PREP FOOTBALL ’95 / ORANGE LEAGUE : Brea Olinda’s Owens Gets Another Chance : Football: Running back with troubled past is determined to stay on straight and narrow.

Jerome Owens knows he’s walking on thin ice, that the temptations that caused him to go astray again and again are always out there, just a step or two beyond the playing field in this foothill community.

Owens, who rushed for 1,155 yards and 14 touchdowns in 1994, has been in and out of trouble most of his life. He has had run-ins with the law and teachers. He has been kicked out of school, grudgingly readmitted, put under a microscope and scorned for failing umpteen efforts at getting his act together.

“I have not had a lot of discipline in my life,” he said.

As a freshman running back, Owens was “a man among boys,” Coach Jon Looney said. “You could see he was a pretty good player.”

But Owens, who lived with his mother, was hanging with the wrong crowd. He became known as a discipline problem and was suspected in a tagging incident, which he and Looney say he was not involved in.

Then came a childish prank: After a confrontation with a teacher midway through his freshman year, Owens turned on a gas jet in a science class and left it on after the room emptied. There was no explosion and no damage done, but Owens was sent to Brea Canyon High, a continuation school.

During his sophomore year, he moved to Santa Ana to live with an uncle. He enrolled at--but ditched--most of his classes at Century High.

“It was worse there than it was here,” Owens said.

Owens moved back to Brea in early 1993 and Looney gave him a tongue-lashing that player and coach say was a turning point in their relationship. The coach offered to help him get back into Brea Olinda High, but he demanded that Owens concentrate on three goals: good grades, getting enough units to graduate and “kicking some tail on the football field, in that order.”

“I don’t know if he was buying into what I was doing for him,” Looney said. “I don’t know if he ever had anyone watching over him before. Maybe he thought I just wanted him to play football here. Maybe he thought I would just stay on him a couple of weeks and then I’d go away.”

Owens remained skeptical of Looney’s intentions.

“At first, I didn’t think what he was doing was bad or good,” Owens said. I just had this guy pushing me.”

Back in continuation school, Owens struggled to be readmitted to Brea.

“This kid had been allowed to roam free for so long, he had trouble accepting discipline,” Looney said. “We were trying to break all of his old habits.”

Owens missed spring football practice in 1994, but he earned all-Orange League honors that fall.

There are those who still believe Owens has been given too many chances, Looney said.

“This kid seems to have some redeeming qualities,” Athletic Director Ron Hampton said. “I’m generally opposed to having [troublemakers] in school, but the best place to develop those qualities is to be around a tough disciplinarian like Jon Looney.”

Owens can look back on last season with a smile.

“Coach Looney set some guidelines that I had to follow,” Owens said. “He told me if I wanted to play football there were things I had to do like get good grades and change my attitude.”

He had some shining moments and one big disappointment when he was stopped inches short of a first down on the final play of Brea Olinda’s last series in a 10-7 loss to Valencia.

Several colleges have expressed interest, most likely as a defensive back, and that has been another carrot.

The ultimate test, though, much like crashing through a wall of beefy defensive linemen, will be if Owens can succeed in heading in a winning direction, without looking back.

1994 IN REVIEW

Standings

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League Overall School W L T W L T Savanna 4 1 0 8 3 0 Valencia 3 1 1 5 6 1 Brea Olinda 3 1 1 8 3 1 Western 2 2 1 7 3 1 Anaheim 1 3 1 6 3 1 Magnolia 0 5 0 1 9 0

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Highlights

The Orange League typically produces some of the county’s best running backs--last season was no exception. Reuben Droughns of Anaheim, Daven King of Savanna and Jerome Owens of Brea Olinda were the league’s best ballcarriers and among the county’s elite. Droughns followed his sensational sophomore season--in which he rushed for 2,039 yards--with 1,752 yards to finish fifth in the county. He averaged 6.8 yards per carry and scored 21 touchdowns for the Colonists to finish eighth among county scorers. King was the primary offense force for Savanna. He finished his senior season with 932 yards rushing and averaged 8.1 yards. Owens was just as important in Brea Olinda’s offensive scheme. He ended his junior season with 1,155 yards rushing and a 4.5-yard average. The league also had its share of standout passers. Not coincidentally, Savanna and Western had the league’s two best quarterbacks. Savanna senior Jeremy Klemp finished third in the county with a passing rating of 178.3. He completed 67.1% of his passes for 1,789 yards with 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Chambers was the county’s fifth-ranked quarterback as a junior with a rating of 168.2. He completed 62.5% of his passes for 1,110 yards with 12 touchdowns and only three interceptions.