Characteristically Blunt : Cousins Stay at Home, Keep San Fernando Football Tradition Alive

Sean Blunt, then a rangy 17-year-old defensive back at San Fernando High, was asked by a teacher 10 years ago what his plans were for college and thereafter.

Blunt looked off into the distance and said: “I’m going to play college ball, get my degree in P.E., then come back and coach football at San Fernando High.”

The teacher, Bill Frazer, was impressed. That’s some story, if it turns out as planned, Frazer thought. I’ve got a Tiger by the tale.

At an age when many teen-agers don’t know whether to thumb their noses at college or do the same to the work force, Blunt had his future all mapped out. Or so campus legend goes.

“I was just talking to hear myself talk,” Blunt said at a recent practice. “I didn’t have any idea what I was going to do. I was no different from any other snot-nosed kid.”

To most in the coaching ranks, he is still exactly that. Only 27, Blunt has taken over the storied program at San Fernando, his alma mater. But to heck with class reunions, this is a family reunion.

Sean is only the second-most famous Blunt affiliated with the team. His second cousin, Leon Blunt, is a highly regarded quarterback who is challenging several school records. Not to mention Sean’s memory bank.

“I vaguely remember his father, my first cousin,” Sean said. “I maybe met Leon once when he was an infant, in diapers. I’m not sure.”

Swaddling clothes are now toddling clothes, but they’ll be cutting their teeth together.

*

The wood is so new, it still smells of sap. Things take time to mend in the Los Angeles Unified School District, so nobody was really holding his breath.

The press box at San Fernando High, burned to a crisp more than a year ago in the wake of the Rodney King verdicts, is finally being rebuilt. Charbroiled lumber is being replaced by new framework and 2x4s. Slowly.

“Part of the bad old days,” Blunt said, eyeing the structure.

There haven’t been many bad Friday nights at San Fernando, which has sent most teams home stamped Return to Cinder.

The Tigers are 216-108-8 over the past four decades. Moreover, of the 16 other City Section schools in the Valley, none have winning records against San Fernando, which played its first game in 1914.

Blunt has firsthand knowledge of the Tiger tradition. He was an All-City selection as a senior in 1983 and was one of many to earn a college scholarship--in his case, to Nevada Las Vegas.

Oh, yes, he is a believer. In his time, Blunt was a Tiger front man.

His senior year, Blunt and his girlfriend, Kim, were voted cutest couple. She was a San Fernando cheerleader. They wrote open poems to one another in the school yearbook, sort of.

“Well, she actually wrote my poem from me to her,” Blunt said. “But she crystallized my thoughts.”

Another thing is crystal clear. Blunt and San Fernando have become even more inextricably intertwined. Sean and Kim were married over the summer in Las Vegas, six weeks before the season opener.

This guy’s clearly big on familiarity. He surrounded himself with experienced personnel, including several holdovers from the staff of former Coach Tom Hernandez, such as Dwight Chapman and his former high school teammate, Chris Richards.

“There’s something to be said for loyalty,” Blunt said.

That’s a two-way street. Blunt was added to Hernandez’s staff three years ago as an assistant, then was promoted to defensive coordinator last season. When Hernandez resigned after last season to spend more time with his family, Blunt was the logical replacement. Hernandez, another former Tiger player, finished with a record of 73-43-2 and the most coaching victories in school history.

Blunt’s task is to keep the program from slipping. Over the past few seasons, more and more athletes from the San Fernando attendance area have played elsewhere. For instance, when Leon was at Maclay Junior High in San Fernando, his classmates included standouts Vince Carthron (Kennedy), Jerry Brown (Taft), DaShon Polk (Taft) and Johnnie Brown (formerly of Poly).

Before his sophomore year, Leon gave serious thought to enrolling at Sylmar, which is located just a few miles to the north.

“That’s what’s really screwed us up,” Leon said. “Taft, Poly, Sylmar. They all have guys from here.

“They get the wrong impression before they ever get here. I made the right decision. I don’t know if others feel that way, but it was right for me.”

Players, of course, gravitate toward the team that has the hot hand. A rival school is just a bus ride away.

“Winning helps keep ‘em at home,” Sean Blunt said. “That’s evident at Sylmar.”

When Sean was in grade school, he used to hang around the high school locker room, watching Tigers such as Malcolm Moore, who later played in the NFL, suit up for the big game. He hopes to instill the same sense of pride in the program, which routinely draws the biggest crowds on the Valley floor.

“People from the community know me,” he said. “They know I’m from here, that I’m a hometown guy. I hope they want to send their kids here.

“I grew up here. That’s a big edge for me.”

Not always for Leon, though. The San Fernando area isn’t exactly the most forgiving part of the Valley, which could account for some players’ desire to attend school elsewhere.

The crime and unemployment rates are high. Gangs are a persistent problem. Even the athletes, normally given a wide berth, aren’t immune from danger.

On a warm summer night in 1992, Leon and Johnnie Brown had just finished working out in Lake View Terrace when a car raced up and nearly hit them as they walked along the curb.

An alarm went off in Leon’s head. A moment later, so did the lights.

“We know that neighborhood pretty good, so we feel pretty free to go out,” Leon said. “But we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Several gang members jumped out of the car and started chasing the pair. Brown yelled out, “We don’t bang.”

A gang member yelled back, “We don’t give a . . .”

Blunt’s legs, tired from the workout, cramped. He slipped and fell. As he tried to crawl away, gang members took turns playing soccer with his head.

He was woozy. His jaw was broken.

A police squad car drove up and chased the gang members away. The cavalry had arrived, just in the nick of time. The cops took off in hot pursuit before Blunt could thank them.

“The police saved us that night,” Leon said. “The (gang members) had guns, and they were going to shoot us. We got lucky.”

It might have been the last time anybody caught Leon, a three-year starter, from behind.

While one Blunt is just getting his feet wet, another is climbing up the school yardage charts like rising floodwater. Leon entered his senior year ranked among school career leaders in several rushing and passing categories, lists that include the names Charles White and Anthony Davis.

At his current pace, Leon could finish his career ranked second only to Davis in total offense, which would surprise exactly nobody who has seen Blunt play. He has a way of creating something out of nothing.

Spontaneity is his forte, creativity his calling card. There are few X’s, plenty of Ohs, and for the singed defense, just as many Whys?

“I can appreciate a good athlete on another team,” Granada Hills co-Coach Tom Harp said. “He dances around, scoots and scrambles as good as anybody I’ve seen in this league.”

Leon’s a bottle rocket. The more the defense tries to bottle him up, the more he explodes.

“I don’t like to be in the pocket,” he said. “I like to roll out where it’s safe. I’ve never been comfortable in the pocket. You can’t see ‘em coming.”

You can usually see him going. When Leon was playing Pop Warner ball, he was the quarterback in obvious passing situations and the running back when the run was the logical call. His youth coach should get the good-grooming award: Leon led the Tigers in passing (953 yards) and rushing (574) last year and accounted for 25 touchdowns with his arm or legs. Sometimes both.

Leon (5-foot-9, 180 pounds) is perfectly suited to run San Fernando’s wishbone and option sets, and thrives under pressure. Halftime is have time. Last season, he led the Tigers to victory by erasing intermission deficits of 21 points by Taft and 14 by El Camino Real.

Two weeks ago, Leon orchestrated two scoring drives as San Fernando (1-1) scored twice in the final five minutes to beat Fremont, 19-14, handing his cousin his first coaching victory.

When Leon flicks off the safety--not to mention the cornerback--duck.

“You’re never out of the ballgame when he’s at the trigger,” Sean said. “That’s when the real players show up. When the going gets tough, we put the ball in his hands.”

Leon was selected the Northwest Valley Conference’s most valuable offensive player as a junior. He also earned All-City Section honors and later was named to the Cal-Hi Sports state all-underclass team.

He didn’t exactly spend the off-season sitting around getting fat and happy or resting on his laurels. Or resting at all. Leon’s workouts are as twisted as they are novel.

“I like to keep my stuff straight for the ladies,” he said, flashing a grin. “I want to look good, so you got to put in the time.”

Blunt gained 10 pounds from last season, mostly in his legs. He purchased a small parachute to be used for added resistance during sprints. What’s more, he used an automobile tire to help add speed to his own wheels.

He took the tire, replete with rim, and attached it with a rope to a belt around his waist then dragged it over short distances to build stamina.

“I just thought about it and wondered whether it would work,” he said. “I guess I could have just done squats in the weight room, but I can feel the speed building up.”

The cousins, who have never been particularly close and were only vaguely aware of one another until two or three years ago, have been building a relationship ever since. It evolved further when Sean took over the helm.

Leon is a handful, to be sure. He is bright and inquisitive--he satisfied NCAA requirements on the Scholastic Aptitude Test as a sophomore--and talkative.

“It’s been an adventure,” Sean said. “He keeps me focused as a coach. He challenges me, mentally and physically. Him being my cousin makes it more difficult.”

Leon thinks he gets singled out because Sean doesn’t want the other players to think the quarterback receives special treatment. Nepotism, heck. Despotism is more like it.

“I think he dogs me a little more because he doesn’t want people to think he’s soft on me,” Leon said. “He treats me worse.”

Replied the coach, laughing: “I keep telling him, ‘This is my thing and it will be done my way.’ I’ve told him a hundred times, ‘Cousin, when you look good, I look good.’ ”

San Fernando Career Offensive Leaders

Player Years Rush. Pass. Rec. Yards Anthony Davis 1968-71 2732 2937 6 5675 Kenny Moore 1973-75 1842 2239 143 4224 Michael Wynn 1987-89 572 2486 32 3058 Leon Blunt 1991-93 1041 1987 0 3028 Roy Woods 1935-38 1800 1200 0 3000* Joe Mauldin 1985-87 605 2222 32 2853 Stephen Jones 1977-78 938 1899 0 2837 Chris Richards 1981-83 2567 0 241 2808 Kevin Williams 1973-75 2366 152 165 2683 LaKarlos Townsend 1989-91 2150 0 411 2561 Charles White 1974-75 2315 37 225 2557

* Approximated because of inadequate records of that era.

Source: School historian Bill Frazer.