Football Is Always in His Blood : Preps: Gary Meek was a ball boy in grade school, played at San Diego State, now coaches Esperanza.

The roots of Gary Meek’s passion stretch to Boise, Ida. There, as a ball boy for the Bora High School team, he discovered football was an important part of his life.

The years since have fueled the fire.

Meek, Esperanza’s coach for the last seven seasons, watched the Aztecs’ spring practice game in June from a lawn chair. He was only two weeks removed from double-bypass surgery.

“I was just going there to watch,” Meek said.

Yeah, watch. Right.

“All of sudden, a player did something wrong and Gary got up and started walking the team through the play,” said Sharon Meek, his wife. “I yelled, ‘You sit down right now or you have to go home!’ I swear, if he could have had a VCR in the hospital, he’d have been watching game films.”

Such is Meek’s passion.

“I’ve always wanted to be involved in football,” Meek said. “I knew I didn’t have the ability to be a pro player, so coaching was the next best thing.”

For 38 years, from ball boy to player to coach, Meek has followed the path he mapped out for himself.

Sharon Meek remembers the apartment well. It was small--one bedroom--and had few luxuries. It was located above a construction office near the San Diego Sports Arena. And it was free.

Gary Meek, then a linebacker for San Diego State, just had to clean the office downstairs every other night and the place was theirs, a perk from a grateful booster. It was the beginning of a life together and it already involved football.

“We just lived and died football,” Sharon Meek said. “When the team was on the road, I’d get together with some of the other wives and we’d listen to the game. Our whole life revolved around football.”

Football is king in the Meek household, especially Esperanza football. Jeoff Meek, their 21-year old son, is an assistant coach for the Aztecs. Sharon, daughters Melissa (18) and Kristy (15) have become unofficial advisers.

“My oldest daughter was at the spring game and told me, ‘Dad, I think you need to work with the receivers more on catching the ball,’ ” Meek said. “When we lose a game, we’ll analyze what went wrong back home. Sometimes over dinner.”

Fortunately, for the family’s digestion, it doesn’t occur too often.

Meek, 45, is in his 18th year as a coach at Esperanza. He took over as head coach for Pete Yoder in 1986. A difficult task, really.

Yoder had built the Aztecs into a power. They won the Southern Section Division VI championship in 1979 and were runners-up in 1980 and 1982. But Meek has not lived in a shadow.

The Aztecs won the Division III title in 1990, finishing 14-0. They lost to Los Alamitos in the 1991 final, but were Division II co-champions with the Griffins last season.

Meek has a record of 65-17-4 with the Aztecs.

“When you inherit that success and that tradition, it can be tough,” Meek said. “But I think we’ve taken the program to the next level.”

Meek wears two pieces of jewelry in addition to his wedding band, the championship rings from 1990 and 1992. His car is cardinal red, same as the Aztec uniforms. The license plate frame reads, “Esperanza 1990, 14-0.”

“(Century Coach) Bill Brown told me that I’ve created a monster,” Meek said. “He said that the expectations are always going to be high now. You want expectations to be high.”

Bora High School sits on a plateau in Boise. The area is called the “bench.”

There, Coach Ed Troxel created a monster. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Lions won eight large school league titles, then the equivalent of the Idaho state championship.

Meek’s family lived next door to the Troxels and he befriended Ed Troxel’s son. Meek became a ball boy when he was in the second grade and remained one the next five years.

“That had a big influence on me,” Meek said. “You learn that winning attitude and it becomes in-bred. I saw high school football at its finest.”

Games against Boise, Bora’s rival, were always standing-room-only affairs with 10-12,000 fans crammed into the stadium.

“There were two levels in the Boise, down by the river and up on the plateau,” Meek said. “If you lived on the ‘bench’ you grew up wanting to be a Bora Lion.”

Meek never got a chance. His parents moved to Santa Ana when he was 12.

At first, he was devastated by the move. But it helped that he found another coaching legend. Dick Hill, Orange County’s record-holder for career victories, was the Santa Ana Valley coach.

Meek was a three-starter on the Falcon varsity. He played at Santa Ana College (Rancho Santiago) and San Diego State. When his career ended, he drifted into coaching, first at San Diego City College, then at Mater Dei.

Some wondered if Meek’s coaching career might come to an end last spring. He had undergone angioplasty in 1988 to clear the left artery near his heart. More blockage was found during his routine checkup.

He underwent double-bypass surgery in May.

Meek said doctors anticipated no further problems, so he returned to coaching. Rather quickly.

“You just have to know the man,” Esperanza Athletic Director Jim Patterson said. “He’d go crazy if he wasn’t able to coach. It’s hard to imagine Esperanza without Gary.”

The Meeks live near the school and can always be found at basketball, baseball and volleyball games.

Jeoff played football for the Aztecs, then came on as an assistant coach three years ago. Melissa played volleyball at the school, as does Kristy now.

It was a rainy day in 1990. Gary Meek sat in the Esperanza gym. He was trying to find a way to light a fire under his team. That night, the Aztecs were playing Los Alamitos, a team Meek had not beaten.

“I saw the banner from the school’s last football title,” Meek said. “I went home and got my pool pole and tore it down. That night, I finished my pregame speech, pulled the banner out from under my jacket and yelled, ‘That’s what we’re playing for.’ ”

The Aztecs won, 27-3.

Passion? Gary Meek has had it all his life, from Bora to Esperanza.