A Winning Attitude : Los Alamitos’ Streak Mean the Griffins Don’t Know What It’s Like to Be Losers

It was an innocent question. A just-wondering-type of thing.

A Los Alamitos High cheerleader approached the pep squad adviser and asked: “Mrs. Trujillo, what do we do when we lose a football game?”

“It wasn’t her fault, she had just never seen it happen,” Judy Trujillo said.

Heck, even Trujillo had to think.

“I told her, we go out on the field and congratulate our players and the other team,” she said. “We don’t cry or sob. When we go home, we hit our heads on the wall. But not at the game.”

It has been a long time between headaches.

Seniors have to dig deep into memories, back to those lowly freshman days. Juniors have yet to see one. Sophomores have only heard wild rumors that, indeed, the Griffins once lost a football game.

It has been 45 games without a loss, a high school lifetime. The school, community and, yes, even the players and coaches are quite aware of that. It would be impossible to ignore.

The effect has been positive and, at times, even a little silly.

Students are tuned in, fixated even, on events before, during and after each game. It transcends cliques. Yup, the metal-heads, skateboarders and surfers are on top of the situation.

People around town are keenly interested in the team. How are they doing? Who are they playing? How big will we win? Fans trickle in 1-1 1/2 hours before game time to get a good seat. And that’s not only the players’ parents.

Even the local airwaves are a buzz. Coach John Barnes has a show on local cable. It’s on several times a week, first live, then on tape. It’s Los Alamitos Television’s most-watched production, more popular than even the games.

So what’s more difficult than finding a Los Alamitos student who can remember the last defeat? Finding one who can’t rattle off how many times the team has won since.

“You can’t walk across campus without people telling you about the streak,” wide receiver/defensive back Brad Melsby said. “On game day, I leave my house and drive up Los Alamitos Boulevard. All the way up, there are signs for the team. It’s become a big event this year. When the streak is over, we know there will never be anything like it again.”

But don’t hold your breath. Neither the Griffins nor their fans are ready to call it a quits, not yet.

Said cheerleader McKenzie Commeau: “Every week, kids are asking, ‘Is this game going to be 56-0? Or is it going to be close, like 43-30?’ ”

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A streak has become The Streak this season.

Said Activities Director Jerry Halpin: “I went down to get a newspaper on a Saturday and overheard these guys in a barbershop. They were talking Los Alamitos football.”

Ah, but who isn’t?

Los Alamitos has always drawn well at football games, but the base has expanded the last three years. Approximately 10,000 turned out when the Griffins played host to Esperanza this season. And more than half were from Los Alamitos.

It’s more than parental duty and student fervor.

“Our neighbors come to every game and none of them has a kid on the team,” said Diane Atwood, who had one son on the team last season and another on it this season. “The community is wrapped up with this team. People who aren’t connected with the school come to games.”

And people who are connected get very involved. About 30 players’ parents went to see Esperanza play Huntington Beach this season, just to check out the competition.

“I think everyone is feeling Griffin pride,” Principal Carol Hart said.

Hart is feeling that pinch a little more than some.

She is fined for each Griffin victory by the local Rotary Club, whose meetings she attends every week. The Griffins went 14-0 last season and Hart had to dig deep.

“The team cost me a small fortune last year,” Hart said.

It’s worth it. Morale on the campus has never been higher, according to Hart. Student attendance at games has soared. Halpin estimated more than 1,100 students showed up for the Esperanza game, nearly half the student body.

He also sold 70 ASB cards five games into the season, once everyone discovered that a discount to all Sunset League games came with it.

And just try to find a newspaper the day after a game.

“If you don’t have one by 7 a.m., forget it,” Halpin said.

Said Commeau: “Everyone buys a paper and shows the game story to the players. It’s a big deal.”

So big that a new on-campus club was formed: “Griffin Chicks of ’96.” As politically incorrect as it sounds, it was a group of junior girls who came up with the name. They even had sweat shirts made.

They are the ones responsible for the posters along Los Alamitos Boulevard. They get up at 5 a.m. on game days to get the message out.

Their purpose? To give support to the school’s large, extensively choreographed cheerleading squad, improve student support at games and, oh yes, to yell.

Actually yelling is at the top of the list.

“We’re loud and we have lots of friends,’ said Allie Hart, one of the group’s leaders. “We had a spirit club before, but we decided it wasn’t doing the job. Now we have people to sit with us and yell. We even tell the cheerleader what cheers to do.”

Their work is bipartisan.

“Oh yeah, the skateboard guys and surfers are into the team,” Allie Hart said. “Everyone is into it.”

Barnes learned that a few weeks ago, when he was tapped on the shoulder after leaving his office the afternoon of the Esperanza game.

“It was this kid who looked like he was into heavy metal pretty good,” Barnes said. “He seemed like the most unlikely football fan I had ever seen. But he said, ‘Good luck Coach, go get them.’ He was really sincere. I thought, ‘This kid really cares about us winning tonight.’ ”

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Winning has a lot to do with it.

One more victory, in fact, ties the Southern Section undefeated streak record. That would come Friday in the Division I first-round game against Bellflower St. John Bosco. Temple City (1969-73) and Canyon Country Canyon (1983-86) both won 46 in a row.

The Griffins also have a 24-game winning streak, dating back to a 14-14 tie with Esperanza in the 1992 Division II title game. The Griffins haven’t lost since Oct. 25, 1991, a 28-7 drubbing by Esperanza.

The national undefeated streak is still off in the distance. Shelbyville (Tenn.) Bedford County Training went 78-0-4 from 1943-50. The Griffins aren’t even in the top 10 nationally. But they’re getting there and everyone, it seems, is counting.

Each week a poster on Los Alamitos Boulevard gives the latest number.

“It has the Energizer Bunny on it and reads, ‘It keeps going and going and going,’ ” Barnes said.

It’s enough to make a guy cringe. What coach would want that body count on public display?

Barnes said has avoided talking about the streak. He wants the team to focus on that traditional one-game-at-a-time philosophy, and his players are happy to oblige.

“The streak is not something we think about a lot,” Melsby said. “It’s a product of our hard work. We just play the games, we don’t look back on how many we’ve won.”

But others do.

The time had come to address the matter last week, when Barnes entered the cafeteria for the pregame meal and saw a computer printout of every victory. It started on the wall and stretched onto the middle of the floor.

“A parent had made it and it was very impressive, with 1 1/2-inch letters and everything,” Barnes said. “I told everyone that the streak was really special and was something for our players to remember when they are older. But it was not the reason we played the game.”

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The Griffins’ purpose, though, is divulged every Saturday afternoon on “Griffin Football With Coach John Barnes.”

Barnes has been doing the cable show for five years, but he took over as host this season. David C. Smith, its first-year producer, said the program is the station’s most popular.

Barnes brings on two players each week. He talks about the last game, questions the players on their performance and then closes with the upcoming game.

No script, just Barnes waxing poetic.

“Coach is really good at that,” Melsby said. “He likes talking.”

Said Davis: “We call John, ‘The Human Stopwatch.’ We don’t give him any time cues, but every week he’s within a minute of the half-hour.”

Barnes asked to have the show cut back from an hour before the start of the season, because it was taking up too much coaching and family time. That brought some concern from the community.

“We had more callers asking whether we’re going to have that show than we did on whether we were going to show the games,” Smith said.

Yeah, they may be calling, but just try to find someone to admit they watch.

Said Commeau: “Never seen it.”

Said Trujillo: “We have pep squad practice on Saturday.”

Said Atwood: “I read, I don’t watch television.”

It’s not the only thing that has people pleading ignorance.

Griffin football games are a production, complete with a deafening sound system. The pep squad even hauls it to some away games. Still, no one has the guts to take credit for some of the musical selections.

Last season, choruses of “Whoomp, there it is” had numbed fans by season’s end. It was played after every Griffin touchdown. Los Alamitos scored 585 points.

This season, the Village People’s “YMCA” is a big hit. It drives the crowd--including parents--into a frenzy. But no one will fess up.

Said Commeau: “Someone else makes the tape.”

Said Melsby: “The players aren’t involved.”

Said Barnes: “I have nothing to do with it.”

Yeah, right.

“No, it’s Barnes,” Trujillo said. “He approves everything. We had other music on there and he grumbled some. We changed it and he said, ‘Well, glad you finally got rid of that dance music.’ ”

Said Halpin: “Actually, after listening to rap, disco starts to sound pretty good.”

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But for true entertainment, Griffin fans need merely watch their team.

Los Alamitos’ spread formation, with four wide receivers, and shoot-and-shoot offense brings oooohs and aaaahs . They score lots of points and can score them in a hurry.

“If we were a grind-it-out, wing-T team, I don’t think we would draw as many fans,” Halpin said. “We’re fun to watch. I think that’s why more and more people have come out this year.”

Another reason is the Griffins have been tested more in recent weeks than they were all of last season.

Off the field, there was the question of an ineligible player, a charge made by another school. It could have cost the team nine victories and brought a pro-rated end to the streak at 36.

An investigation by the school proved the player was eligible and everyone exhaled, even many opponents.

“No one wanted to see them lose the streak that way,” Esperanza Coach Gary Meek said. “When they lose it, it should be on the field.”

That, too, has almost happened.

Edison had a 12-7 lead with 38 seconds left three weeks ago.

“Everyone was crying,” Atwood said. “My youngest son had tears in his eyes, and my oldest son said, ‘The end of a dynasty.’ I just had my fingers crossed and was praying.”

Quarterback Kevin Feterik took the Griffins 48 yards in two plays. He threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Tony Hartley with 12 seconds left.

A week later, Feterik took the Griffins 83 yards in the final two minutes and threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Stan Guyness for a 35-32 victory over Esperanza.

“I never doubted,” Commeau said. “I know Kevin and all those guys. I knew they would pull it together. I knew we would win.”

They had to, or Commeau and the other cheerleaders might not have known what to do afterward.