Taft Plays a Mind Game in City Final

There is no hiding from the psychological pressure facing Taft High’s football team.

Just like the Buffalo Bills losing four consecutive Super Bowls in the 1990s, the Toreadors are trying to avoid three consecutive defeats in the City Championship game at the Coliseum.

“It’s a formidable task,” said Bill Parham, a sports psychologist at UCLA. “It’s part of athletics, and it is a real question.

“They’ve distinguished themselves and haven’t crossed the finish line. It could add an extra element of pressure.”

Coach Troy Starr of Taft has tried to remove the burden of the past from his players’ minds with a series of talks this week designed to have them treat the City final against Banning tonight as “just another game.”

“What are you going to do differently?” Starr asked his players about their preparation.

“Not a damn thing,” one player shouted as others nodded in unison.

Starr is 0-3 in championship games and might have learned a lesson from the last two 4-A Division finals when Taft lost to San Pedro, 22-20 and 24-9.

“We didn’t do a good enough job of mentally preparing our kids for the Coliseum, of eliminating the distractions,” he said. “We’re going to sell our kids on you have to execute the fundamentals and play the game one play at a time.”

Streaks, jinxes, slumps, superstitions--they’re as much a part of sports as any ball or uniform.

The psychological battle waged by athletes to overcome perceived disadvantages can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

“I just don’t think about it because if you think about it, it’s going to happen,” linebacker Dionte Hall said of the Toreadors’ failure in championship games.

Drew Yellen, a former football coach at Grant who became a sports psychologist, said Starr must guide the players through these difficult mental games.

“From a coaching standpoint, what you want to emphasize is this is a different team, different circumstances and we take one game at a time,” Yellen said. “It’s not the same players, not the same team, it’s not the same course of events. The side you want to play up is a lot of people are not given an opportunity to go after a goal three times.”

Hall, running back Marquis Brignac, lineman Chris Garlington and receiver K.C. Bounds will be playing in their third City title game for Taft.

Classmates have repeatedly asked them, “Are you going to win this year?”

Experience should help Taft. The Toreadors are familiar with the surroundings of the Coliseum. They know what is required to succeed.

“It’s whomever has the most desire,” Bounds said. “I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to lose. We have to believe we can win and will win.”

Said Hall: “That Saturday, when you wake up, you look at the paper and it said you lost, you’re like, ‘Man, how come I didn’t make that tackle? How come I didn’t make that read? How come I didn’t catch the ball?’ That’s what you think. This is the time it might come out and you have to look past it.”

The trouble with sports is even when a team does almost everything right, there is no guarantee of victory because of factors beyond the players’ or coaches’ control.

“Two years ago, I don’t really accept the better team won that game,” Starr said. “We did everything we were supposed to do to win. The thing I’ve learned is that we have to stick to our core beliefs. We have to block and tackle and play hard. It’s that simple.”

Parham said it’s up to the players to make their own destiny.

“Ultimately, the question will be answered on the field,” he said. “They need to regroup and make an individual commitment to push themselves to their limit.”