SOUTHERN SECTION FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS NCAA VOLLEYBALL REGIONALS : He Can’t Recall Some Games, but He’ll Never Forget One : Division I: Mater Dei’s Bodnar is haunted--and driven--by humiliation at hands of Rialto Eisenhower in last year’s championship game.

Yes, Steve Bodnar does remember football games, one anyway.

This will come as a shock to his Mater Dei teammates. He’s known around the weight room as the running back with a short attention span, at least when it comes to his and the Monarchs’ past performances.

One day a group of players was talking about the Hawthorne victory. Bodnar, dead serious, looked at them and asked, “When did we play Hawthorne?”

Two weeks ago, he was told.

So pardon those who don’t believe Bodnar can retain a football memory beyond his last tackle-breaking, high-stepping run. But, really fellas, there is one game. It’s etched on his mind . . . 56-3.

If ever there were a time for post-game amnesia, it was after last year’s Southern Section Division I championship game debacle against Rialto Eisenhower. But it’s the one memory that still haunts Bodnar.

“It was utter disappointment,” said Bodnar, a senior. “It was crushing. I only have one dream, getting that championship ring. We were so close, yet so far.”

He’s close again. Bodnar and the Monarchs (13-0) play top-seeded La Puente Bishop Amat (13-0) tonight in the Division I final at Anaheim Stadium.

The year has passed quickly for Bodnar. He has been the Monarchs’ starting tailback from start to finish for the first time. He has thrived in the limelight, with 1,723 yards rushing and 26 touchdowns.

Not that he remembers any of it. Bodnar is not one for reveling or wallowing in the past. Things he does remember aren’t always all that pleasant--his father’s death when he was in the eighth grade and the pain getting over it.

But that was long ago. A lot of forgotten football games have passed.

“It does hit me now and then,” Bodnar said. “Sometimes, during games, I’ll wish that my dad could be seeing this. But what happens, happens.”

Bodnar won’t dwell in the past, for good or bad. The present is here and the future is coming. This kid is focused.

“It was tough on Steve,” said Stella Bodnar, his mother. “But he’s the type who will go forward. Basically, he does what he has to do and, when it’s done, he moves on to something else.”

He has moved on to a successful career at Mater Dei, one that no one could have predicted when he enrolled--almost against his will--in 1991.

Bodnar didn’t play freshman football because he saw no point to it. There was no championship game. His mother said it was part of his recovery.

When he did play as a sophomore, Monarch Coach Bruce Rollinson was so flabbergasted, he chided his freshman coach for not informing him about this talented runner. Only then did he learn Bodnar had not played. Rollinson was determined to keep him, almost as determined as Bodnar was to play.

“You know, I look at Steve Bodnar and I see a lot of myself,” Rollinson said. “I don’t think I was as good a player as he is, but I watch him and I see Bruce Rollinson walking around.”

With that thought, Rollinson sighed. He, too, lost his father a few years ago, and then his mother. He knows how focused one can become.

That is never more apparent than on the football field for Bodnar.

He is coming off what might be his biggest performance, gaining 178 yards and helping the Monarchs rally for a 28-24 victory over Los Alamitos in the semifinals. It was a game that tested his always-look-ahead philosophy.

Bodnar was headed for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter when the ball was stripped from his hands at the eight-yard line. It seemed to put the Monarchs that much closer to elimination. They were down, 24-14, and fading fast.

Many would have folded, Bodnar remained firm. He scored on a two-yard run with 3 minutes 44 seconds left. On the Monarchs’ next possession, Bodnar carried the ball five consecutive times, gaining 31 yards, to set up the game-winning touchdown.

And yes, he can’t recall a thing from that game.

“That’s the way Steve is,” Rollinson said. “He’s uncomfortable with talking about what he does in games. To him, it’s no big deal. He doesn’t want to talk about it, he wants to get on to the next football game.”

That drive has been with Bodnar since the day he played his first game. It was determination that got him on a team in the first place.

“We were going by the park and Steve saw these kids practicing football,” Stella Bodnar said. “He wanted to play, so we stopped. I asked the coach about signing him up. He took Steve and a couple of his players aside and had them run to a tree. Steve beat them both and the coach signed him up right there, using a napkin.”

Bodnar, the youngest of six children, was 6. He played running back on youth football teams through the eighth grade.

His father, Steve Bodnar, was there to watch him, always. It became difficult to play when his father died of a heart attack.

“I was too young to really understand,” Bodnar said.

He funneled that confusion into other avenues.

“He became a little rebellious,” Stella Bodnar said. “Basically, Steve began rebelling against the fact his dad had died. It was a tough thing for him. He didn’t want to go to Mater Dei, he wanted to go to Villa Park. I told him, ‘It was either Mater Dei or military school.’ ”

It turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.

Bodnar has come to terms with his father’s death. Recently, he participated in a celebration mass for the dead at school.

“I think that was a big step for Steve,” Rollinson said. “He has never spoken about his dad to me. He knows me well enough, that if he ever wanted to, he could. But I was very proud of him when he participated in the mass.”

Said Stella Bodnar: “I think his father’s death was one of the reasons he didn’t play football as a freshman. I think he really wanted to see if he wanted to play. He got so anxious that year, I knew he would go back.”

He walked on, virtually an unknown, and became the starting tailback on the sophomore team.

Bodnar was on the varsity as a junior, but found a backfield bursting at the seams. Sophomore Michael Graham and junior Jason Lundstrom also were tailbacks. Graham won the starting job and Bodnar was turned into a safety.

Graham was gone by the fourth game of the season; he transferred to Edison. It left a hole that Bodnar was more than happy to plug.

He ran for 212 yards against San Clemente in his first starting assignment. He scored on a 54-yard run in that game.

“I had gone with the Graham kid because of breakaway speed,” Rollinson said. “I didn’t think Steve had the same ability.”

Bodnar corrected that impression in the following weeks. He had an 86-yard touchdown run against Capistrano Valley and a 92-yard touchdown run against Mission Viejo.

But his biggest run was against Long Beach Poly in the Division I quarterfinals. The Monarchs trailed, 14-10, in the fourth quarter. Bodnar, playing on a sore ankle that had kept him out of the previous game, zig-zagged down the field, weaving through one of the top defensive teams in the section, for a 57-yard run to set up the go-ahead touchdown. The Monarchs won, 17-14.

“It was probably the finest run I have seen a high school back make,” Rollinson said.

And Bodnar, of course, doesn’t remember much about it.

“That’s just Steve,” tackle Matt Motherway said. “Sometimes, we tease him. We’ll ask him, ‘Steve, who’d we play last week?’ He just doesn’t care about the past. It’s already forgotten and he’s on to the next game.”

It’s an attitude that Bodnar insists on having, one that he’s pushed on to some teammates and they have adopted. There is no room for the meek in Bodnar’s eyes. You have to remain focused.

“Some of the guys are a little timid,” Bodnar said. “They’re a little too nice. You can’t be nice in life. Life isn’t fair. You got to be strong and help yourself before you can help others.”

Bodnar is working on that second part now. He would like to help the Monarchs win the title.

“I didn’t spend three years of my life in high school football to come away with nothing,” Bodnar said. “We’ve done great things and I’ve made great friends, but to win the ring is the ultimate achievement.

“I’m going to remember two games from high school. Last year’s championship game and this year’s championship game.”