Fun Again in Santa Barbara : College Football: Rejuventated program wins without big-time trappings; now Gauchos want to move up to Division II.

The sun is shining, the skies are clear and nearly 100 merry funsters from the University of California at Santa Barbara are committing wholesale mayhem.

Is this fun or what?

It is college football, but there are no scholarships here, no deep-pocket boosters, just the game played for the joy of competition and the incomparable delight of joining with other fine young men to decimate, degrade and destroy an opponent.

What else could a kid ask for? Division II status?

UC Santa Barbara’s rejuvenated football program--the deluxe Division III model--is in its fourth year after a 15-year hiatus and things couldn’t be better. The team is 7-2, has won six in a row and seemingly every able-bodied male on campus wants to be a part of the program.

“We could have 140 players but we only have 100 helmets,” said John Kasser, UCSB’s athletic director.

Many of those who did latch on to head gear are from Southern California, eight from Orange County. Most were good high school players and exceptional students who were attracted by UCSB’s academic reputation, not to mention the Brigadoon-like surroundings.

“Look at this place, it’s perfect,” said receiver Brain Fleming, formerly of Laguna Hills High.

But the fine times at UCSB are definitely not shared by their opponents. On this particularly fine Saturday afternoon, the opponents are 30 or so members of the Menlo College football team.

The Menlo Oaks made the mistake of saying some less than complimentary things about the Gauchos, their coaching staff and their girlfriends before the game. As the game unfolds, however, it becomes apparent that the Oaks’ bark is much worse than their bite.

They are bashed throughout, the big hits rattling through the 16,300 empty seats of UCSB’s Harder Stadium (capacity 17,000) and causing even the most ardent UCSB fan to emit a sympathetic groan.

The final score will be 59-0, a wipeout but nothing the hometown folks haven’t become accustomed to when UCSB plays another Division III opponent. The week before it beat the University of San Diego, 51-3.

Menlo and San Diego are the only Division III opponents Santa Barbara plays this year, actually they were the only teams that would schedule Santa Barbara.

“Most Division III teams just won’t play us,” Kasser said.

Is it any wonder? UCSB has a .705 winning percentage against Division II teams over the past four seasons. Santa Barbara is a big school (enrollment: 18,500), with a big, Division I athletic department.

The basketball team has been a Big West contender ever since Jerry Pimm showed up to coach in 1983. The water polo team is a perennial power that won a national championship in 1979. The men’s volleyball team made it to the NCAA final in 1987 and the women’s volleyball team has made it to the NCAA playoffs 11 straight years.

“You have to be kicking butt to get some recognition around here,” said running back Ross Bauer, formerly of El Modena.

Suffice it to say, the Gauchos are getting some recognition. In fact, the Gauchos, who play their final game of the season today against Azusa Pacific, hope they’ll be recognized in Division II next season.

“It seems like a pretty natural progression for us,” UCSB Coach Rick Candaele said. “I think it’s plain to just about everyone that we’ve outgrown this division.”

And the main reason for that growth is the type and quality of player UCSB is getting these days. Players such as Fleming, the team’s leading receiver who considered walking on at UCLA, or Bauer, the team’s second leading rusher, or Mike Curtius, formerly of Mater Dei, the backup quarterback who was the Gauchos’ starting quarterback last season.

All were exceptional high school players, all had the talent to compete at a Division II program and some figured to have an outside shot at Division I.

But, like so many of their teammates, they chose Santa Barbara for the academics and the atmosphere and found that college football could be fun, a word that’s seldom heard at the major-college level.

“You look around on this team and there are guys who could be playing at a higher level,” Bauer said. “But a lot of us made the decision after high school that football wouldn’t be our lives, we wanted to get on with other things. The guys who play here just play for the fun of it.”

That’s fun if you enjoy practicing about four hours a day. The UCSB football team is not a bunch a guys in cutoff jeans heaving around a football or two and then heading out for a pizza.

The team is remarkably intense, getting crazy even for the Menlo Colleges of the world.

“These guys love to play,” Fleming said. “It’s not like we come out here everyday and lay around in the sun. These guys are serious about the game, but they’re looking for nothing to gain from football.”

And nothing is exactly what they get. No scholarships, no training table, there wasn’t a football weight room until this season and that only came about when the team held a lift-a-thon to raise money.

Players from the previous year aren’t even guaranteed a spot on the roster because the team holds open tryouts before each season. Interest in the program is growing, the 100 helmets aren’t.

Despite the lack of incentives, kids are practically knocking down the door of the small football office. At UCSB, recruiting is usually stuck in reverse with prospective players calling coaches.

“Right now our phones are ringing off the hook,” said Steve Marks, receivers coach, and one of three men responsible for bringing football back to Santa Barbara.

It was Marks, Brad Tisdale and Gary Rhodes who organized an alumni game in 1982 and that went so well they organized a club team in 1983. UCSB had played intercollegiate football for 50 years before dropping the program in 1971. The team went Division III in 1986 and has compiled an 18-11 record, but things have really been moving the past two seasons.

“I see a lot better athlete coming in,” said Charlie Brown, UCSB defensive end, who started with the program in 1986. “Guys like Fleming, who probably would have had a shot at bigger programs. These guys are starting to hear about us, because we keep improving and beating people. I think you’re going to see that trend continue.”

The Gauchos will have to get a special waiver to be in Division II by next season. But a bigger division won’t mean any significant changes. The school will continue to offer no football scholarships. That’s not unusual. UC Davis, a very successful Division II football team, offers no scholarships.

“I think the situation here is unique and wonderful,” Kasser said. “I don’t think we would want to change a thing.”