New Catchword for Van Buren Is Redemption

So far so good for the Jim Bittner-Leodes Van Buren connection.

It’s been six weeks since the immensely talented but troubled Van Buren called Bittner to ask if Moorpark College needed another receiver, especially a record-setting one.

The call, never mind the question, surprised Bittner. The rumor was that Van Buren was at Arizona, hoping to get into school and play for the Wildcats.

Bittner, well aware of Van Buren’s checkered background, cautiously told the player how to join the Raiders.

Which, in reality, meant how to take advantage of one more chance.

Maybe the last chance.

When word got out that Van Buren was at Moorpark, some folks probably wondered if the school had a jail wing or if a judge had sent him there to perform community service.

The last few times Van Buren’s name had surfaced, it seems, was in police blotters or in news accounts of his legal hassles.

Here was a guy who enjoyed a remarkable career at Newbury Park High, finishing after the 1993 season with 269 receptions for 4,446 yards, both state career records, only to torpedo his accomplishments through self-destructive behavior that several times landed him behind bars.

He fired a handgun into the home of his then-girlfriend, whom he later married and divorced, and served four months in jail in 1994. He did stints for parole violation and failing a drug test. He also barricaded himself at home and threatened to kill himself and his infant son after arguing with the child’s mother.

He did enough things to close doors forever.

But Bittner believed Van Buren deserved another break, even though the coach’s first experience with him was hardly the foundation for a merry relationship.

That was in the summer of 1995, when Van Buren was shopping around for a team and briefly passed through Moorpark, one of several whistle stops on a fruitless campaign to find a school.

“He was a much different person,” said Bittner, who has seen many characters in his 23 seasons with the Raiders, 18 as head coach. “He came across like he had a lot of options and like we needed him more than he needed us.”

This time around, Van Buren apparently had both feet planted on the ground when he asked Bittner for an opportunity.

The coach relented. Not solely because Van Buren is a formidable receiver who could help the Raiders win, a receiver who surely would have been running pass routes for a Division I school had it not been for his personal turmoil, but because Bittner has an open mind.

“I’m always willing to give people another chance,” Bittner said. “Everybody makes mistakes, but I don’t hold the past against people. But they understand that they are under a little more scrutiny with me. I hold them responsible for the present.”

To this point, Van Buren has lived up to his end of the bargain.

In four games, he has 10 receptions for 180 yards and two touchdowns and is gradually regaining his old form, which turned rusty but did not fully disintegrate from three years of inactivity.

“He’s finally come to the front,” Bittner said. “He can flat out catch the football. . . . If I’ve ever seen a guy who belongs on the football field, it’s him.”

And, Bittner says, Van Buren also has his act together in the classroom.

“I wish I had everyone like him right now because he has been no problem,” Bittner said. “I see a definite change in the young man.”

From Bittner’s perspective, helping players strive and reach other levels in football and in life should be an integral part of a coach’s agenda, not just winning and losing games.

“If we can just get them through the first year, they can see the light at the end of the tunnel and they start thinking that they can get scholarships and become successful,” Bittner said.

Van Buren once knew that feeling.

He was headed for Colorado on a full ride. But the school withdrew the scholarship offer when he pulled that trigger at his girlfriend’s house.

Now he’s trying to make up for lost time, and Bittner is helping him do it.

So far, cynics haven’t been able to look at Bittner and say, “I told you so.”

Let’s hope they never do.