Here, Pride’s the Point : Football: South Gate High’s Coach Gary Cordray teaches confidence in self and teammates. He doesn’t graduate major-college stars, but his Rams keep winning.

Desire and pride permeate football at South Gate High School and create an atmosphere that is all Coach Gary Cordray will ever require.

The South Gate Rams, 25-1-1 the last two seasons, draw home crowds of 3,000 and enjoy support from the business community. Cordray, a fun-loving man who wears a Mickey Mouse watch and a whistle that sits on his protruding stomach, would never think of leaving.

“I’d say this is sort of like the ‘Happy Days’ TV show,” Cordray said last week as he stood in the center of the concrete campus. “I don’t think it could be any better than right here. It’s serene, you don’t see a lot of stupidity. It’s the best-kept secret, ‘cause if anyone knew how good it was here they’d probably take my job, . . . ‘cause there are a lot more smarter coaches than I am.”

Cordray will take an eight-season 52-30 record into Friday night’s opening game with Wilson of Los Angeles. In 1988, the Rams were 14-0 and CIF city champions.

South Gate’s success has resulted mainly from tight defense played by youngsters whose desire and togetherness overcome lack of size. The repertoire of offensive plays covers just half of a small chalkboard in an office beneath the stadium bleachers.

“The majority of the school is Hispanic, so most of us get along,” said senior Steve Martinez, the team’s best defensive player. “They always say South Gate doesn’t have any size, but everybody is together. We are a team of unity. It takes heart to win, and that’s what South Gate has.”

Cordray, 44, grew up in the Appalachian town of McConnelsville, Ohio, “thinking that on Friday night, football was the most important thing in town.”

He said Ohio State’s Woody Hayes was like a god to him, though Cordray ended up being a punter at Bowling Green.

He knew he wanted to keep that football atmosphere always. Unable to find it at L.A.’s Washington High, his previous school, Cordray helped create it in South Gate, where football is so popular that he said the team can get what it needs from the Optimist, Kiwanis and Rotary clubs.

A weekly Rams football show on the local cable TV station has had up to 25 sponsors.

“The business people here think the high school is outstanding,” said Cordray, who lives in Anaheim.

Auto dealer Pete Ellis is one of the contributors. “Some very influential people in town are behind (the team), supporting it financially and with their time,” he said. “This is a very proud community with a tremendous amount of spirit.”

A 300-member booster club is headed by Henry Gonzalez, a former city councilman. “The team pulls the community together,” he said. “Everybody’s so proud of the kids.”

A water tower looms at the east end of the Rams’ campus stadium, but a sign on the gym near the west end gets the players’ attention. It reads: “South Gate High Ram Pride.”

“See those words?” Cordray asked. “That’s what I believe in: South Gate Ram Pride. Our kids see that when they come out here, and we talk about it every day.”

The pride penetrates so deeply that the players also paint the yard lines on the field and paint off any graffiti that might be on campus buildings.

More than 130 boys tried out for the varsity this summer, Cordray said, twice the number of candidates his first season. The 80 who won uniforms were doing jumping jacks, shouting, “One! Two! Three!” with crisp enthusiasm.

That spirit pleased Cordray. “Our bench is alive all the time,” he said. “We’re chatterin’, cheerin’ it up, guys are screamin’ and hollerin’. We don’t need cheerleaders, bands and all that kind of stuff. If we can’t read that sign up there, we’re in trouble.”

Red helmets lay on the grass as the Rams stretched. Cordray walked along the lines.

“This guy right here is so low off the ground, I swear, if moles could tackle, he’d be the best ballplayer in the world,” Cordray said as he came to senior Rene Portugal. “How tall are you? Really?”

“5-3.”

Cordray smiled. “In your cleats, with your helmet on?”

Not all of the players were small. This season’s team is one of the biggest Cordray has had.

“Here’s the guy we call House,” Cordray said, pointing out 6-foot-3 lineman Carlos Nunez. “House started at 316 in 10th grade, now he’s gonna be playing this year at 280. He’s trim, lean and mean. He’s going to play some hell on some defensive backs.”

Although Cordray was compassionate toward his players at the practice, he could also be tough, living up to his reputation as a disciplinarian. During the championship season two years ago, Cordray benched several of his starters in one game for breaking rules.

South Gate does not produce future stars: Just three players in Cordray’s eight years have gone on to play at four-year colleges.

“What we try to do is get a kid who’s not very good and make him as good as possible, so his expectations of himself go beyond his dreams,” Cordray said. “We don’t tell them they’re going to be college or professional players. We tell them, ‘This is going to be your last hurrah, but we’re going to get you to play like the pros do or your favorite college team does.’ ”

When they leave South Gate, the coach said, they still have that dream of making it somewhere else, but eventually they realize that they are too small or too slow.

Cordray said a high percentage of his players graduate, which is his main goal: “If they can come out of here one step ahead of the rest of the general population when they take that job application, then I think we really have succeeded in our football program. It’s not numbers going to college.”

Most of the players return within a few years of graduation to attend practice, a game or to let the coaches know whether they’re in the military, working or going to school.

Some, such as 300-pound former center Rudy Fortiz, become assistant coaches. “Rudy’s my offensive line coach, equipment manager, first-aid man and also my eating buddy,” Cordray said.

A family atmosphere is evident.

Last Friday night the booster club held a spaghetti dinner for the team at which the coaches talked to the players’ parents about equipment, treating injuries, academics and the pluses and minuses of football.

Many of the players have brothers who played for South Gate. Among them is Jose Terrones, a ninth-grader whose brother, Adrian, was on the 1985 team.

“How come you want to play football for South Gate?” Cordray asked Terrones as they stood on the edge of the practice field.

“I don’t know . . . to make my mom and dad happy for me,” Terrones answered shyly.

“Yeah? How about yourself?”

“Me too.”

“Yeah? What do you have here?”

“South Gate High School Ram pride.”

Cordray hustled back onto the field to supervise a kickoff return drill. He does not view what he is doing as work.

“I’m country, I don’t know anything else, this is it,” he said.