Royal Turnabout Begins at the Top : Athletics: Commitment of Principal Dave Jackson has improved the Highlanders’ fortunes.

Royal High School, founded in 1968, is finally installing a trophy case for its athletic teams.

Why did it take so long?

Casual observers of high school sports--who no doubt remember debacles such as Royal’s 30-0 loss to Simi Valley High in baseball --probably think the Highlanders never had anything to put on display.

While that’s partly true--Royal teams were perennial doormats in football, baseball and basketball (the basketball team didn’t win a playoff game for 20 years), teams in the so-called minor sports such as volleyball, swimming, water polo and soccer were bringing home dozens of trophies by winning numerous championships.

“I wound up storing our trophies in a box in a closet,” said water polo Coach Steve Snyder, whose team recently won its 10th consecutive Marmonte League title.

The trophy case was not built, insiders say, for the same reason the football, basketball and baseball teams weren’t winners: Generally, Royal principals took a passive attitude toward sports, creating a leadership gap at the top.

“There’s something to be said for active participation,” Snyder said. “A principal who gets behind all the extracurricular activities rather than sitting in his office.”

It is no coincidence that the principal who is building the trophy case is a whirling dervish, spinning around campus in his satin Highlander jacket. David Jackson, hired in February, 1988, has become personally involved with all of the teams and is pushing interscholastic sports as hard as he pushes academics.

“We’re taking all facets of high school life and tying them together,” Jackson said.

And the results, to say the least, have been remarkable. The year before Jackson arrived, Royal’s three major sports teams combined for 45 losses and only three wins. Last season, the basketball team won 20 games, the baseball team went to the playoffs for the first time in 10 years and this year the football team posted a best-ever 8-2-1 record and made the playoffs. Last month, the basketball team won the prestigious Beverly Hills tournament.

No longer are the Highlanders in the shadow of their cross-town rival, Simi Valley High’s Pioneers.

“Dave’s the catalyst,” Snyder said. “He made things happen.”

But Jackson inherited an athletic program in shambles. Coaches were feuding, students were threatening to wear brown bags over their heads at games, players were criticizing the basketball coach. “Our sports programs were disorganized and had no focus or central goal,” Jackson said.

Jackson started showing up regularly at varsity games--he even went to Las Vegas to watch the basketball team in action--and took a firm stand with the coaches. “I wanted all the coaches in all the sports to pull for each other and share athletes--there would be no infighting,” Jackson said.

In the past, coaches had competed for gym time, creating friction among teams. Jackson put a stop to that. “I told the coaches to come up with a schedule that everyone could live with or I’d make the schedule and make sure nobody was happy. I made them understand we’re in this for the kids.”

To create a oneness among the teams, Jackson encouraged athletes to play more than one sport and ended the practice of individual team banquets, fusing them into one big bash. His togetherness campaign is paying off.

“Just recently the girls’ volleyball team cut practice short to go to a boys’ water polo match in Agoura,” Jackson said.

Other teams also attended the match. “It pumped us up so much I said there’s no way we were going to lose,” said Snyder, whose team won by five goals to clinch the league title.

Jackson says his biggest move was hiring Terry Dobbins as athletic director in September, 1988. “He has solidified the athletic staff,” Jackson said.

Dobbins had been athletic director at Simi Valley High for six years. “They weren’t happy that he left,” Jackson said. But Dobbins, who took his secretary, Sue Beyers, with him to Royal, was supported in his move by Simi Valley Principal David Ellis, and his defection did not cause a stir.

Dobbins says he moved to Royal for “a change of scenery,” to be closer to his home in Thousand Oaks--Royal is three exits farther west on the Simi Valley Freeway--and to build a sports program.

Ellis said: “Terry is the kind of guy who likes a challenge.”

Ellis and Jackson have discussed other matters concerning the two schools. One is student transfers. In the past, a number of Royal sports prospects have opted for Simi Valley, generally because of Royal’s dismal sports tradition. The most notorious example is Don MacLean, now a standout forward at UCLA.

MacLean lived in Royal territory but attended Simi Valley High essentially to play basketball for Coach Bob Hawking. MacLean had grown up playing with Hawking’s son and a core group of players who went on to create a basketball dynasty at Simi Valley.

Jackson said he and Ellis are now in total agreement about transfers. Ellis explained, “We’re a lot firmer. Now, if you live in an area, you go to school in that area. That goes for all students,” not just athletes.

While Jackson no doubt created the structure for success, he also benefited from a couple of hires made before he arrived.

In 1987, interim Principal Marjorie Blackburn and then-Athletic Director Glenn Lipman hired Gene Uebelhardt to coach football and Royal alumnus Joe Malkinson to coach boys’ basketball.

“It doesn’t take a Rhodes scholar to know that the capstone of a successful extracurricular program is the football team,” Snyder said. “If they’re a success, they are the leaders, and everything else falls in line.”

Said Dobbins, “There were fine coaches here before and fine programs, but not all the parts were here.”

The success of the major sports teams created a ripple effect in the community, which started attending games in larger-than-usual numbers. Snyder also has noticed “a new upbeat attitude on campus. Every single day, the kids are proud to be wearing the school colors,” he said.

“And it’s hip, it’s cool to be an athlete or a member of the band or another activity.”

The various school booster clubs have caught the spirit too. About $100,000 to $125,000 has been raised every year since Jackson and Dobbins arrived at Royal.

Jackson expected the positive effect that a successful sports program has on the entire school. “A good program can increase academics and the self-esteem of the student body,” Jackson said.

“Winning makes you feel better about yourself and about the school.”

Jackson and Dobbins have implemented one of the country’s most successful high school drug-deterrent programs and have taken a hard line against unsportsmanlike conduct, a problem deeply entrenched in high school sports.

“I instilled in the coaches that the main reason we’re here is to teach strong moral character,” Jackson said.

“I expect class. We don’t yell at officials. We’ve pulled kids off the field in the middle of a game for a bad temper.”

Jackson, who also forfeited a game when he learned the Highlanders inadvertently used an ineligible player, can point to some solid proof that his emphasis on gentlemanly conduct is working: Seven of the past 10 sportsmanship awards given out by the Marmonte League have gone to Royal teams.

Consider this: Before Jackson, Royal had never won a sportsmanship award. “That’s the biggest thing we’ve accomplished,” he said.

But now that the Highlanders have tasted success, they want the whole enchilada. “We began by raising the level of expectation of the coaching staff and the athletes,” Dobbins said.

“Now we’ve got to up it a notch and raise their level of expectation again.”