Century Marks Its First Varsity Contest Against Rebuilding El Dorado

If the first varsity game for a high school football player is traumatic, imagine the effect on an entire team.

Tonight, 1-year-old Century High School will play its first football game, at 7:30 against El Dorado at Valencia High School’s Bradford Stadium. Century Coach Bill Brown has no illusions about how his players--all sophomores and juniors with no varsity game experience--will react.

“We know darn well that when we take our kids up to Bradford Stadium, their hearts are going to be a-pounding and their diapers are going to need changing,” Brown said. “That’s natural. We’ve all been there. Everybody that’s ever played the sport has felt butterflies. We expect that, but again, that’s just part of the maturation process.”

In a quirk of scheduling, the Centurions’ first varsity opponent is El Dorado, a team that didn’t win a game last season. The Hawks are also a young team, with four sophomores starting, but at least they have seniors on the team. Century has no seniors among its 1,700 students.

Still, as is the custom among coaches, second-year El Dorado Coach Rick Jones is downplaying the potential for a mismatch.

“At this level you’ve got to get ready each week as if you are preparing for the Rams,” Jones said. “It doesn’t matter if you are playing Bishop Amat or Orange County’s Pop Warner team, you’ve got to get ready.”

In the case of Century, El Dorado is facing a team somewhere between those extremes. The players come mainly from Century’s freshman and sophomore teams, which went 9-0 and 4-6, respectively, last season.

Brown is preaching patience and preparation for the future, while trying to limit the importance of any single game in the Centurions’ first season. One advantage of having such an inexperienced team is that no one will graduate from it. Barring transfers or grade problems, everyone will return next season.

And it’s next season and beyond that most concerns Brown, who coached at Brea-Olinda from 1979 until 1987. He believes he is building a firm foundation at Century, which next year will have between 2,100 and 2,500 students.

Ever since three players showed up to the first informal practice in the summer of 1989, the program has grown steadily. Today it has 62 varsity players and 40 freshman team members. Brown said the cornerstones of success are in place: the administration is supportive, money is available and three of his five assistants have teaching contracts.

But Brown hasn’t begun saying, “Wait till next year.” Playing its first varsity season in the Pacific Coast League with two-time Division VIII champion Trabuco Hills and last year’s Sea View League champion Estancia will prove quite challenging, but Century’s nonleague schedule isn’t as daunting. Of the Centurions’ five nonleague opponents, only Bloomington (7-3) won more than two games last season. One, Jurupa Valley, is also playing its first year of varsity competition.

Brown has the Centurions running a triple-option wishbone offense.

“If we can keep the plays down to a minimum and control the ball and play good field position, maybe at the end of the game we’re going to be close,” Brown said. “Then it just takes one break or two to win a ballgame.

“Our big concern is conditioning right now--how long our kids can go. We have a few kids that could probably play for most people, but we have an awful lot who are going to be on the field that would be on other people’s JV teams.”