Banuelos Puts Out Call for Recruits

Pledging to take Pierce College’s floundering football program to new heights, David Banuelos was introduced Thursday as the team’s new coach.

“We are not just talking about respectability,” Banuelos said. “We are talking about taking it into a level to compete for championships in the near future.”

Banuelos, 28, spent the last six seasons coaching offensive linemen at Moorpark College, one of the top junior college programs in the state. He replaces Bill Norton, who resigned in January after eight seasons at Pierce.

Bob Lyons, Pierce’s athletic director, said Banuelos was the youngest of 17 candidates for the walk-on position. And perhaps the most astute.

At the news conference Thursday at Pierce, Banuelos gave out a toll-free phone number for potential recruits to call him at his Chatsworth home.

“I don’t want someone not to call me because they don’t have the 10 cents, or 35 cents,” Banuelos said. “They can [call] me anytime.”

For the record, the number is (800) 627-6239, and Banuelos would like to hear it ring--often. Pierce, which had a 4-46 record the last five years, finished last season with 26 players.

Most of the players didn’t bother to hang around too long after the Brahmas snapped a 31-game losing streak in October, the state’s longest and the nation’s second-longest skid.

“We need to make [recruiting] appearances at every high school campus in the San Fernando Valley and sell [the program],” Banuelos said. “We need to sell a vision.”

Banuelos, who teaches at Mulholland Junior High in Van Nuys, will need to become a carnival hawker. Norton partially blamed Pierce’s inferior facilities, such as no hot water in the showers, for his poor recruiting.

“I tell you, [the facilities] might be a little old, but they just need a little tender-loving care,” said Banuelos, a former Cal Lutheran offensive tackle.

Lyons said the showers should have hot water by the fall, when new boilers are installed to replace ones damaged by the Northridge earthquake in 1994.

That, and Banuelos’ promise to retool the program, sounded good to former Taft High standout Tyler Brennan, an All-WSC linebacker who considered transferring before Banuelos was hired.

“It looks like we’ll have more discipline in the program,” Brennan said. “Last year was kind of hectic. Now that he’s here, I’m ready to go.”