Father Knows Best : Quarterback Parlays Advice to a Record-Breaking Season : Preps: Armin Youngblood, who has passed for more than 2,300 yards, will lead Carson in the 4-A City championship game at 7:30 tonight against Dorsey.

Every Friday before Armin Youngblood, Carson High’s senior quarterback, leaves the house for a football game, he pauses at the door for a little fatherly advice:

“Take what the defense gives you,” his father tells him.

Armin always listens. After all, father knows best.

In Armin Youngblood’s case, father is Aaron Youngblood, who in 1973 took the coaching job at Compton College. He was one of the first black community college head football coaches in California.

“My father always tells me to adjust to what their defense gives our offense,” Armin said. “He always tells me never to fight the defense.”

Aaron Youngblood has been out of formal coaching since 1977, but the informal training he has given his son has gone a long way--2,306 yards, to be exact, which is the passing yardage Armin Youngblood has posted this year at Carson.

That’s a school record for a single season. So is the 30 touchdown passes Youngblood has thrown entering the L.A. City Section 4-A championship game against Dorsey at 7:30 tonight at El Camino College.

When Carson Coach Gene Vollnogle put Youngblood at quarterback this season, he gave him the responsibility of operating the Colts’ new short-passing offense.

But Vollnogle also gave Youngblood freedom. The coach estimates that the quarterback audibles to change the play at the line of scrimmage about 30% of the time.

“When the defense steps up to stop our short passes, Armin calls an audible and goes deep,” Vollnogle said. “If they cover us deep, Armin throws short. So they’re basically caught between a rock and a hard place.”

Youngblood relishes the responsibility to change the plays. “It’s like a game of cat and mouse,” he said. “I like to see what the defense is doing and figure out something to beat it, see if I can outsmart them.

“It’s almost like the field is a chessboard, controlling yourself and the offense on the field. You can call real audibles or dummy audibles, and then watch the opposing coach react, going crazy and calling plays to his defensive backs. That part of it is fun.”

Youngblood has taken advantage of his freedom to average 19.7 yards per completion this season--a high figure for a short-passing offense.

Vollnogle attributes that to Carson’s No. 1 weapon--speed. On one side of the ball, Youngblood has a sure-handed and elusive split end, Michael Ross. On the other side, he has a speedy flanker, Tydus Winans.

“Our receivers all have the ability to break the long ones,” Youngblood said. “Tydus is blazing fast, and he goes after the ball wherever I throw it. And Michael is fearless. I’ve seen him cross the middle into three or four guys and not even flinch, just like there was no one there, and come up with a one- handed catch.”

Add to that Youngblood’s ability to deliver the ball on target and it’s no wonder Carson (10-1) is making its ninth consecutive appearance in an L.A. City final.

Tonight’s game has another interesting angle. From 1968 to 1972, Aaron Youngblood was head coach at Dorsey, where he coached against Vollnogle. The Dons (8-3) lost to Carson, 29-7, earlier this season and have never beaten the Colts in nine meetings.

If Carson wins, it will be back-to-back City titles for the Colts and Youngblood. Last year, however, Youngblood viewed Carson’s championship drive from a different position.

Then Carson had a pair of gifted senior quarterbacks, Perry Klein and Fred Gatlin. Klein has red-shirted at UC Berkeley, and Gatlin was named Offensive Player of the Year as a freshman at Nevada-Reno.

So Youngblood was shifted to wingback for his junior season.

“I didn’t want him sitting on the bench doing nothing,” Vollnogle said. “But we knew that this year, after Perry and Fred left, there wouldn’t be a void back there (at quarterback).”

For Youngblood, who had called the signals at each rung of youth football, it was a difficult adjustment.

“Sometimes, I’d line up in the slot position, and I’d see a hole in the defense that I thought was open,” Youngblood said. “But Perry wouldn’t call an audible very often. He didn’t change a lot of plays.”

What Klein did do was direct Carson’s short-passing offense, which was taught to Vollnogle by former offensive coordinator Steve Clarkson. Along the way, Youngblood learned some valuable lessons about the passing attack from Klein, and got an understanding of Carson’s running game from Gatlin.

“In a lot of ways, Armin understands both facets of the offense much better than either Fred or Perry,” Vollnogle said.

It may be paying dividends now, but last year was still a learning process for Youngblood.

“I learned as much about the offense as possible,” he said. “But still I felt like I missed a whole year of throwing the ball.”

Youngblood is determined to keep that from happening again. He is being recruited by several universities, but the 6-foot, 185-pounder can’t seem to shake the “all-around athlete” tag.

“I love the position of quarterback,” Youngblood said. “I just want an opportunity to play that position. I guarantee I’ll take advantage of it.”

So far, Youngblood has been contacted by Oregon, UC Berkeley, Nebraska and Colorado, but those schools have shown interest in him as an “athlete” who could conceivably play wide receiver, running back or defensive back if he didn’t work out at quarterback.

Arizona has also come calling, mainly because former Carson star Errol Sapp, a tailback at Arizona, is Youngblood’s cousin. But another former Carson standout, George Malauulu, is in his freshman year as Arizona’s quarterback and has three more years of eligibility left.

However, UCLA and Alabama have expressed interest in Youngblood purely as a throwing quarterback. Youngblood said he would love to compete against incumbent quarterbacks Bret Johnson and Jim Bonds at UCLA, so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which direction he is leaning.

Youngblood looks to Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware as an example of how a quarterback can beat being stereotyped as an “athlete.” Ware was recruited by Texas as a defensive back, but as a quarterback led Houston to a rout over Texas and earned college football’s most prestigious award in the process.

“I like the example (Ware) sets,” Youngblood said.