-5 record. Coach Bill Workman is in the midst of a 4-game losing streak, the worst in his 16-year career, which included 13 seasons at Edison High School. Orange Coast plays Golden West tonight in a Mission Conference game at OCC.

Calhoun, 6-feet 2-inches and 225 pounds, is also making an impact with major-college recruiters. He is getting mail from several colleges, including USC, UCLA, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

“It’s great to get that kind of attention,” Calhoun said. “I get home (an apartment in Anaheim he shares with his older brother) and I have this trash bag full of letters to look through. Every time I get it narrowed down to a few schools, I’ll get a new batch of letters, then I can’t decide again.”

Maybe the biggest impact Calhoun is making this season is with the opposition. Against Saddleback, Calhoun made one of his hardest hits when he tackled quarterback Lance Stewart as they met at the sideline in the first half.

“He came up to me after the game and told me that was the hardest he’s been hit in a long time,” Calhoun said. “We walked off the field together and talked and I knew he respected me.”

Against El Camino, Calhoun proved his worth in pass coverage. He was assigned to cover El Camino’s top wide receiver, Brian Burnett. Calhoun checked Burnett along the line of scrimmage all night and Burnett caught only one pass. Burnett had 10 catches for 220 yards the next week against Fullerton. He has 39 catches for 603 yards this season.

“When No. 4 (Burnett) came out on the first play,” Calhoun said, “he looked at me and said that I was too big to guard him. But I guess I did a pretty good job. I couldn’t believe it when I looked in the paper the next week when he had all those catches. I didn’t know he was that good. I’m glad I didn’t know that before. I would have been scared.”

Calhoun is also making an impact in the classroom. He is a talented drawer and would like to major in advertising. Much of his desire to do well in the classroom comes from his mother.

“When I was younger, bad grades brought you a spanking and I didn’t like that,” Calhoun said.

“I have a speech class and I always talk about the attitudes people have toward athletes,” Calhoun said. “I can’t let that attitude go on. . . . When I take my recruiting trips, the first thing I’m going to ask is, who is the academic adviser. Some people say they want a college education. But I have to have one. It’s very important to me.”

Calhoun grew up in Santa Ana and was a childhood friend of Alonzo Jamison, who was a basketball star at Santa Ana Valley, Rancho Santiago College and is now at Kansas.

The two remained friends when Calhoun moved to Atlanta with his family when he was 14. Now, because of Jamison’s urging, Calhoun is going to play basketball this season at OCC after the football season is over.

Calhoun attended Benjamin E. Mays Academy, a public school, for 4 years and played varsity football for 3 years. As a senior, he was an all-state linebacker and offensive tackle.

He signed a national letter of intent to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C., out of high school in 1986 but never played there.

“It looked good at first,” Calhoun said. “But all the players were into parties and girls and not that serious about class work or football.”

Calhoun left Howard and walked on at Cal State Fullerton, but wasn’t eligible for the 1986 season because he signed with Howard for that season.

Calhoun’s prospects of playing for the Titans the next season seemed limited, he said, so he left Fullerton last year and enrolled at Orange Coast, where he could play right away.

He thought the program might have a positive impact on him. He certainly has made a mark on Workman.

“If he’s not an All-American, then I have never seen one,” Workman said. “He’s that good. He’s the kind of guy that could go to the right program and become a No. 1 or No. 2 draft pick.”