He’s Low-Key After a High-Strung Career : Football: After years on the sideline, former Buena Park Coach Martin Luczaj is much more mellow and enjoying his life off the field.

Martin Luczaj said it over and over. He sat on that well-worn couch in the Buena Park High School athletic office and made a point of hammering home his point.

“I’m a low-key guy.”

Yeah, right. Martin Luczaj? Low-key?

Sure, and King Kong was a laid-back monkey. Godzilla was an insecure reptile.

Let’s face it, Luczaj didn’t resurrect the football programs at Fullerton and Buena Park with a Ward Clever approach. There was a method to his madness, to be sure, but it was madness all the same.

But here was Luczaj, one of the most intense coaches in Orange County, being warm and friendly, and smiling, even. And it’s football season.

What gives?

Well, for the first time in about 20 years, Luczaj doesn’t walk around with a whistle around his neck and a scowl on his brow. He’s not coaching football and, boy, does that make him mellow.

Luczaj, 39, stepped down as the Coyotes’ football coach in June for health reasons, namely a stomach that sent him little reminders every time he got riled up. At times, that meant a bellyache an hour.

But no more. He quit because of his health, but Luczaj has discovered plenty of other reasons since.

“I’ve never missed a football season since I got out of school,” Luczaj said. “I’ve coached every year, but I haven’t missed it one bit. I’m going places, enjoying my family and doing things I’ve never been able to do because I was coaching. It’s neat.”

Neat? Not a word expected from Luczaj. But this is a low-key guy.

Last spring, Luczaj was told he had an ulcer and needed to take life a little easier. That meant no more football.

A tough sentence for a man who loved the profession and was good at it. Everywhere Luczaj went, success happened.

In 1981, Luczaj took over a Fullerton program that had won three games in two years. He won the Freeway League title the first season and finished 13-1 the second, losing only to El Toro in the Central Conference championship game.

The Indians were 52-19 during his six seasons and won three league titles and one conference championship. After a stint as an assistant coach at Fullerton College, he took over at Buena Park, one of the county’s perennial losers.

The Coyotes had won only nine games in five the seasons before Luczaj’s arrival. They had also lost 28 consecutive league games from 1983-88.

Enter Luczaj in 1990. The Coyotes went 5-6 the first season and qualified for the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. Last season, they were 8-2-1 and won their first league title in 26 years.

Luczaj created these miracles by demanding extra effort, especially from himself. He put everything he could into his job. He repainted locker rooms, designed helmet logos and even built a new weight room at Buena Park.

He expected his players to give as much and the intensity was contagious. Luczaj’s peers respected him, but also thought him to be too brash and overly aggressive.

All of which had a less-than-desired effect in the long run.

“You look at the Dick Vermeils and the John Maddens, guys who coached the way I did, and it takes a toll on your stomach and things like that,” Luczaj said. “I put a lot of energy into it and was pretty emotional about it.

“When you coach like that, you take losses hard and blame yourself. You go home and rehash it, over and over again.”

These days, when Luczaj goes home, he drags nothing with him.

He never envisioned life without coaching. Yet, he has managed just fine without it.

There’s lawn work to be done and a few things around the house to fix. There are also places to go.

In July, Luczaj and his wife, Alisa, took a five-day vacation to Monterey. It was his first real vacation in nearly 20 years.

“We did everything up there,” he said. “We went to Salinas, Carmel and Monterey. It was just fun. You could never take a trip, even a five-day one, when you’re coaching. It’s a year-round profession.”

Luczaj also spends time with his new profession, mortgage loans. He has had a real estate license for 10 years.

“It fills the coaching void in a monetary way,” he said.

There are no plans to return to the field. Luczaj loved coaching and never felt he could do without it. But he gets no closer to the sport than the grandstands at Buena Park or his own couch.

“I probably watch more football on TV than I ever did,” he said. “I enjoy watching it more. I’m just enjoying myself. That’s why it’s nice to be low key.”