They Are Trying to Step Up a Notch : Prep football: With another new coach, the St. Francis Golden Knights will try to become a contender again.

Catholic high schools in Southern California often gain their reputations by what they do on the football field.

Loyola, La Puente Bishop Amat and Santa Ana Mater Dei are among the area’s best known Catholic schools, and all have been football powers for years.

When Mater Dei beat Rialto Eisenhower for the Southern Section Division I title in 1991, a crowd of 33,204 watched at Anaheim Stadium. Bishop Amat defeated Loyola in last year’s Division I championship before a full house at Cerritos College.

Watching the last 15 years has been St. Francis, an all-boys’ school just off the 210 freeway in La Canada. The Golden Knights have not been a serious football threat since Coach Jack Friedman led them to consecutive Southern Section lower division championships in 1963 and ’64.

Coaches have routinely come and gone since Friedman resigned in 1978, and St. Francis has dropped from a Division I power to a Division IV cellar dweller.

Last season was a low point, as the Golden Knights were outscored, 216-67, and finished with a 3-6 record. They suffered embarrassing defeats at the hands of Loyola, 42-0, and Mater Dei, 37-0, opponents many in the school wish they could emulate.

With an enrollment of 630, St. Francis is not the smallest Catholic school in the Southland. In fact, it is near capacity, having turned away many of the 300 who applied for admission last spring.

And although football has not been a bright spot, others sports at the school have prospered, including soccer and basketball. But because football is the most visible sport, it has caused the school and its alumni the greatest embarrassment.

St. Francis was run by Father Laurence Caruso from 1990 until July. Caruso loved football and yearned to build St. Francis back into a power. In 1991, he replaced Bill Garrison with Andy Boynton as the school’s football coach. Boynton, 30, had been a highly regarded assistant at Mater Dei.

In his first season, Boynton led St. Francis to a 5-6 record and a berth in the Division VII playoffs. The Golden Knights lost to Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills in the first round.

“Father Caruso and I got along very well my first season,” Boynton said. “We talked all the time and became good friends. I was grateful to him for giving me a head coaching job. But as our record went downhill, so did our relationship.”

St. Francis moved from Division VII to Division IV in 1992, and a rash of injuries hurt the team. Although they won their first two games, the Golden Knights lost six of their next seven after senior quarterback Rudy Martinez suffered a season-ending injury.

Boynton used four quarterbacks in nine games. Still, he believed morale was high and that the program was headed in the right direction.

Caruso, since transferred to Long Beach St. Anthony High, apparently felt otherwise. He fired Boynton after the season. John Yakel, the school’s baseball coach and athletic director, also was released last spring.

Boynton, who is now the coach at Duarte, said when he was hired at St. Francis he was told it was with the intent to bring the school back to its glory. He says two years were not enough time to rebuild a program.

“Father Caruso told me he was firing me because he was not happy with the direction of the program,” Boynton said. “I was let go because we didn’t win more games. To say I was bitter was putting it mildly.”

Caruso says that was not the case.

“I hired Andy because I wanted to go with a younger coach,” he said. “Things just didn’t work out. I saw a disintegration in the morale of the kids. Their potential was not being fully used, and I realized I needed to make a change.”

Before leaving St. Francis, Caruso finished restructuring the athletic department by promoting Chris Noonan, cross-country and track coach, to athletic director, and hiring Bill Redell to coach football.

Redell, 52, coached at Encino Crespi in 1982 and again from 1985-88, when running back Russell White was at the school.

Crespi won the Southern Section Big-Five championship in 1986, and Redell compiled a 43-16-1 record in five seasons.

Redell, who manages an insurance company in South Pasadena, has been out of coaching for the last four years. He said he drives by St. Francis every day on the way from his home in Westlake Village to his business and thought it would be the perfect job if it ever became available.

“I am aware that the program is down,” Redell said. “We beat them every year I was at Crespi, and I know they’ve had a lot of coaching changes. But I also know this is a quality school, and if they can get some consistency in their program they will win.”

Redell was hired last March and has been putting in long hours reorganizing the program. His first order of business was to hire a staff, and he said he has 21 coaches to help run the freshman, sophomore and varsity teams. His staff includes former UCLA quarterback Jim Bonds and former USC lineman Chuck Arrobio, who played for the Minnesota Vikings in 1966.

The new coach got acquainted with his team during spring drills. Redell said he immediately started a weightlifting class at 6:30 a.m., which raised a few eyebrows.

The opener is Sept. 10 against Burbank Burroughs.

“This team has a lot of work to do,” Redell said. “And the school must understand that for a program to be successful in Southern California, a lot of sacrifices have to be made. These players have to be mentally tougher. That does not happen overnight.”

The early returns are encouraging. Meetings with parents of the players have been positive. More than 70 freshmen are out for football, double the number of last season. Attendance in the weight room was high all summer.

Noonan, the new athletic director, said the school’s new administration is committed to rebuilding the football team. He hopes a more competitive team will result in higher gate receipts and more donations from alumni. Those funds might be used to increase the size of the stadium, which holds only 3,000.

Redell cautions not to expect miracles, however. St. Francis returns to the Division IV Mission League, and its nonleague schedule includes Loyola, Mater Dei and Pasadena.

“I really don’t know how to read the season,” Redell said. “There’s a lot of work to be done here.”