Reality Will Come Calling Tonight : Picture of Santa Margarita High Is Not as Ideal as It Might Appear

If it’s Wednesday, it must be another idyllic day in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Overhead, the sky glows in a wash of brilliant blue. The sun’s rays are filtered by the not-so-light layer of smog that covers most of Orange County on a recent day. The twin peaks of Modjeska and Santiago look close enough to touch.

Down below, the housing developments being built along Santa Margarita Parkway are coming along nicely. The lawns and shrubbery are starting to grow in front of some of the older homes. The earth-tone stucco supermarket at the corner of Santa Margarita and Antonio Parkway glistens with newness.

All is well in Orange County’s newest planned community, which is quickly taking shape in the foothills northeast of Mission Viejo.

At Santa Margarita High, a $26 million, 40-acre Catholic school that looks as if it were designed and built by Father Serra, the county’s newest varsity football team is about to start its first season.

The Eagles, 29 varsity players strong, will play host to Trabuco Hills at 7:30 tonight at Saddleback College.

Actually, Santa Margarita played one varsity game last season, sort of a test run to gauge the Eagles’ development. The test ended with the Eagles’ band of sophomores losing to Ontario Christian’s varsity, 35-0.

Now the sophomores are juniors--as yet there are no seniors at Santa Margarita--and they will face Trabuco Hills, the defending Southern Section Division VIII champions. It’s not the easiest way to kick off a fledgling varsity program.

Jim Hartigan, Santa Margarita’s 29-year-old coach, has long since stopped laughing at the predictions of the school’s impending greatness. Some look at Santa Margarita and they see the pricey campus, the aggressive administration and the fact that it’s the only Catholic school in South County and figure it’s a can’t-miss proposition.

They also point to a 10-0 record by the freshman team in 1987, the school’s first year of existence and a 6-3-1 record by last season’s sophomore squad.

“When I tried to schedule last year I got comments like, ‘Oh, you’re that big, new Catholic school in Orange County,’ ” Hartigan said. “ ‘You’re the school that’s going to be the next Mater Dei, the next Servite.’ ‘You’re the school with the giant enrollment.’ ”

But reality is a different story.

“I’d love to put together a program that would be as good as Mater Dei or Servite,” said Hartigan, who was an assistant coach at Mater Dei for three seasons before coming to Santa Margarita. “I don’t see it in the near future, though. Some day down the road maybe.”

At the moment, Hartigan, who played defensive back at Cal State Fullerton from 1978-82, is just trying to get the program on its feet. After two seasons of playing a free-lance schedule against any team they could, even if it meant the sophomores opposing a varsity team, the Eagles have finally found a league in which to compete.

Santa Margarita has been placed in the Olympic League, in the Division IX Conference, with such schools as Whittier Christian, Orange Lutheran and Valley Christian in Cerritos.

For now, it would appear to be a perfect match. Santa Margarita’s enrollment is 900, slightly higher than the other league schools. And this is its first varsity season after all.

“We gained a lot of valuable experience (last year),” Hartigan said. “Varsity is a whole new caliber of football.”

Progress has been slow but sure. The school finally hired an athletic trainer, and that’s taken a load off Hartigan’s mind.

“I’ve had to do it all,” he said. “I’ve painted the fields. I’m still the equipment man. I’m in charge of ordering new equipment. I’m the shipping and receiving department.”

Santa Margarita will play its home games at Saddleback for the time being. A campus stadium is in the back of school officials’ minds, though nothing is definite.

The players, though few in number, have shown promise. Travis Lucero, a kicker/wide receiver, and Trevor Yankoff, a quarterback, and Nathan Beckett, a 6-foot-6, 280-pound tackle, are three who will have key roles in the Eagles’ fortunes for the next two seasons.

“We have a kid who’s kicked a 48-yard field goal (Lucero) and the quarterback has a lot of raw ability,” Hartigan said. “In a year, he could really develop. A lot depends on how healthy we stay and how successful we are.”

Goals have been set, but Hartigan is careful not to pressure his players. Santa Margarita is going its first season with 29 players and zero tradition, and no one can accurately predict what will happen.

Hartigan hasn’t devised a magic number of victories that would add up to a successful season, but his goals are specific.

“I’d like to be a competitive, hard-working football team,” Hartigan said. “I’d like people to say, boy they have a first-class program. By 1990 we could be a pretty decent football program.

“We starting our own tradition and that’s fun.”