Football Coaches, Longtime Friends and Role Models, Sean Blunt of San Fernando and Chris Richards of Monroe Have Become...Best Men

You’d think it had been 10 years. Sean Blunt and Chris Richards exchange greetings like it’s done at an airport, a flurry of gleeful yelps, synchronized handshakes and slap-happy hugs.

S.B.! Rich! What’s up, Coach?

They share a quick story, trade an insight, duck in and out of conspiratorial whispers, then blast the room with a punch line that doubles them over.

Lot to catch up on in 48 hours.

The near-lifelong pals were together only two days earlier to trade film. Blunt is the coach at San Fernando High (8-0), which tonight hosts Monroe (5-3), coached by Richards.

Blunt, in his seventh season, and Richards, in his first, are butting heads for the first time since those interminable tackling drills back in 1983, their senior season as San Fernando teammates.

No game can loosen this bond, not for an instant. Blunt and Richards, both 33, met playing youth football and clicked like brothers. Each was best man at the other’s wedding. Every Thursday is still boys night out.

“We are a whole lot alike, that’s why we are such good friends,” Blunt said. “We think alike.”

They play catch-up like a two-minute drill, rattling on about who’s doing what in their large circle of acquaintances. Once the conversation turns to their players, it stays there for hours.

Richards: “The human aspect, that’s the part of coaching I like the most. Seeing growth and maturity in kids that need it.”

Blunt: “Chris and I talk about the way things are in this community. Our thing is to help kids get the opportunity we had. Athletic ability and education can go together.”

Tonight friendship gives way to competition for about two hours.

It’s San Fernando’s homecoming, and Richards, high on a list of quality Tiger tailbacks that began before World War II, is bringing along his Vikings, losers of three in a row and in the throes of an identity crisis.

Richards had only two months to mold Monroe. He took the job in July, poured in positive energy and stirred. The Vikings started 5-0 but the last three weeks Valley Mission League opponents found his defense as soft as Jell-O.

San Fernando, a rugged, senior-dominated team, offers no respite. This is the Tigers’ best start since 1978 and Blunt has his sights set on a No. 1 seeding in the City Championship playoffs.

Richards desperately wants Monroe to make a good showing in front of everyone dear to him at San Fernando.

Blunt is wary of his team taking lightly an opponent motivated by the prospect of beating its coach’s alma mater.

Yet in the days leading up to the game, both men were struck by the realization that, win or lose, their lives won’t change. Nothing truly important is at stake.

For that, they sit back and marvel.

These two kids who roamed the streets of Lake View Terrace made it. They have families, secure jobs doing what they love and the respect of their community.

Blunt and Richards are strong role models making a difference in the lives of kids very much like themselves. Best men, indeed.

Then. . .

Caring adults providing direction were the salvation of Blunt and Richards.

“We very easily could be in the papers for a totally different reason,” Richards said. “We had the upbringing to be strong enough to say to guys about to do something illegal, ‘This is where we separate.’

“Dear friends I have today are not as successful as Sean and I because of things they got into at a young age.”

For Richards, direction came from his parents--Celeste and Walter Johns--and a tight group of neighbors who remain family friends. Chris was the second of four sons, the youngest of whom is Keary Johns, a San Fernando standout and Richards’ defensive coordinator at Monroe.

For Blunt, direction came from the aunt and uncle who raised him. Blunt’s parents and four older brothers lived only blocks away, but Irma and Willie King provided a stable household.

“My uncle was a hard-core disciplinarian,” Blunt said. “When a situation would arise, I’d think, ‘If I get in this trouble, do I want to deal with him?’

“Chris’ parents were like my aunt, very nurturing. They treated me like a son.”

Willie King, known as Uncle June, was a father figure to Richards too.

“Every time I’d drop by he would say, ‘What are you young men up to?,’ ” Richards said. “He does it to this day.”

High school introduced positive influences in the form of coaches, most of whom are still at San Fernando. Bill Hornbeck, their coach as sophomores, is an assistant principal; Dwight Chapman, their position coach, is the Tigers’ frosh-soph coach; Tom Hernandez, their coach as juniors and seniors, is Blunt’s offensive coordinator.

Richards developed into an All-City tailback who ranks second on San Fernando’s all-time rushing list. Blunt became an All-City cornerback. Both were captains in 1983, their senior year when San Fernando advanced to the City semifinals.

“Of all the kids I had in close to 20 years of coaching, Sean and Chris were the two I believed would come back and coach,” Hernandez said. “They had the people skills, the enthusiasm and they understood hard work.”

Blunt earned a scholarship to Nevada Las Vegas, played for four years and brought home a degree, the first in his immediate family.

Richards fulfilled his childhood dream by getting a scholarship to play for Barry Switzer at Oklahoma. But he encountered racism for the first time, got buried on the depth chart and left three weeks into his second season.

His first call was to Blunt.

“Sean told me I had nothing to be ashamed of,” Richards said. “That’s what I needed to hear at a time like that.”

Richards earned an associate of arts degree at Alameda Junior College in less than a year, transferred to California and started at tailback for three seasons.

He signed with the Los Angeles Rams as a free agent but left near the end of training camp, returned to Cal and finished his degree.

“I spent a week in Berkeley with Chris and we talked about coming back to San Fernando and building a City powerhouse,” Blunt said. “We both just wanted to coach.”

. . . Now

Blunt and Richards never have coached together. Richards was an assistant at San Fernando in 1990, but Blunt was a graduate assistant at UNLV and didn’t join the staff until the following year.

By then, Richards was an assistant at Monroe. After the ’91 season, he stopped coaching to work with at-risk youth in foster and group homes. Richards, along with his wife, Kelley, a social worker, eventually founded their own nonprofit program for troubled youth called the Pacoima Athletic Club, which provides social services and helps with job training.

“We will always work with kids, always,” Richards said.

Richards’ roots are deep. He has five children, including three sons who play for the same youth program he did, the North Valley Golden Bears.

He teaches English literature at Monroe and is learning philosophy on the field.

“Coaching is more difficult than I anticipated,” he said. “I’ve always been able to develop rapport with kids.

“From what I’m seeing at Monroe, the players’ expectations need to be raised. How do I get kids to believe they can win?”

Blunt benefits from San Fernando’s strong tradition. He played for Hernandez, who played for Bill Marsh, who played for Orland Schmidt, who began his tenure in 1946. Each was an All-City San Fernando player as well.

“It’s a huge family,” Blunt said.

Blunt is big on roots, too. His wife, Kim, was in his first-grade class and he doesn’t plan on leaving San Fernando any time soon.

“Chris and I are products of staying with commitment, no matter what,” Blunt said. “You don’t transfer your senior year. You stay loyal.”

As much as these kindred spirits would like to coach together, the time isn’t right. Again, loyalty.

“Sean and I made the decision to attend San Fernando High because it meant so much to wear that Tiger jersey and helmet,” Richards said.

“The dedication, the commitment, the pride, that’s what I remember.

“I’m trying to instill all that at Monroe. How far can I take this program? Let’s find out.”

Discovery continues tonight. Blunt will help by providing as severe a test as possible.

What are friends for?