THE COLLEGES / FERNANDO DOMINGUEZ : Season Has a Silver Lining for Antelope Valley’s Carder

Every so often, someone sticks a microphone or a note pad in front of a longtime coach who just reached another milestone for victories and begs to know the secret behind the success.

For the most part, the well-rehearsed stock answer goes something like this: “Well, I simply outlasted everyone else. That’s what happens if you hang around long enough.”

What many don’t mention, usually out of genuine modesty, is that longevity and failure don’t mix in coaching.

They are incompatible, like Roseanne and Tom, the NFL and Al Davis. Put a pushover team on the field and they’ll run you out of town faster than Lassie can down her lunch.

That has not happened, and never will, to Brent Carder.

Now in his 25th season as coach of the Antelope Valley College football team, Carder has been a fixture because he knows how to coach.

He knew how in 1974, when Antelope Valley won the first of two consecutive state championships, and he knew last year, when the overachieving Marauders played in their 13th bowl game.

He has 141 career victories--fifth among active junior college coaches--going into Saturday’s nonconference game against Ventura, and you can’t reach that kind of milestone on perseverance alone. Carder would have you believe otherwise.

“The people we are working with bring a lot of continuity and tradition to the program,” Carder said.

“I think the most wonderful thing, in terms of coaching, has been the relationships and the camaraderie we have here. I don’t want to sound corny, but in many ways, it’s like another family.”

To Carder, 53, family matters are a prevalent theme. He speaks proudly about assistant coaches who once played for him and how they returned to help the team.

He points out that he hired every person now associated with the school’s athletic program, including Marge Hulsizer, his secretary for 18 years.

And he mentions that his wife, Nan, attends all Marauder football games, and their three daughters still do whenever possible.

It’s all part of the makeup of a man who arrived in Lancaster with his family in 1946, when all 5,000 people in town probably knew each other and where old-time values were vigorously observed and protected.

By the time he became a highly regarded guard on the Antelope Valley High football team, Carder had been schooled in community togetherness.

“I don’t ever remember playing a high school or community college game without a packed stadium,” said Carder, who played for the Marauders in 1958 and ’59 and at UC Santa Barbara.

“The Kiwanis Club used to put on a game here (the Alfalfa Bowl) between junior college teams on Thanksgiving morning. The team that won our conference that season would play the winner from another conference. . . .The people would go to the game in the morning and then to their family dinner. It was wonderful.”

That event disappeared long ago, but not the memories for Carder. They need only a nudge to rush back in waves, one seemingly better than the other, but all equally gratifying.

From the two state titles to the seven conference championships, from the nine bowl victories to the 15 All-Americans he has coached, they are all dear to Carder but perhaps not as rewarding as what his 1982 squad accomplished.

“We had only 31 players and we finished second in the (Foothill) conference,” Carder said. “I don’t think I’ve had a team that played more to its potential than that group of kids.”

Carder’s ability to mold athletes into better players and human beings will be one legacy the coach will leave when he calls it quits, although the thought hasn’t crossed his mind. Carder says there are too many things left to achieve, too many unfulfilled goals.

“I don’t think I’ve accomplished what I set out to do here,” he said, “which is to have a real solid football and athletic program, not only in terms of winning, but in helping our student-athletes develop more academically, to make a real positive impact on their lives that will carry over.”

That, in a nutshell, is the secret to one coach’s success.

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Radio daze: Want to catch an earful of Cal State Northridge football on the radio? Better live near campus.

Athletic department officials initially struck a broadcast deal with KMGX-FM of Mission Hills.

However, the station changed ownership on Sept. 9, the day before the Matadors opened against Boise State. When the station changed hands, the deal fell through, a Northridge spokesman said.

Northridge officials scrambled to find another station.

One possible candidate was found, but the station went with a slightly bigger draw. . . and decided to broadcast Notre Dame football instead.

Games now will be transmitted on the school station, KCSN 88.5 FM. The campus station can be picked up throughout much of the San Fernando Valley, but reception is often spotty.

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Deluge: The four members of the American West Conference--Northridge, Cal State Sacramento, Southern Utah and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo--are a combined 1-4 after last weekend’s games.

Saturday, the not-so-fearsome foursome was outscored, 160-77. It could have been worse, Sacramento defeated San Francisco State, 30-0.

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Body count: The crowd of 19,489 that watched host Boise State defeat Northridge, 40-19, last weekend was the third-largest throng ever to see a Matador game.

The 1993 opener against host San Diego State drew 40,872 at Jack Murphy Stadium. The largest home crowd in school history is 7,127, set at a game against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1990.

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New additions: Northridge last week added two players to its football roster.

Derek Brown, a sophomore transfer, was the backup quarterback last season at Orange Coast College and is expected to redshirt this season. Brown (6-2, 185) was recruited by Northridge as a senior out of Mayfair High in Lakewood.

Running back Rondell Cooper, a true freshman from Van Nuys High, also will redshirt. Cooper (5-10, 175) played last summer in the Daily News all-star game.