Treibatch Revises His Return Date

When Cal State Northridge safety Eric Treibatch suffered a ruptured a disk in his lower back in June, it appeared that his college football career was over.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Treibatch said. “I thought, ‘You can’t take it away.’ To end on a note like last year (3-7 record) . . . I didn’t want to finish like that.”

Over the next three weeks, Treibatch could not live with the pronouncement by his doctor that he would never play again.

After undergoing examinations by three other doctors he found one who agreed to operate.

Since the July 29 procedure, on Treibatch’s 23rd birthday, he has been defying the odds.

“They said I would be in the hospital three days. I was out in one day,” Treibatch said. “They said I wouldn’t be in the weight room for three weeks. I was in there in 10 days. They said I wouldn’t run for six weeks and I ran in two weeks.”

Treibatch is determined to be rehabilitated before the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo game on Oct. 24, the target date for his return.

“You don’t know what you have until it is gone,” he said. “When you finally understand, it’s too late.”

A 1987 graduate of Montclair Prep, Treibatch is a sixth-year senior. He redshirted in 1987, played in ‘88, suffered a torn ligament in his knee in ’89 (and gained another redshirt season), and played in ’90 and ‘91, earning second-team Western Football Conference honors both seasons.

An avid volleyball player, Treibatch injured the disk while playing in a two-man indoor league.

“It wasn’t just volleyball,” Treibatch said. “It would have happened anyway. I have really flat feet and when you run it compresses your spine. It could be this ground (the CSUN practice field) that slowly tore away at the disk.”

When Treibatch does play, probably sometime next month, he will be taking a risk. If he damages the disk again, it would have to be fused, requiring as much as a year in post-surgical recovery time.

STYLE CHANGE

The Northridge soccer team will display a new brand of futbol this season and Coach Marwan Ass’ad figures it not only will benefit the Matadors’ win-loss record, it could boost attendance.

Ass’ad explained that the Matadors have junked their previous Euro-German style of play in favor of a South American style.

In the Euro-German game, the object is to move the ball forward at all times, even if it means that a team must send long, hard-to-control passes downfield simply to clear the ball out of its end of the field.

The South American style, in contrast, involves more precise, controlled passing to advance the ball. A team is not afraid to keep the ball in its end of the field in this style.

“In the Euro-German game, they let the forwards fight for the ball,” Ass’ad said. “In the South American game, you get the ball up the field by passing, passing, passing.”

Ass’ad hopes that the Matadors’ new style will attract more spectators to their matches.

“I think members of the (Latin American) community will really like the way we play,” Ass’ad said. “I think they will see the way we play, and say, ‘This is a good game. This is good for the soul.’ ”

ADD ASS’AD

Some coaches might adopt a new system and leave it at that, but not the animated Ass’ad.

He figured if his team was going to play a South American style of soccer, he ought to learn more about the cultures behind it.

So he started listening to salsa music about two years ago, when he was in New York, “hanging with some Puerto Ricans,” and his appreciation for the music has grown immensely since assistant coach and former CSUN player Juan Flores began living with the Ass’ad family.

“I figured if we were going to play that kind of soccer, then I had to eat up some of the culture to be that kind of player and coach,” Ass’ad said. “Now I listen to it all the time.”

GRADUATE SCHOOL

One of the factors that weighed heavily in cornerback Ralph Henderson’s decision to transfer from Rancho Santiago College to Northridge was the opportunity to be instructed by CSUN defensive back coach LeRoy Irvin, a former Ram Pro Bowl player.

“I came here to get a good education and to learn from the best,” Henderson said of Irvin.

A savvy cover man with speed and a knack for reading receivers’ moves, Henderson earned a starting position despite his late-August arrival.

FIGHTING WORDS

An item written by Times columnist Allan Malamud is posted on the bulletin board in the Northridge football locker room. Apparently, the Matadors took offense at Malamud’s contention that a Cal State Fullerton win over Northridge was a “sure thing.”

CAUTIOUS WORDS

CSUN Coach Bob Burt is not nearly as confident a prognosticator. Already, he is tempering remarks about David Romines, the freshman from Simi Valley High who will return punts and back up starting flanker Scott Hamilton today against Fullerton.

“(Romines is) coming along,” Burt said. “You never want to get too high too soon and you never want to get too low too soon. He is just proving himself.”

Burt’s comments about his team’s chances today are equally cautious.

“I think we have better talent than we had overall last year,” he said. “We have a much better attitude and we are working harder. So, if those are the ingredients of success, then we should be successful.

“We will find out (today). And that doesn’t mean we have to win (today), necessarily, to find out if we are a better football team this year.”

Staff writers Theresa Munoz and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.