FOOTBALL ’93 : For Past 9 Years, It Has Been Friday Knights to Forget : Preps: Since competing in a 1983 Southern Section playoff game, Bishop Montgomery’s football program is 35-52-2.

The Bishop Montgomery High athletic program is competitive in virtually every sport it fields a team, and outstanding in some. The girls’ basketball team, for example, reached the 1992 State Division II championship game.

But Bishop Montgomery’s performance in football--the most visible high school sport--has endured a long slump. First-year Coach Matt Giacalone takes over a program that has not won a league title or competed in a Southern Section playoff game since 1983.

That year, the Knights won the Camino Real League title and advanced to the Northwestern Conference final, losing to Canyon of Canyon Country, 40-24. Since then, Bishop Montgomery is 35-52-2 and 10-35 in league play. In 1992, the Knights were 2-6-2 and finished last in the Mission League with an 0-5 record.

Opinions vary on what has gone wrong with the Catholic school’s football program.

One answer is quality competition. After the 1983 championship-game appearance under former coach Bill Norton, the Knights were moved from the Camino Real League and placed in the powerful Angelus League, which competed at the highest level in the Big Five Conference, the equivalent of today’s Division I.

For Bishop Montgomery, which has an enrollment of 1,510, the results were dismal: six league victories in six years.

“Going into the Angelus League was the biggest downfall for Bishop Montgomery,” said Steve Carroll, the Knight coach from 1989-91 and now the coach at Lakewood Mayfair High.

“You can’t blame the coaching,” said Norton, now the coach at Pierce College. “I started off the trend of losing in the Angelus League; my (four-year league) record was 0-19.”

During Norton’s seven seasons as coach, from 1977-83, Bishop Montgomery reached the playoffs three times--his first year and last two. In those three seasons, the school competed in the Camino Real League. The middle four seasons were spent in the Angelus League, where the Knights lost every game against the likes of Bishop Amat, St. Paul, Servite and Mater Dei.

Andy Szabatura became Bishop Montgomery coach in 1984 and found Angelus competition as rough as Norton did. The Knights defeated Bishop Amat in Szabatura’s first season, but his five-year league record was 6-18.

Szabatura felt Bishop Montgomery could not compete in the Angelus League because it didn’t field separate defensive and offensive teams. The Knights’ two-way players, Szabatura said, were worn down by the physical play of larger squads that could afford to play two-platoon football.

Carroll succeeded Szabatura and was 0-4 in the Angelus League before the school was moved to the Mission League in 1990.

“Bishop Montgomery did not have the athletes to compete with the other (Angelus League) schools,” Carroll said. “When your school starts losing, the interest from kids outside the school starts to dwindle.”

Carroll guided the Knights to their only winning season in the last 10 years in 1991, when they finished 6-4, 3-3 in the Mission League.

“I have great memories of the kids,” Carroll said. “If everybody at that school put in the same time and effort as the players and coaches, Bishop would never have a problem.”

Carroll left the school after the 1991-92 school year because he had “taken the program as far as people would let it go.”

Carroll would not elaborate, but other coaches have been frustrated by Bishop Montgomery’s strict policies regarding admissions requirements and transfers.

Carroll’s exit began a turnover that resulted in Bishop Montgomery having three coaches in three years. Bob Tompson succeeded Carroll but left after one year.

Tompson, who now coaches defensive backs at Occidental College, had coached at Murphy, Pius X, and Bishop Montgomery in successive years. Neither he nor Brother Tom Fahy, the principal, would comment on his short stay, except for Fahy saying that “it didn’t work out.”

The turnover may have ended with rookie coach Giacalone, who coached previously at Temple City, St. Paul and St. Monica, and at Bishop Montgomery in the mid-1980s under Szabatura.

“As far as I’m concerned, the turnover is over,” said Giacalone, who was at Bishop Montgomery last year as the school’s dean of boys, a position he still holds. “I have no intention of leaving Bishop Montgomery.”

All of the past coaches interviewed said the Knights should be able to compete in the Mission League--if they get quality players and keep them in the program, which has been a recurring problem.

Most recently, tailback Eric Chaney transferred to Hawthorne after leading Bishop Montgomery in rushing in 1992 with 706 yards and nine touchdowns.

“I mainly left to get more exposure,” Chaney said. “When I was leaving (at the semester), they weren’t sure who was going to be coach and the program seemed to be going downhill.”

Justin Stallings, cousin and teammate of Chaney, is a preseason All-American wide receiver at Hawthorne. He was denied admission to Bishop Montgomery as an eighth-grader.

“I would have gone there, but I guess it was the grades,” Stallings said.

Quarterback George Malauulu was enrolled at the school, then left for Carson and played for Arizona from 1989-92. Lineman Kevin Jones left for South Torrance and went on to San Diego State. Defensive lineman Brandon Johnson left to play for Banning. All three were eventually named to The Times’ South Bay All-Star team.

Besides attracting and keeping players, some coaches believe South Bay football has declined, with the notable exceptions of Hawthorne, Carson and Banning.

“I’m not sure if football is the No. 1 priority at Bishop Montgomery,” Norton said. “And I don’t know if it should be. More importance is placed on football at an Angelus League school than at a beach school. When I was an assistant at St. Paul (in the mid-1970s), I know that all anyone wanted to talk about was how the football team did that week.”

Sometimes the Knights have lacked support. Christian Maumalanga was an all-star player at the school from 1987-89 and is a starting defensive tackle at Kansas. He said the community needs to get behind the program.

“There are so many variables,” Maumalanga said. “It requires a collective effort from the whole Bishop Montgomery family. Football wasn’t a priority at the school. Students would go to games just to see where that night’s parties would be. At away games, it would just be parents and friends. It was like you were all alone.”

Szabatura praised the efforts of boosters, but said a defeatist attitude existed.

“It was almost an attitude that they couldn’t win, at least not in the Angelus,” Szabatura said. “We had to tell people to stop telling our kids they can’t win.”

Jerry Aguilar, an active booster and volunteer field assistant to Giacalone, says that attitude has changed.

“I think we have great support,” Aguilar said. “Last weekend the boosters painted the football stands.

“I think we’ll surprise a lot of people. I’ve seen coaches come and go and I’ve heard a lot of lectures, but this time the players are genuinely excited.”

Giacalone said that 200 of the school’s 700 boys are out for football. The junior varsity has 50 players, more than twice as many as 1992.

For Bishop Montgomery’s seniors, who have had three varsity coaches, the consensus is that things are looking up.

“We like football a lot better,” senior quarterback Gary Thomas said. “Giacalone is interested in us as people and as players.”

The Knights open the season at St. Paul of Santa Fe Springs on Friday night. A capacity crowd is expected for the return of Coach Marijon Ancich, who guided St. Paul to four Southern Section finals and two titles in the 1970s and early ‘80s.

“(The Knights) are right back in the worst place they can possibly be,” said Norton, referring to St. Paul’s hostile field. “I wish them well, though. I hope they succeed, and they should. They are in a league they can compete in.”

Giacalone feels the same way.

“I won’t predict anything,” he said, “but these seniors are hungry and they want to win.”