Nordhoff Welcomes Dawn of a New Era : Prep football: School confident program has turned corner after winning first outright title since 1938.

When Nordhoff High assistant football coach Dan Musick was hired by the Ojai Unified School District 12 years ago, he told the board that he wanted to bring a championship to the school.

“The reaction was incredulous,” Musick remembers. “There were a lot of snickers and laughs. No one believed me.”

The laughter seemed appropriate given the history of the Nordhoff program, which was founded in 1924. The Rangers had not won an outright league championship since 1938 and the banners celebrating co-championships in 1957 and 1966 hang almost unnoticed on the walls of the Nordhoff gym.

But Musick has had the last laugh. This year the Rangers posted a 7-3 overall record and won all four of their Frontier League games to earn the school’s first outright league championship in more than a half-century. Nordhoff will play in its first postseason game in nine years when it plays host to Morningside in a Southern Section Division VIII contest Friday night.

And winning has sparked a community interest that long has been absent in Ojai. The Rangers are averaging more than 3,000 a game at Ojai Valley Community Stadium, a facility that seats only 2,200. After earning a school-record $7,000 for a home game against Santa Paula, Athletic Director Jack Smith is beginning to consider ways to expand the stadium.

“People are excited,” said Steve Olsen, an Ojai city councilman and an All-Southern Section center and linebacker on the 1966 Nordhoff championship team. “They are talking about Nordhoff football again. In 1966, it was a large community affair. After we won, we had a parade downtown.”

Much of the credit for turning around the program belongs to head Coach Cliff Farrar. When he arrived on campus in 1987, morale was low and nearly everyone on campus and in the community associated the Rangers with losers.

“It’s been difficult,” Farrar said, “but this is sure gratifying.”

Farrar laid the groundwork for success by reviving the town’s youth football program and emphasizing the junior varsity program. Under Coach Lee Burns, the junior varsity has posted back-to-back winning seasons, including a 9-1 record this year.

Continuity in the coaching staff also has helped stabilize the program. Musick, Burns and assistant Tyson Hardman have spent five years with Farrar.

Still, there was little at the beginning of the season to suggest that Nordhoff was ready to make its move. Farrar’s career record at the school was 10-30, including a 1-17 mark in Frontier League play in the previous four years.

Moreover, the season began with a 32-13 loss to Moorpark, a team that failed to win again. After six weeks, Nordhoff was 3-3.

“Each loss we’ve suffered (to Moorpark, Oak Park and Carpinteria in nonleague games), has helped the kids to see what weaknesses they had and what they needed to improve upon to win,” Farrar said. “It’s been a neat progression each week.”

This year’s team also has benefited from changes Farrar made in coaching tactics. Farrar brought the run-and-shoot offense to Nordhoff from Fallbrook High, which won a San Diego Section title while Farrar served as offensive coordinator. The Rangers responded by breaking every significant school passing record in a three-year period even as the losses piled up.

Last year, seeing that he had some good running backs, an inexperienced sophomore, Steve Saum, at quarterback, and the makings of a strong offensive line, Farrar scrapped the run-and-shoot in favor of a ball-control offense.

The Ranger running game sparkled at times last season before flourishing this fall. Nacho Vega has rushed for 918 yards and has scored 15 touchdowns, both Nordhoff single-season records, and could become the school’s first 1,000-yard rusher.

“So much has changed,” said tackle Charlie Leikam, who played for Nordhoff in 1989 when the school won just one game. “There was a lot of talent here a couple of years ago, but they all stuck to themselves. This year, it’s like a bunch of your buddies together.”

Added linebacker Jim Barrett: “We had no team unity. We fought constantly. No one felt we could win.”

This year, however, the Rangers have proved they can. Farrar, for one, believes Nordhoff’s past is just that--past.

“It shouldn’t take us another 25 years to win the league championship again,” he said.