UCLA’s Fans Enjoy Having USC Behind the Eight Ball

There are no studies documenting the rise in work-place violence before and after the USC-UCLA football game, but bosses throughout Southern California are on alert.

Verbal combat is breaking out at the water cooler, at the copying machine, in the cafeteria, in the locker room, in the restroom, on the playing field, on the Internet.

At Westlake High, line coach John Kidder, a former UCLA tackle, and special teams coach Erik Affholter, a former USC receiver, have launched their annual verbal duel.

Kidder: “Affholter brought it up the other day, saying [USC] is going to kick our butts and another coach says, ‘How could you bring that up? It’s been eight years in a row and you’re initiating the battle?’ ”

Affholter: “I figure we have to have something good happen this year. You would think in a year UCLA is not the greatest team we’d be the overwhelming favorite.”

Kidder and Affholter are hardly the only ones taking sides. Linebacker Jordan Lampos and receiver Michael Brignac are big USC supporters, with receiver Chris Catalano and lineman Keith Holt taking UCLA.

“It’s really divided 50-50,” Affholter said of the Warriors.

Coach Jim Benkert is acting like a boxing referee trying to keep the two sides separated.

“I feel more like ‘Dear Abby’ listening to their logic how neither one knows what they’re talking about,” Benkert said.

Affholter, who caught a controversial game-winning touchdown pass in the 1987 USC-UCLA game, enjoys making Bruin fans think they were cheated.

“He tells Bruins he dropped it,” Kidder said. “He tells Trojans he caught it just to look like a hero to them and rub it in to us.”

At Newbury Park, Principal Max Beaman, a USC fan, is preparing for a strange week.

“There seems to be a little bit of shenanigans,” Beaman said.

Secretary Pat Dziegielewski, a USC supporter, said one year a Newbury Park teacher sent his students to her office to do the UCLA eight-clap cheer.

Another person switched her USC computer screensaver to UCLA. She retaliated by putting cardinal and gold USC pompoms in the mail boxes of teachers who root for UCLA.

At Taft, tension is growing between assistant principals Sue Lepisto and Cheri Guenther.

“She has this darn big USC pennant above her desk,” Lepisto said. “I’m bringing in my UCLA pennant, so when she turns to look at me, she’ll see that.”

Lepisto’s son, Garrett, is a freshman receiver at UCLA. Her husband, Vic, played for UCLA from 1964-67.

Guenther is a UCLA graduate who changed her allegiance to USC earlier this year after her son, Gregg, accepted a football scholarship to USC.

“When Gregg was entertaining an offer from USC, he goes, ‘Mom, are you going to have a problem with that?’ ” Guenther said. “I told him, ‘Anyone who wants to support you and take care of you for five years, I can wear burgundy and gold.’ ”

And how’s life as a Trojan fan?

“I’m learning to act like all those other Trojans and how they treated me those years,” Guenther said.

There is one sign of a thawing in the USC-UCLA rivalry. Clay Matthews, a former Trojan linebacker, is head coach for an unbeaten Agoura youth football team made up of eighth-graders. His assistant coach is Vic Lepisto, as diehard a Bruin fan as they come.

“It’s a strange experience because in all the years since I’ve played, I’ve never been in a relationship where I worked with a USC person,” Lepisto said. “If there were more of them like [Clay], I’d probably have more USC friends. I was a little skeptical in the beginning. I don’t know how, but he’s won me over.”

Lepisto’s youngest son, Braden, and Matthews’ son, Clay III, have become good friends and top players for the 9-0 youth team. They have no intention of letting their parents’ USC-UCLA ties affect their relationship.

“I’m a UCLA fan,” Braden said. “I don’t have anything against Clay.”

Vic is looking forward to winning another dinner bet from his father-in-law, the family’s lone USC fan.

“It’s a yearly wager,” Vic said. “I’ve had some great meals the last eight years. Every year it escalates, the size of the meal, the stature of the restaurant.”

Kidder has a response if his beloved Bruins happen to lose Saturday at the Coliseum.

“I’m going to say I’ll be collecting Social Security by the time they catch up to me in wins,” he said.

At Alemany, Principal Rev. Jim Anguiano, a UCLA fan, is nervous how he’s going to react next Monday at the game’s outcome.

“I could be doing cartwheels down the hall or hiding in my office,” he said.

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Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422 or eric.sondheimer@latimes.com