Keeping It in the Family : Artesia’s Father-Son Team Proves Winning Combination

When Artesia High quarterback Aaron Flowers glances from the huddle to the sideline, he is reminded that there are benefits and pitfalls in being the son of a football coach.

His father, Pioneer Coach Norm Flowers, had wanted his son to be a quarterback since he was a toddler. Now with the strong-armed Aaron Flowers running the offense, top-ranked Artesia (5-0) has averaged 37 points a game.

But a potential drawback is that Aaron, a junior, has to walk a fine line between teammates and his father.

“When I was a sophomore I didn’t know when to say things,” Aaron said about the 1990 season. “I wasn’t sure if the guys would just blow it off because I was the coach’s son.”

The Pioneers open Suburban League play against Norwalk (3-1-1) at 7 p.m. Friday at Excelsior Stadium, and they are favored to win their fourth league title since 1985. But only two seasons ago, when Aaron played on the freshman team, Artesia’s varsity was 3-7 and boosters were calling for the ouster of the elder Flowers, now 47, who had only been a co-coach the season before.

Complaints disappeared, however, after Aaron arrived. Last year, when the team finished 4-6, the offense averaged three touchdowns a game and a foundation was built for the future.

“This year there is a real family atmosphere out there,” Artesia Principal Alex Yusem said. “A couple of years ago that family feeling fell apart. Everyone became an individual. But Norm has been working on that.”

Teammates appear to accept the father-son team because Norm, a youthful-looking man who often wears glasses, and Aaron do not give or expect special treatment from each other. Said senior center Donny Jung: “Aaron’s dad treats him just like he’s anyone else. In fact, sometimes he treats him even harder.”

Aaron has been all his father thought he could be at quarterback. Last season the 6-foot, 165-pound right-hander passed for a school-record 2,217 yards. Cal-Hi Sports Inc., a monthly magazine that also provides a prep ratings service, named him among the top 100 underclassmen in California and said he had all-state potential.

Aaron is living up to the billing. He has passed for 1,487 yards so far this season, including 326 last week in a 47-14 rout of host St. John Bosco.

Norm Flowers grew up in Lakewood and graduated from Artesia High in 1962 when dairies, instead of homes, surrounded the campus. Even then, he said, Artesia High had an undeserved reputation as a rough school.

“We have always had the stigma of gangs,” Norm Flowers said. “Back in those days there weren’t any shootings. Maybe someone got beat up or a knife was pulled on you, but no killings.”

Nevertheless, Norm Flowers left home and enlisted in the Marine Corps, where he saw duty in Vietnam. After his discharge, he returned to college and was married in 1970. Two years later he returned to coach at his alma mater.

Aaron was born in 1975, but about a year later, Norm Flowers and his wife, Betty, divorced. Both parents have since remarried and Aaron, now 16, remains close to each, splitting time between households.

Betty moved to Huntington Beach when Aaron entered junior high, but there was never a doubt in either parent’s mind that he would attend Artesia, where he had been a ball boy for several years. Norm Flowers continues to live in Lakewood, which is Aaron’s declared residence.

“I didn’t want him sheltered somewhere,” Norm Flowers said. “Artesia High is a melting pot. We have every ethnic group attending here. He has to learn how to cope in life with all situations. If you put a kid in a selected environment, you lose something. Besides, going here was in his blood.”

Betty and her husband, Bill Ackerman, have been supportive of Aaron and the Pioneer program. Betty compiled the team’s game program and Bill is the Pioneer cameraman.

At Artesia High, the relationship between father and son takes center stage. Said Principal Yusem: “They are a dedicated pair to each other. They’re committed to helping each other. There’s a tremendous amount of love and caring they share.”

Norm Flowers has gone to great lengths to maintain that relationship. For instance, Artesia does not hold Saturday morning practices, as many schools do, so the father and son won’t miss their weekly surfing outings.

“We have been so close for so long,” Norm Flowers said. “I never wanted anyone to think he was getting a break because he was my son . . . I like him as a person. If he quit football tomorrow, I would still like him as a person.”

Uncanny similarities between the two sometimes appear.

“It’s like having Norm on the field,” said former Pioneer Coach Vince La Rosa, a close family friend and now an Artesia assistant. “Can you imagine what kind of an advantage that is to have a quarterback out there who thinks exactly as the coach does most of the time?”

Norm Flowers believes in keeping things simple. The offensive set consists of only four running plays and four wide receivers for Aaron to choose from. One receiver, Shawn Tippet, has caught 39 passes for 765 yards.

Aaron has the authority to call audibles and has done so effectively. Although injuries have cut down on its effectiveness, the offensive line has given Aaron time to throw.

Said Norm Flowers: “The mistakes that (the offensive line) has made are very few . . . I’m very pleased with the offensive line. Its effort makes the offense go.”

Even the defense is geared toward helping the Pioneer offense. Blitzing and stunting with no particular pattern, the defense is known as “Organized Confusion” and tries to get opponents to make mistakes. Occasionally, however, opponents make a big play.

“But that’s OK,” the coach said. “I told the kids, they’re going to get burned every so often, but they won’t beat you with it. Our kids have so much confidence in the offense, they know we can score most of the time if we get the ball back.”

Aaron’s confidence continues to rise. When Artesia has the ball, he often looks to the sideline. There, surrounded by Artesia players in red and white uniforms, Aaron sees his father staring back at him intently wearing a thick gold chain around his neck with a charm that reads, “No. 1 Dad.”