Fullerton Extends Long, Steep Climb : Football: Four years ago, the Indians were 1-8-1. Now they are in the Division VII playoffs with a 9-1 record.

It has taken four years to reach the summit.

Four years for Fullerton High to re-establish itself among the county’s best football programs.

But the Indians (9-1), who play host to Covina Northview (4-5-1) at 7:30 tonight in the first round of the Division VII playoffs, have made it.

Four years ago they were coming off a 1-8-1 season, and lost their five league games by a combined score of 125-43. A new coach, Julian Smilowitz, was brought in to try and reverse the team’s sagging fortunes.

Today the Indians are one of six county teams to win at least nine games. They are also celebrating a second straight Freeway League championship, but this one is their first outright title since 1983.

Fullerton has not lost to a county team this season. Their only defeat was administered by Norwalk John Glenn, 16-14, and Glenn needed a last-second field goal to win.

The 16 points are the most any team has scored against Fullerton, whose defense is giving up an average of seven points per game.

When the Indians defeated Sonora last Thursday, 21-14, to cap an unbeaten league season, it did more than secure a favorable playoff position.

Winning the title outright is “mainly for the people who played here before that said we would never win,” senior tight end Tyler Brickell said. “They weren’t good, so they wanted to put us down.

“Gaining that respect means a lot to us.”

Running back and linebacker John Wilkie, considered Fullerton’s best player, is among the 22 Fullerton seniors who remembers the punishment and derision he and the others absorbed on varsity as sophomores, when the team went 3-7.

Wilkie’s not gloating now, but his satisfaction level has reached the stratosphere.

“We knew this was going to come,” Wilkie said. “We always had the potential; we knew it would happen. Finally, this year, we’re putting it all together. We had never really be on losing teams until our sophomore year. We weren’t used to it at all.”

To appreciate where Fullerton is now, you have to understand where it has been.

When Smilowitz arrived to Fullerton in 1992 the program, in his words, “was in total disarray. There was a weight room but no significant weight program; academically we probably had about 25 kids on varsity who were on academic probation.”

After nine years as an assistant at La Mirada, Smilowitz thought he was prepared for his first head coaching assignment. But he was not prepared for this.

“I probably should have asked some more questions,” said Smilowitz, laughing. “But when you see a program that you think you can build, you have to deal with adversity, not just whether your kids know how to play football. This is also about education and building self-esteem.

“Here with our student population, we had a lot of kids in gangs and so forth. As a new coach coming in, they try you; the first year we had some significant battles as far as dedication to practice and the way things were going to be. Those things happen. But you establish your program, tell them what you want to do, things fall into place.”

Fullerton has a long and proud football tradition.

The school opened in 1893 (making it the second oldest county high school after Santa Ana) and fielded its first team in 1907. In 88 years of playing football, the Indians have won three section championships, and were runners-up five times.

The 1980s was a fruitful period for Fullerton. Under Coach Martin Luczaj, the Indians were in postseason play six consecutive seasons and won their last section title by beating La Mirada for the Central Conference championship in 1984.

Until last season, however, Fullerton had not gone back to the playoffs since 1988. By winning season finale against Troy, the Indians were one of four teams that were 3-2 in league.

This season they share the Freeway title with no one.

Ask Smilowitz if he was surprised by Fullerton running the table this season, and he replies, “No. This is when you’re supposed to get better; not the fourth game but toward the end. Your kids are supposed to have a grasp of what you’re doing.”

Fullerton is primed to go deep into the Division VII playoffs. But whatever happens, Smilowitz hopes that more than the team’s fortunes have turned around.

“As your success comes, your support comes,” Smilowitz said. “We’re still the same coaches when there wasn’t the same support. We’re thankful for the people who were there then, and we’re thankful for the people who are there now. All that helps to build a program.

“I think Fullerton traditionally had good teams. But the population has changed. Right now we have some good kids who need this direction in their lives. They seem to have taken hold of it and done a good job. And we hope, now that they are repeat champs, that this [feeling] stays here; that this is what they expect.”