Youth Football Serves as Building Block for Success : The Key to Many Powerhouse Programs? High School Coaches Point to Strong Pop Warner Leagues

Lincoln, El Camino, Morse, Vista, Sweetwater and Helix have won at least three 2-A or 3-A football championships each in the past 20 years.

Coincidence? Not if you listen to Skip Coons.

Coons, the varsity coach at Serra High for the past six seasons, would love to one day add his school to a list of even one-time champions.

However, Coons knows what the others have that he doesn’t.

There is no Pop Warner football program in or around Tierrasanta, where Serra draws most of its 1,800 students.

“It’s like Arthur Murray trying to teach the fox-trot,” Coons said. “It takes a lot of time to develop a fundamentally sound football player and to teach him to play up to his potential.”

Feeder programs like Pop Warner football are keeping certain high schools well nourished. And the ones without are starving.

“You look at Lincoln, Morse, Vista, Sweetwater; it’s no secret why those schools win all the time,” Coons said. “All of them have had strong Pop Warner programs for years.”

Coons knows.

Before coming to Serra, he won the 1985 section 2-A title during one of his two years as the head coach at Lincoln. Before that, he was an assistant at Morse for eight years and a Pop Warner coach in Southeast San Diego for 13 years. Marcus Allen has been playing football since age 7. Coons was his first coach.

“You can tell me a lot things, but until you have been at Serra, you have no idea what it’s like,” he said. “When I was at Lincoln or Morse, we could take first-year guys and teach them plays on the very first day of practice. At Serra, the first thing I have to do every year is go into the locker room and explain where the pads go.

“I hate to even make this suggestion, but (Pop Warner) is sort of a farming system for the high schools,” said Coons, who cited Sweetwater and Chula Vista as other high schools that benefit from strong youth programs. “I don’t know how many other coaches would admit to it, but it’s true to a large degree.”

Coons is not alone. In fact, his assessments are shared by many around the county.

“Oh, there’s no question,” Lincoln Coach Vic Player said. “There is a definite correlation with the Pop Warner programs and the successful high school football teams.”

Said Bonita Vista Coach Jim Wilson: “I think it really hurts us. We don’t get many kids coming through Bonita who have played Pop Warner.”

And Vista Coach Dick Haines: “I’m not so sure about the other areas, but I think in the North County, the better schools are serviced by pretty good Pop Warner programs.”

Pop Warner is certainly not the only game in town, but it is the only one that offers tackle football.

Flag football is normally the alternative, and it has its advantages. It is considerably less expensive to field a flag team than a fully padded Pop Warner squad and, since Pop Warner has strict weight limitations, flag is sometimes the only alternative for some of the bigger kids.

Many recreation centers throughout the county offer flag leagues for various age groups, and most junior high schools teach flag football in their physical education classes.

Torrey Pines Coach Ed Burke said the San Dieguito Boys’ and Girls’ Club does a terrific job with its flag football program. He said 12 of his players coach in the league on Saturdays.

Catholic schools USDHS, St. Augustine and Marian have conducted parochial flag football leagues for years, hoping to attract future students to their campuses.

Most coaches claim any youth football experience is better than none at all, but there can be a drawback to flag football, according to USDHS Coach Ron Hamamoto.

“The flag football probably hurts us, because (the players) are not used to contact,” Hamamoto said. “When they get here, they’re still trying to pull flags when we’re trying to teach them how to tackle.”

Burke points out another issue--burnout--from his own experience as a father. One of his sons, Ralph, played Pop Warner for seven years, then never played in high school. His other son, Jim, never played tackle football until his four years in high school.

“I’m not against Pop Warner in any way,” Burke said. “But it is not the only means for a kid to enjoy football.”

In Pop Warner, there are 13 local associations in the San Diego County Assn. and there are a dozen North County programs in the Palomar Conference.

John Glover, the president of the San Diego County Assn. for the past nine years, said he encourages his various coaches and presidents to work closely with whatever school or schools are in the area.

“We think it’s a good thing,” said Glover, the grandfather of Point Loma defensive end La’Roi Glover. “We try to promote it. We encourage the Pop Warner associations to get in contact with the area high schools.

“A lot of the coaches like John Shacklett (at Morse) and Vic Player (at Lincoln) have put on clinics for Skyline and Valencia Park. Some of them help out in other ways, too, like fund-raising, equipment and speaking at banquets. It’s all been a very positive relationship.”

And often times, what goes around, comes around.

By and large, the traditional powerhouse Pop Warner programs have been in the areas where there are also strong high school programs.

Valencia Park has long been one of the top Pop Warner associations around, and its area high school--Lincoln--has won a record seven section championships.

According to Glover, the San Diego County Assn. gives a perpetual trophy to any program that wins three consecutive championships in the same division. There have been only four such trophies ever awarded and Valencia Park has three of them.

Pop Warner programs once had closer ties to the high schools. A number of factors have changed things over the years. There are, in fact, many who feel Pop Warner football reached its peak in San Diego in the 1970s.

Radio personalities Charlie and Harrigan used to coach in the Alvarado Pop Warner Assn. in the 1970s. With their help, KCBQ used to sponsor the Pop Warner championship games--still known as the Super Q Bowl--in San Diego Stadium.

There is a different scenario in the North County. When Don Trotter, the Palomar Conference president got into Pop Warner, there were only 43 teams. Today, after 20 consecutive years of growth, there are 80. And there would be many more but the Palomar Pop Warner Conference does not offer a junior bantam division because all North County high schools have freshman teams.

“We used to be much more involved in Pop Warner,” Lincoln’s Player said. “At one time, (Valencia Park) had our playbook. In those days, we went to every game. We spent entire Saturdays at Pop Warner games.

“But once they started busing, it became counterproductive. It angers me in a way, because we aren’t getting nearly the number of kids we used to get. But as long as the kids are benefiting . . .”

Jim Arnaiz, who has been at Helix for 19 years, said the old days of Pop Warner teams running the local high school’s offense and defense are all but finished.

“It used to be that way in many areas,” Arnaiz said, “but I don’t think you see that much any more. It just isn’t practical. There is so much turnover in (high school) coaching these days. There aren’t many who last more than 10 years.”

Often, said Glover, a league folds because there are no parents willing or able to run the program.

That was the case in Point Loma, Pointer Coach Bennie Edens said.

“Many years ago, we had a program, and I worked fairly close to them,” he said. “But it sort of faded away. There was no one around to pick up the slack once a few of the parents moved on.”

Edens added that he still gets a number of Pop Warner players from other areas.

“I haven’t felt that not having Pop Warner has hurt us,” he said. “But some of the kids we get from other areas do have Pop Warner experience, and they are some of the more skilled athletes on our team.”

Unlike Point Loma, schools such as Coronado, Clairemont, Mission Bay, Madison, University City and even La Jolla have experienced lean years since Pop Warner ceased to exist in their areas.

Schools such as Serra, Valhalla, Christian and many in the Metro Conference have either never had a Pop Warner program in their area or they “share” a relatively weak program with as many as four other schools. It is not a coincidence, those coaches will tell you, that those schools have not been among the county’s elite in football.

When Haines moved from Ohio in 1970, one of his priorities at Vista was to resurrect a failed Pop Warner program.

“It’s a top-notch program now,” Haines said. “We were very fortunate to have the kind of parents who were willing to work hard to make it that way. Some of these parents have been there for years and years and enjoy it like mad, just like dumb ol’ Coach Haines.”

It stands to reason that a player who has had some kind of tackle football experience as a youngster is better prepared to play high school football.

“Repetitions are a key to learning,” Haines said. “And the more reps they can get early-on are going to have an affect later when they get into high school.”

Said Player: “(Pop Warner players) are way above the other kids in terms of development. The unnatural aspect of contact and the discipline and physical conditioning it takes to play football, they’re prepared for that.”

Each year at Serra, Coons says, there are two or three players who have gone through Pop Warner.

Where Pop Warner Football Players Go

SAN DIEGO COUNTY POP WARNER ASSN.

Pop Warner High School(s) in Area Alvarado Patrick Henry Chula Vista Chula Vista, Castle Park, Hilltop East San Diego San Diego El Cajon El Cajon Valley, Granite Hills, Valhalla Grossmont-La Mesa Grossmont, Helix Imperial Beach Mar Vista, Southwest, Montgomery Kearny Mesa Kearny Los Toros Mt. Miguel Mira Mesa Mira Mesa Santee-Lakeside Santana, West Hills, El Capitan Skyline Morse South Bay Sweetwater Valencia Park Lincoln

PALOMAR CONFERENCE POP WARNER ASSN.

Pop Warner High School(s) in Area Carlsbad Carlsbad Escondido San Pasqual, Escondido, Orange Glen Fallbrook Fallbrook Oceanside Oceanside, El Camino Poway Poway Ramona Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Bernardo R.Penasquitos Mt. Carmel San Dieguito Torrey Pines, San Dieguito San Marcos San Marcos Valley Center Orange Glen, Escondido, San Pasqual Vista Vista, Rancho Buena Vista