Winning Time Finally Arrives : Prep football: After five years of trying to right a once proud but since pitiful program, Coach Dan Castanon is turning back the clock at Santa Ana Valley High School.

The football team at Santa Ana Valley High School sailed the doldrums for so long it seemed hopelessly lost.

It wasn’t always that way and maybe that’s what made the Falcons’ fate seem so cruel.

For more than 15 years, Santa Ana Valley had one of Orange County’s best programs. Guys like Myron White, who set the county’s career rushing record, and Isaac Curtis, who later played for the Cincinnati Bengals, ran circles around defenders.

But the good times ended in the late 1970s and the change was swift and decisive.

The string of good players suddenly stopped. Many of the best players in the neighborhood went to Santa Ana or Saddleback. They did so legally, under the Santa Ana Unified School District’s open enrollment policy.

The team had six different coaches in a seven-year period and won one game in two seasons. Another year the Falcons gave up an average of 48 points per game.

Dan Castanon waded into these murky waters with hip boots in 1986.

When Castanon took the coaching job at Santa Ana Valley, friends told him he’d have problems getting players to come out for the team, never mind winning games.

One friend said it would take five years before Castanon could get the program turned the right direction.

Castanon knew they were right.

For five seasons he’s waited for success to find Santa Ana Valley. Now it appears the Falcons have run smack dab into it.

Saturday night’s 28-10 victory over Foothill pushed their record to 4-1-2 and 1-0-1 in Century League play, the best start in Castanon’s five seasons.

Suddenly, the team that hasn’t advanced to the playoffs in Castanon’s tenure now looks like a contender for the league championship.

“The kids make it work,” Castanon said. “These are tougher kids. They’re able to take more, to put up with more. We’ve made it harder on them.”

Castanon learned toughness at Bell Gardens High and later at East L.A. College and Cal State Los Angeles as a fullback and linebacker.

And he learned from two of Orange County’s winningest coaches--Marijon Ancich of Tustin and Mike Marrujo of Valencia.

He met Ancich during the 605 Freeway All-Star game when he was a senior at Bell Gardens and Ancich was coaching at St. Paul.

Later, Castanon was an assistant for Ancich at St. Paul and Tustin. Castanon and Marrujo coached together at Pius X.

Ancich and Marrujo were among those who thought Castanon was the right man for an impossible situation.

“You gotta win, otherwise the whole program breaks down,” Ancich said. “But he’s hung through all that.”

Said Marrujo: “A lot of guys back off when things get tough, but not Danny. He’s one who always got the most out of his players.”

When Castanon started at Santa Ana Valley, he stuck with the principle of strength in numbers. Some members of his team weren’t very good players--and even worse citizens--and that hurt the program.

Now satisfied he can attract enough quality players, Castanon made cuts for the first time this season.

“Last year, I went back to coaching,” he said. “I went back to the hard-nosed style of coaching. The kids were looking at me like I was crazy. I was ranting and screaming.

“(These kids) are the reason we’ve had a successful season. They’re the result of what we’ve put into the program the past five years.”

So far this season the results are favorable. Victories over Kennedy, Dana Hills, Saddleback and Foothill and ties against Corona and Orange have put Santa Ana Valley in position for its first winning season in more than a decade. The Falcons’ only loss came against University, 12-7.

Two big games, which will determine the Century League championship, loom on the horizon. The Falcons play El Modena and Villa Park in the next two weeks.

It’s been so long since Santa Ana Valley played a big game, no one remembers what it’s like. And really, the Falcons have been cursed in games they should have won in order to make the playoffs the past few seasons.

Some gremlin always seemed to bat a sure interception into the waiting hands of an opposing receiver, who then found himself standing all alone for a game-winning touchdown.

“If there’s anything we haven’t done well,” Castanon said, “it’s find the magic and pull out those close games.”

Although times are changing, Castanon still clings to memories of the past.

“Those were real coaching adventures,” he said. “Weekly, we had to adjust everything offensively and defensively just to be competitive. The best part was we played some real good football that (first) year. We ended up 2-8, but we were competitive in league.”

Now Castanon is hoping for more than just staying close. Now he’ll settle only for victories.