COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOOTBALL / TODAY’S BOWL GAMES : Taking the Long Way Works Out for Saddleback’s Conners

The route Jackie Conners took to become a standout wide receiver at Saddleback College is much less precise than the ones he runs during practices and games.

Conners took up organized football as a senior at Capistrano Valley High in the fall of 1991, took a year off to get stronger and then missed another year because of a broken arm. He finally got to play again last season.

His performance this season has made all the detours worthwhile.

Conners, a 21-year-old sophomore, finished the regular season with 42 catches for 892 yards and five touchdowns and was an All-Mission Conference Central Division selection.

He will have one more chance to add to his totals today when Saddleback (7-3) takes on Mt. San Antonio (8-2) in the Simple Green Orange County Bowl at 1:30 p.m. at Orange Coast College.

His accomplishments aren’t bad for a guy who didn’t get around to going out for football until he was a high school senior.

Conners had played basketball, baseball and run track for Capistrano Valley but football was a final option. His father, Jack Conners, had been a standout defensive back at Oregon and played two years with the Southern California Sun in the World Football League. He was well aware of the pain that comes with the game and wasn’t going to push his son into it.

Jackie Conners was a talented sprinter in high school but didn’t get enough out of track. “It’s just running,” he said. “It seems like the conditioning you do to be ready for other sports . . . I’m glad I waited to go out for football. Now, I’m not so burnt-out on it like the guys who started playing when they were 7.”

Conners was 17 when he graduated from high school so he decided to take a year off to lift weights and get his first year of classes out of way. He figured to join the Gauchos in the spring of 1993 but never made it.

He was playing in a pickup basketball game at a local elementary school and went up for a dunk on an eight-foot basket. But he was hit by another player and put out his left arm to break his fall. What he broke was a bone in his forearm. He shattered another bone as well but said it didn’t hurt that much for the first hour.

A friend took him home and his father took him to the hospital where he had surgery that night. Nine months later, he had another surgery to take the screws out.

After healing, he played last season. But Saddleback didn’t throw much and seldom toward him and the team finished 1-7-2.

This season he was noticed immediately. He caught nine passes for 211 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-31 loss to Long Beach, which went 10-0 this season and is the No. 1 team in the J.C. Grid-Wire national poll. Conners caught 11 passes in his entire freshman season.

“He put in so much time in the off-season,” Saddleback Coach Bill Cunerty said. “He’s our fastest guy but he’s really learned to run patterns too.”

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Rancho Santiago will meet part of its past when the Dons (6-4) take on Chaffey (6-4) in the Upland Ford Bowl at 1 p.m. today at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga.

Chaffey, which started the season with four losses, has won six in a row under Coach Carl Ferrill. Ferrill, who is in his second season with the Panthers, was the offensive coordinator for the Dons from 1978 to 1981. Rancho Santiago Coach Dave Ogas was the offensive line coach for the same time period.

“Carl was then and still is an excellent offensive coach,” Ogas said. “We will have a very difficult time preparing to defend against Chaffey.”

Chaffey is surging; Rancho Santiago isn’t. The Dons have lost two in a row.

This is the fourth bowl appearance in 14 seasons for Ogas. His teams beat Moorpark in back-to-back Orange County bowls in 1988-89 but lost in the same game last year to Los Angeles Valley.