Air Command

Ruben’s red hot.

His passes are zipping, his receivers are zigging and zagging.

Kennedy High is in the City Championship playoffs and quarterback Ruben Zaragoza is carving up Sylmar with the precision of Zorro. The scoring frenzy continues until the final gun.

Kennedy 69, Sylmar 33.

It’s as many points as the Spartans, a City Section power with a proud defensive tradition, normally give up in a month.

Zaragoza passes for five touchdowns and runs for three. Afterward he compliments his linemen. He gives credit to his coaches. He pinches himself.

It is not a dream.

For 11 months, Zaragoza and four receivers as tiny as they are talented worked to implement Kennedy’s new spread offense.

They practiced at parks on holidays. They played 50 passing-league games. They studied playbooks every day while eating lunch.

Nicknames came their way. The Fab Five. The Flying Cougars. The Kennedy Flash.

They’ve lived up to every one, shattering records and earning a share of the Valley Mission League championship.

With the 442 yards he passed for against Sylmar last week, Zaragoza has amassed 3,028 yards and 34 touchdowns. All three marks are school records.

Sanders Trent, a 5-foot-8 senior, has 76 catches, best ever at Kennedy. James Norris, a 5-6 junior, has 70 catches for a school-record 1,086 yards and 22 touchdowns. Senior receivers Paul Holifield, 5-11, and Daron Taylor, 5-10, are dangerous as well, each making more than 30 catches.

“Our strength is our minds,” Zaragoza said. “We prepare. Then when the defense adjusts, we change it up. We have advanced our offense beyond where anybody but us believed it could go.”

Although Kennedy has had good quarterbacks, including Calvin Zinck and Dan McMullen in the 1990s, Coach Bob Francola has preferred to run. Realizing he had the personnel and knowledgeable assistants to implement a passing scheme, Francola ordered the offense overhauled last December.

Assistants Fred Grimes and Billy Parra went right to work, barely containing their glee. Zaragoza and his helping hands hit a local park.

“We got together every chance we could, even on Memorial Day,” Norris said. “People walked by and said, ‘Who are those guys?’ ”

At lunch, the quintet gathered in a classroom with Parra, studying the offense with the same diligence they exhibit in maintaining 3.0 grade-point averages.

“We studied one play and wouldn’t go on to the next one until every guy could explain how it worked against every defense we would encounter,” Parra said.

A breakthrough came in the Valley passing-league tournament. A day after losing to Loyola, Cathedral and Hart, the Golden Cougars rebounded to defeat Newbury Park and Alemany.

“Alemany was shocked,” Zaragoza said.

The season began and everything seemed deceptively easy. Kennedy scored 124 points in opening with three victories.

“The timing was there and we surprised people,” Zaragoza said.

A reality check awaited. Well-coached City powers Taft, Granada Hills and San Fernando defeated Kennedy by disguising coverages and blitzing on the corner to exploit the tight splits of Kennedy linemen.

Francola replaced tailback Jerome Williams--a small, elusive runner overwhelmed as a blocker--with 215-pound Mike Miles. Not only has Miles slowed blitzing linebackers, he’s rushed for 458 yards in five games--all victories.

Kennedy faces No. 2-seeded Crenshaw tonight in a quarterfinal game at Fremont High. Most years, the first time the Golden Cougars went “over the hill” into Los Angeles, they returned home to turn in their gear and say goodbyes.

Now they believe their passes will provide entry into the Coliseum for the City Championship final in three weeks.

“We have a legitimate chance because [Crenshaw] has not seen an offense like ours,” Taylor said. “They don’t respect us because we’re Valley boys, but we’ll give them a different look.”

At school, the receivers and Zaragoza run together.

“We feed off each other, we need each other,” Holifield said. “We’re like brothers.”

Most families aren’t this harmonious.

“We play every game for each other,” Trent said. “Nobody is counting how many balls he gets compared to anybody else. Ruben spreads it around. None of us would be anything without all of us.”

The three senior receivers are being recruited by colleges in the Big Sky and Western Athletic conferences. Norris probably will be the most highly recruited of all.

Despite Zaragoza’s superior skills, leadership and intelligence, Division I schools consider him a question mark because he stands 5-9.

“Ruben can play at the next level,” Francola said. “He’s a huge overachiever. His attributes are toughness and intelligence.

“He works ferociously on his weaknesses and he has a quick mind.”

Zaragoza is involved in student government and is an editor on the school newspaper.

“I don’t think I’ve ever coached a kid who is so well-liked by his teachers, even the teachers who normally don’t like athletes,” Grimes said.

Unpopular only to opponents, Zaragoza will be remembered at Kennedy as a pioneer. He and his teammates successfully implemented a potent new offense, one the coaches plan to continue.

“Five years from now when we come to a Kennedy game and they are still passing, we’ll feel real proud,” Zaragoza said. “But right now, we’re only thinking about today.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Passing Fancy

A look at the progression of the Kennedy passing attack, which blossomed this season under a new spread offense:

Tavarus Logie (1991): 720 yards passing

John Toven (1992): 882 yards passing

Dan McMullen (1993): 1,481 yards passing

Dan McMullen (1994): 1,254 yards passing

Calvin Zinck (1995): 1,578 yards passing

Calvin Zinck (1996): 2,221 yards passing

Ray Rodriguez (1997): 1,358 yards passing

Ruben Zaragoza (1998): 1,402 yards passing

Ruben Zaragoza (1999): 3,028 yards passing