SOUTHERN SECTION FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS : Only Turf He’s Worried About Is on the Field : Division VI: Rancho Alamitos football gave Leonard Sims prospects for a bright future. The Vaqueros got a top lineman in return.

Growing up in Crow Village, a part of town where it’s not rare to hear gunshots during the night, Leonard Sims faced certain environmental hazards.

Although he never joined the gang in his neighborhood, Sims wasn’t one to back down when challenged, and that happened quite often. There was a time Sims would fight at the drop of a word. But not anymore. These days, Sims limits his fights to the football field--where he can hit people without getting in trouble--and he says that’s the reason he has overcome his past troubles, stayed at Rancho Alamitos High School and has a chance to play college football.

“I finally woke up and said this ain’t for me,” Sims said. “I probably wouldn’t be in school right now if it weren’t for football. I probably would have been kicked out or something.”

Rancho Alamitos (10-2) plays Tustin (12-0) in the Southern Section Division VI semifinals at 7:30 tonight at Garden Grove High. The Vaqueros hadn’t qualified for the playoffs since 1982. Now they are a game away from playing for the championship, thanks in large part to Sims, a senior who anchors both the offensive and defensive lines.

On offense, Sims, a two-time first-team All-Garden Grove League selection, is the aggressive leader of a powerful ground game. Sims likes to take the active role of a pulling blocker, preferring to get a running start before hitting defenders more than the more-passive pass-blocking.

The past two seasons, Sims has been part of a line that blocked for Orange County’s leading rusher. Last season, Dana Riddle led the state in the regular season with 2,082 yards in 381 carries. This year, Ulysses Trammell has gained 1,965 yards.

Sims is serious about football. Rancho Alamitos Coach Mark Miller said few on the team play as hard in games or practice.

“He gets upset with the other kids if they don’t show the same determination,” Miller said.

Eric Moore, the all-league tight end who blocks next to Sims, said Sims quietly seethes when he thinks teammates aren’t trying hard enough.

“He’s like the leader of the linemen,” Moore said. “If we need a lift in the game, he’ll come over to all of the linemen and hit them in the head.”

As important as he is to the offensive line, Sims might be a better defensive player. Because of his size--6 feet 2, 220 pounds--he will likely play defense in college. And it’s on defense that he can let his instincts take over, initiating on every play the contact he craves.

Sims’ aggressive nature contributed to his off-the-field problems when he was younger. Rancho Alamitos quarterback Chris Singletary remembers trying to keep Sims from fighting during their freshman year.

Sims was then ineligible for football because he didn’t have a 2.0 grade-point average in his last semester of junior high school. Singletary and Sims lifted weights, hung out together and talked of playing on the same football team.

Singletary said fights would often break out at basketball games they attended, but Sims stayed out of them.

“Earlier this year, he said if it wasn’t for me, he’s probably be on the street dead somewhere,” Singletary said.

Sims said football kept him out of trouble. His father, Leonard Sims Sr., received a football scholarship to USC after starring at running back and linebacker at Santiago High in the mid-1960s; he was one of the Trojans’ top prospects in 1966 before a serious knee injury ended his career.

Leonard Jr. dreams of doing more. He has passing grades but hasn’t taken enough college preparatory classes to meet the NCAA Proposition 48 requirements and therefore will likely have to play for a community college to earn a scholarship at a four-year school.

“I think football has kept him on the straight-and-narrow and out of trouble,” said Sally Valencia, Sims’ mother. “He just loves football so much that he won’t do anything that would jeopardize it.”

Miller said Sims has matured quite a bit.

“He’s grown up a lot since he’s been here,” he said. “I’m afraid his past makes him sound like a bad kid. He’s really a good kid. It’s not that checkered a past.”

There never was any doubt Sims was an outstanding player.

As a sophomore, he played on the junior varsity until one week when he and his teammates were moved to varsity because the opponent didn’t have a JV team.

Rancho Alamitos was leading, 6-0, in the fourth quarter when the Vaquero punter fumbled a snap, and Bolsa Grande recovered. A starting defensive lineman had to come out because of an injury, and Miller put Sims in.

Bolsa Grande ran three plays in Sims’ direction and didn’t score, but the regular lineman recovered and reentered for fourth down. “Then they ran right over our senior for a touchdown after Leonard stuffed them three times,” Miller said, grimacing at the memory of the 7-6 loss. “So that’s when I thought the guy might be a pretty good player.”