Limelight to Lemon Groves : Bounced From UCLA, Andersen Lands as Coach at Fillmore

Football coach Norm Andersen is having fun. The perpetual smile on his face and the unabashed enthusiasm in his voice make that obvious.

What isn’t clear is how Andersen, a longtime Division I assistant who has experienced the thrill of coaching in major bowl games, could be this excited about his new job as the coach at tiny Fillmore High.

Surely this is just a temporary position until he can find another college job, right?

Not necessarily, Andersen says.

“I’m not maneuvering around trying to get someplace,” he said Wednesday after supervising a weightlifting workout at Fillmore. “Geez, I’ve been in a bunch of New Year’s Day games. I’ve coached a bunch of All-Americans. I’ve been at a high level. But was it like the end? Well, no. You still want something else.”

Comparing it to a journey, Andersen, 43, says a coach must go where he’s wanted. In his case, it happens to be Fillmore, a sleepy town of 13,000 nestled among orange and lemon groves in Ventura County. The setting is a radical departure for someone accustomed to the glamour of big-time college football.

“It’s so isolated, you think it’s the end of the earth,” he said.

Andersen feels he should still be at UCLA, where he was an All-Pacific Eight Conference wide receiver before serving two stints (1978-86, 1994-95) as an assistant to Terry Donahue. But after Donahue retired following last season, Andersen was informed in January by new Coach Bob Toledo that he would not be retained as the Bruins’ receivers coach.

It was the first time Andersen, who was offensive coordinator at Iowa State from 1987-91, found himself without a job in his 18-year college coaching career.

“It was a big disappointment,” Andersen said. “I don’t think it really should have happened. . . . But that’s the coaching business. Sometimes you have to accept the unacceptable.”

Andersen said he wasn’t given a reason for his dismissal, and he didn’t ask Toledo for one.

“When you lose a job, you’d like to get a good reason why you didn’t get to keep that job,” he said. “You scratch your head and say, ‘That doesn’t make sense.’ You’d like to have something a little more concrete.

“I don’t think what happened to me was right, but I’m not going to complain about it, or cry about it, or spend a lot of time getting mad about it. You just have to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got to move on.’ ”

Said Donahue: “I’m sure Norm would have liked to stay. He loves UCLA. But at the same time, Bob [Toledo] has to feel that he has the opportunity to bring in his own people. Those things just happen. They are pretty commonplace in the business.”

Andersen immediately looked into a few college openings. When they failed to pan out he called Fillmore, whose previous coach, John Wilbur, resigned after last season. Andersen was interviewed and hired in short order, taking the job in early May, in time to conduct spring football.

After leading a nomadic life as a college assistant, including stints at Iowa State and Arizona, Andersen said he welcomed the opportunity to work close to his Newbury Park home and avoid moving his family--wife Heidi and daughters Paris, 7, and Chanin, 5.

He also is looking forward to a slower pace, even though he will teach history for the first time. He earned his teaching credential after graduating from UCLA in 1976.

“College coaches a lot of times work 18-hour days for no good reason other than to be there,” Andersen said. “So this will give me the chance to work hard doing what I like and spend a little more time with my family.”

Donahue, who will work as a football commentator for CBS next season, says Andersen is a natural to head his own program.

“UCLA’s loss is Fillmore’s gain,” Donahue said. “I think Norm will do a great job for them. He’ll really work well with the administrators, the kids and the parents, and bring a very high quality of technical knowledge to the high school.”

The feeling is mutual. Athletic Director Tom Ecklund, a teacher and coach at Fillmore since 1967, says Andersen is the most experienced football coach the school has ever had. Ecklund and Matt Suttle are Andersen’s assistants.

“When I hired him, I was very pleased to get someone with his quality and experience,” said Ecklund, who is also Fillmore’s baseball coach. “He seems like a very energetic person, and the kids really seem to like him.”

Of course, enthusiasm probably won’t be enough to turn around Fillmore’s football fortunes. The Flashes have not reached the Southern Section playoffs since 1991 and have not won a league title since 1984. They have won only three of 16 Tri-Valley League games the past four seasons. Ecklund said the school has never produced an NFL player or any college player of note.

Andersen knows he faces an uphill battle. Fillmore, which has an average enrollment of 800 to 900 students, fielded a varsity team of only 30 players last season. That’s a far cry from the 100-man squads, including walk-ons, that Andersen was used to seeing at UCLA.

The adjustments don’t end there for Andersen, who occupies a small, stark office in Fillmore’s gym. This is a long way from Westwood and the fabled field at the Rose Bowl, where UCLA plays its home games.

“It’s an unbelievable change,” he said. “I got so used to coaching on the Division I level, where you never sit in a room like this, with walls that need painting. It’s a different level, but that’s fun too.

“If you’re around a lot of college athletes, some of them are just the best kids you ever want to meet. Some of them are spoiled. . . . What you get here are kids who aren’t as talented and aren’t as big and fast as the college kids are, but a little more innocent and wide-eyed. They’re a little more excited to learn new things.”

Andersen is anxious to teach them as much as he can in preparation for the 1996 season. He worked mostly on fundamentals during spring practice, which gave him a chance to assess the personality and talent level of his team.

Instead of working with players such as wide receiver J.J. Stokes, he’s now teaching players proper techniques for getting in a stance.

“I think it’s great that we got a Division I coach from UCLA,” said Jake Kemp, a junior lineman at Fillmore. “He has the experience. I think this year we might be able to make [the playoffs].”

Wilbur, who coached the Flashes the past two seasons, said he felt guilty when he resigned because of family obligations. His attitude changed when Andersen took the job.

“It’s the best thing I ever did,” said Wilbur, an assistant principal at Fillmore. “He will be able to teach the players things that I don’t even know.”

Taking on more responsibilities on the practice field has given Andersen a sense of satisfaction he has rarely experienced.

“I’ve already made myself a better football coach because I’m doing so much more than I did the last couple of years,” he said. “I’ve already put together a playbook, with rules and policies for the team. I’m ordering equipment. I’m wearing a bunch of different hats.

“I’m used to being in an environment where it has to be perfect and you have to know exactly what you’re doing. It’s like getting a game plan ready for war. I get like that when I start talking football.”

Anderson brings that same intensity to Fillmore, but he intends to take a less complicated approach to coaching high school players.

“I want to fight the urge to do too many things,” he said. “I’m going to give the team some things they can succeed at. Even if we know only two plays by the first game, we’re going to run the heck out of those two plays; do them perfect. That’s my goal.”

Fillmore, which was primarily a running team last season, will undergo a complete make-over under Andersen. He plans to draw upon his experience in changing the offense to a multiple-set attack, with more of an emphasis on passing, and he envisions a defense that plays aggressively.

“I want to entertain the people that come watch us,” he said. “They’re going to see things they’ve never seen before from my offense. I don’t know if we’ll win every game, but I know that we’ll try hard and the things we do will be fun to watch.”

Andersen adopted a creative philosophy during his five seasons as offensive coordinator at Iowa State from 1987-91. Although the Cyclones had only one winning season, they were competitive in the Big Eight Conference with an unpredictable offense.

“I learned so much from [Coach Jim Walden],” Andersen said. “He’s probably the most entertaining coach I’ve been around.”

Andersen demonstrated an imaginative flair last season. The week before the USC game, he mentioned to Donahue that wide receiver Jim McElroy had a strong throwing arm. The tip turned into a 35-yard touchdown pass from McElroy to Jordan that gave the Bruins a 21-0 lead en route to a 24-20 upset of the Trojans.

Will Andersen stay long enough at Fillmore to enjoy moments like those?

“You never know,” he said. “I’m looking forward to teaching in the classroom and I’m looking forward to Friday nights.”