Birmingham Can Wrap Up City 3-A Title as Perfect Gift for Retiring Epstein . . . : Who Saved Best Team for Last

It was graduation day 1968 at Birmingham High and Mitch Voges, future U.S. Amateur golf champion, was about to venture down the long fairway of adulthood.

A 26-year-old man called Chick by most and Coach by Voges stood quietly at the rear of the room, his face beaming.

“It was the biggest smile I’ve ever seen and it conveyed one thing: his love for kids,” Voges said. “He was satisfied with the work he had done.”

Alan (Chick) Epstein was near the beginning of a coaching career that would take him down many tranquil fairways and many tumultuous football fields.

Half a lifetime later, Epstein, 52, a genuinely nice guy in a high-octane, high-decibel fraternity, will retire as football coach after Birmingham’s game against Bell on Friday night for the City Section 3-A Division championship.

What in many ways has been an ordinary career is ending in extraordinary fashion.

Epstein has spent most of his 17 years as head football coach in frustration. Some opposing teams bent recruiting rules, players lacked commitment, only one assistant coach could be scrounged up: This was the norm, he says.

“I took the players who walked through my door, for better or worse,” he said.

Now, for one joyous run, the Braves (7-5-1) have outlasted the rules-benders with committed players coached by a crack staff of five. A Birmingham team that endured a four-game losing streak at midseason and was seeded last in the 3-A playoffs has defeated No. 1-seeded Reseda, Monroe and Wilson in succession.

This has become one heck of a last hurrah. Chick-a-boom!

“To have players who really care, to have a strong staff and to put it all together, this has been a dream of mine,” said Epstein, whose career record is 78-85-4 with six playoff appearances.

The championship game is the Braves’ first since they won the City title in 1963. That year, Epstein walked onto the Birmingham campus for the first time as a student teacher, UCLA diploma in hand.

He earned letters in football, baseball, basketball and track at Santa Monica High before playing three years of baseball at UCLA on a partial scholarship.

It might appear out of character for the unassuming Epstein to say, “I am a good athlete,” almost by way of introduction, but athleticism is at the core of his identity. In an unguarded moment he admits his dream is to play enough golf to improve his 4-handicap and take a stab at the Seniors Tour.

A one-day tryout with the Dodgers was the closest he got to a professional baseball career, so he followed in the footsteps of his older brother, Jack, and became a high school coach.

Chick’s first years at Birmingham were spent coaching B basketball, wrestling and junior varsity baseball. He took over the golf program in 1966 and over the past 28 years coached seven boys who eventually earned PGA Tour cards.

But football was the passion of the Epstein brothers (a third brother, Arnold, is a Beverly Hills physician). Jack was an early architect of the run-and-shoot who retired last year after more than 30 years coaching at Palisades, Narbonne, Hamilton and West L.A. College.

“We were football buffs, traveling all over to attend clinics,” Epstein said. “I looked up to Jack. I don’t think he ever had a losing season.”

As coach at Hamilton in the early 1970s, Jack developed a sprint-out passing offense utilizing one running back and four wide receivers. And he found the ideal quarterback: Warren Moon.

A few years ago as a guest of Roy Firestone, Moon was asked about the Houston Oilers’ supposedly revolutionary run-and-shoot attack. “It’s no different than what Jack Epstein taught me at Hamilton High,” Moon replied.

Chick, who picked up the nickname while carrying a chicken across his Santa Monica schoolyard as a third-grader, was Jack’s assistant. He would teach at Birmingham then drive to Hamilton for practice.

After returning to Birmingham and serving as defensive coordinator for a few years, Epstein was named head coach in 1978. He and his wife Mona bought a home in Agoura Hills and raised their sons, Josh and Matt. Both became all-league receivers, Josh at Birmingham and Matt at Agoura.

In the spring Epstein still coached golf, and eventually he opened a summer youth golf camp, but it was the football team that often was below par.

“I never had a team that could win,” he said. “Even when I had good athletes I never had the line. That’s the difference this year, we are beating them up front.”

A nucleus of eight three-year varsity players--including linemen Jimmy Uline, Mauro Navarro and David San Vicente--have provided consistency and leadership.

Epstein and his most-experienced players forged a relationship of mutual respect through two years of enduring a roller-coaster ride together. The Braves were 4-5-1 last season and 5-4 in ‘92, and some of the turbulence carried into this season.

Returning quarterback Paul Prince was replaced by Courtney Blunt to open this season after Prince missed several summer practices. After one game, Epstein reinserted Prince and moved Blunt to tailback. Blunt flourished and has rushed for 1,528 yards.

“Most of the guys didn’t look to me as a leader,” Prince said. “Coach and I had a long talk about showing poise in the huddle and showing leadership on and off the field.

“I wish I could be more like him, calm all the time.”

Epstein realizes he is easygoing almost to a fault. That’s why he has kept Tom Richards, a demonstrative coach, as an assistant since Richards retired as Sylmar head coach in 1986.

Being nice and calm as a coach can invite misbehavior. Uline, the team’s senior center and three-year starter, witnessed as much.

“Coach is such a great guy that I saw seniors last year and the year before take advantage of him,” Uline said. “They’d take too long of a water break or talk back to him.

“He’s such a nice guy. You could tell he was mad but he wouldn’t do anything.”

As he approaches his final game, however, Epstein’s kindly manner is entirely appropriate. Warmth permeates the locker room after a practice this week as the coach walks through slowly, patting players on the shoulder, asking about minor injuries, giving encouragement. Everyone is at ease.

Epstein stops at a locker to check on Marvin Powell, a four-year starter who suffered a frightening neck injury against Wilson. It turned out to be only a sprain, but immediately after the game Powell’s football future was in doubt.

“Everyone was shocked but you could really tell Epstein was very hurt by it,” Uline said. “It showed the compassion he has for his players, how much he cares about us.”

Voges, who occasionally plays a round of golf with his former coach, remembers a youthful Epstein much the way current players describe him.

“He cares about people,” Voges said. “Loyal, caring, thoughtful. From the bottom of his heart he wants to see people succeed.”

Success in the form of a championship game found Epstein, a nice guy who might just finish first.