Move Has Paid Off for Savanna’s Di Palma : Prep football: Former Valencia assistant has prospered since taking over the Rebels. He will face his old team tonight.

Fred Di Palma probably would have had a great career at Valencia High if he had stayed there.

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After joining Mike Marrujo’s football staff in 1987 as an offensive line and defensive end coach, Di Palma was considered one of the reasons the Tigers won a Southern Section Central Division title and reached the Division VI finals the next year.

Who knows? If Marrujo had moved on, Di Palma--who had been a head coach at Santiago before going to Valencia--could have been a candidate to replace him.

But Savanna, which needed a coach in 1989, also recognized Di Palma’s talents and hired him.

Both Di Palma and Savanna have greatly benefited from that decision.

Now in his sixth season, Di Palma has won two Orange League titles (including last year’s) and a Southern Section Division VI championship in 1993. Di Palma and the Rebels (4-1) seem primed to make another playoff run this season.

They open Orange League play tonight against Marrujo’s Valencia team, which has made the playoffs 15 consecutive seasons. But the Tigers’ 1-4 start this season has raised doubts about No. 16.

Di Palma won’t dismiss Valencia. “You have to keep in perspective who the other team has been playing,” he said. “Valencia has been facing Villa Park, El Dorado, Servite and Kennedy; all have good records. They’ve had injuries and are just getting those players back. And this is a league game--now everything counts.”

Perhaps. But Savanna seems to have all the good fortune these days, starting with the county’s rushing leader.

Eric Shine has 885 yards in five games and averages nine yards a carry. He has scored 11 touchdowns, one behind county leader Leo Kosi of Rancho Alamitos.

Savanna also has an efficient quarterback in Brandon Warden, who has completed 56% of his passes for 331 yards and two touchdowns.

But it’s the defense that has stood out. The Rebels have two shutouts and given up only 17 points this season. Only Cypress has scored an offensive touchdown against the Rebels. The other touchdown came on an interception in their 8-6 opening loss to Kennedy.

The defense could be the difference in Savanna advancing past the first round of the playoffs, where the Rebels were eliminated last season by El Dorado, 35-33.

“We were gifted with more skilled position players last year,” Di Palma said. “We could run and throw. This year, at least on defense, we are much better against the run. And I don’t think we’ve played our best game yet.”

Marrujo, whose teams have won three Southern Section titles, is not surprised by what Di Palma has accomplished.

“He was a good coach when he was here,” Marrujo said. “Our whole staff contributed and had active roles in our success. But Fred was the type of guy who would take the linemen in for extra work after practice on his own. Everything had to be right.”

Di Palma believes the two years spent at Valencia laid the groundwork for the good things happening for him at Savanna.

“They [Valencia coaches] were very good people to be around, and Mike set that tone,” Di Palma said. “He’s not a happy-go-lucky person, but he is easy to get along with; there are no conflicts.

“When I was there I tried to put myself in a learning mode and observe. I took to Savanna organizational skills, some defensive schemes and some offensive ideas that we only ran my first year here. I was 28 or 29 at the time, and felt I needed to go where I could learn and grow as a coach. With Mike, that’s what happened.”

It also helped make it difficult to leave. Though Di Palma told Marrujo he didn’t plan to stay long, Di Palma enjoyed the school. In fact, when he decided to pursue the Savanna job, he didn’t tell Marrujo until well into the interview process.

“I just got the itch to be a head coach again,” Di Palma said.

The two have remained friends, attend coaching clinics together and call periodically to exchange ideas. Of course, they won’t be chummy tonight. Savanna has won the last two meetings, but before that Valencia won four in a row.

“He wants to beat me as bad as I want to beat him,” Di Palma said. “When you’re playing against a friend, you can’t think about that. I just have to make sure we don’t put everything into that game because there are four other league games.”