Two Forces Spark a Revival at Buena Park : Prep football: Power running of Barrios, hard-nosed coaching of Luczaj help put Coyotes in the playoffs.

In a league that features such perennially strong teams as Sunny Hills and Fullerton, Buena Park rarely has been taken seriously.

In fact, before this season, the Coyotes had won only one Freeway League game since 1983 and had not qualified for the playoffs since 1981.

But this year, Buena Park swaggered into the season with a two-fisted confidence that caught more than one opponent off guard. The Coyotes stunned La Habra, 54-0, in the seventh game and secured a playoff spot with a 28-13 victory over Troy last Friday night.

For the first time in recent memory, the Coyotes (5-4, 3-1 in league) are ranked in the sportswriters’ divisional polls. Tonight, they play Fullerton, also 3-1 in league.

Two keys to Buena Park’s new-found success are Angel Barrios, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound junior running back, and Martin Luczaj, the team’s first-year coach.

THE PLAYER

Barrios, a soft-spoken, hard-running 16-year-old with sleepy eyes and short-cropped hair, has been a major factor in the Coyotes’ turnaround.

He is among Orange County’s leaders in rushing (1,030 yards, an 8.9 average) and (16 touchdowns). He has run for more than 100 yards in three consecutive games, including 211 against Troy and 196 (and three touchdowns) against La Habra.

“He’s big, strong and fast,” Troy Coach John Turek said. “He runs with determination and doesn’t let one tackler bring him down. He just runs with authority.”

Lineman Gavin Molinar, one of Barrios’ best friends, says: “I love to block for him. We’re like a pair. When I block for Angel, he does something and that motivates me.

“After he has a big run or scores, he always comes back to the huddle and says, ‘Good job, linemen. Good job.’ And because he’s so modest about it, it makes you work that much harder.”

“Barrios is a real talent,” Luczaj says, “and the kids rally around him just as anyone would rally around a talented athlete.”

Football isn’t the only sport in which Barrios has found success. He also plays basketball and, in the same season, plays baseball and runs track. If he continues at his current pace, he would be one of the top varsity letter-winners in Buena Park history, with nine.

Barrios usually excels at any sport he tries. Recently, Molinar took Barrios to play racquetball. Molinar had been playing for about six months; it was Barrios’ first time.

“Angel beat my socks off,” Molinar says. “That’s just Angel, though. Every time he picks up a ball, he wins.”

On the Buena Park campus, the Barrios legend is growing. Some have started calling him “Bo,” a reference to professional football and baseball player Bo Jackson.

But it hasn’t been all touchdown runs and end zone celebrations for Barrios, who transferred from Servite to Buena Park after his freshman year. He has struggled in the classroom. His parents separated, and he has moved back and forth between them.

“I don’t know how he does it,” Molinar says. “But he’s always there for everybody. I think he does it a lot to please his dad. If his dad’s happy, then Angel is happy.”

THE COACH

If Barrios is one of the instruments that has helped turn around a withering program, then Luczaj is the conductor who has orchestrated it all.

These days, he is looking more and more the hero, although if you call looking for him at the athletic offices, an assistant coach might answer good-naturedly that Luczaj’s head is too big to fit indoors these days.

Luczaj admits he likes being in charge. That, he says, is why he left Fullerton College and came to Buena Park, where is also athletic director and a physical education teacher.

Resuscitating a dying program is not new for Luczaj. He did it at Fullerton High School, which had had a 3-17 record in the two seasons before Luczaj arrived in 1981. Three years later, Luczaj led the Indians to a Central Conference championship.

At Buena Park, the change has not come easily, though. “Coming in, I’ve had to be a hard-nosed coach, who instilled discipline,” Luczaj said. As he expected, the players responded negatively at first.

Not until the Coyotes defeated La Habra did they begin to realize things were getting better.

“We wanted to give up by the middle of (the nonleague games),” Barrios says. “At first we didn’t believe in him. Now, we believe.”

Says Molinar: “We wanted to be better than (Luczaj’s) old team, Fullerton. We got tired of hearing Fullerton this, Fullerton that. We just wanted to shut him up.”

Luczaj says some people perceive him as brash and egotistical, and he is not without detractors. But the team’s play has helped quiet them.

“I knew there was going to be grumblings,” Luczaj says. “I don’t even hear it any more after 17 years coaching in the area.

“I’m older and wiser. I’ve stopped worrying about what others think. I just try to do the best job possible for the kids to help them experience success. What others think, I’m not really concerned about. It’s high school football and sometimes it gets blown out of proportion.”

Besides, Luczaj believes Buena Park’s success on the field speaks volumes.

“For Buena Park to be playing for a spot in the playoffs eight or nine games into the season says a lot about what we’ve been able to accomplish.”