MAJOR LEAGUE

The program has been peppered by controversy, probations and a suspension.

The high-strung coach hints about retiring every year.

From afar, the Sylmar High football team resembles a roller coaster, but there are plenty of reasons why it has stayed the course of sustained excellence.

Sixty-seven reasons, to be exact.

And counting.

The Spartans have not lost a league game since Oct. 20, 1989. A victory tonight over Monroe in a Valley Mission League opener and Sylmar will tie the state record of 68 consecutive league victories held by Salinas Palma.

Concord De La Salle’s league winning streak of 62 games is on hold because the school is playing as an independent.

Sylmar has less in common with Palma and De La Salle than a roach coach does with five-star restaurants, making it all the more remarkable that Coach Jeff Engilman’s time-tested recipe produces victories by the platterful.

“Our expectations are high and our kids are ingrained with that,” said London Woodfin, a Sylmar assistant who was a lineman at the school in 1987-88, Engilman’s first two seasons.

“The intensity is cranked way up playing for Coach Engilman. The kids believe in themselves and feel like winners.”

Players at Palma and De La Salle know they are winners the first day they walk on campus. Their well-funded programs glitter with every amenity. The two private schools are the royalty of the CIF Central Coast and North Coast sections, much the way Santa Ana Mater Dei is in the Southern Section.

Sylmar, however, is nearly indistinguishable from other aging City Section schools. Dollars are tight. Paint is peeling and windows are smashed in the locker room, where graffiti is more prevalent than motivational slogans.

Indications of a decade-long football power are few. A sign on the tiny stadium press box proclaims Sylmar’s City championships in 1992 and ’94. Light-blue trim on apartment buildings across the street matches the school colors, a modest display of community pride.

Not unless a visitor navigates through the malodorous weight room throbbing with rap music, past the table wedged in a hall where Engilman is taping ankles while barking orders, and through the locker room to the coaches’ office is hard evidence found.

Splashed on the wall above Engilman’s desk are gleaming photos of smiling college football players, Sylmar graduates all. And taped to the side of a file cabinet are the business cards of dozens of major-college recruiters.

“I look forward to being up on that wall,” said Clifford Johnson, a three-year starter at defensive back and receiver. “I think about it all the time. I can leave here and be somebody.”

Sylmar pride runs deep, shabby surroundings notwithstanding. Former players such as fullback Durell Price of UCLA, linebacker Derrell Daniels of Washington and tight end Jose Ochoa of Colorado State return to their alma mater with a message.

“Those guys tell us to keep the tradition going,” Johnson said. “That’s why this streak is very important to us. We don’t want to be the ones who see it end.”

Releaguing dealt the Spartans a difficult hand this season. Never before has Sylmar (3-2) had to face San Fernando (5-0) or Kennedy (3-2) in league play.

Most years, Sylmar sauntered through league play like a beach bully toppling sand castles. The average score during the streak is 39-7.

Canoga Park took the Spartans to overtime in 1996 and North Hollywood led at halftime in ’95. Otherwise, knocking off the likes of Poly, Grant, Van Nuys, Birmingham, Reseda and Monroe was a mere annoyance en route to the playoffs.

None of those programs is a traditional power, but that shouldn’t take away from the Spartans’ accomplishment: Sylmar was just another of the have-nots until Engilman came along.

“He turned the program around on the sheer force of his intensity,” Woodfin said.

Engilman’s reputation has taken hits because of infractions such as illegal team meetings and practices that resulted in probation for the program. He was suspended for two games in 1996 because of an undue-influence charge concerning Daniels, a transfer from San Fernando.

No students are bused to Sylmar from Los Angeles, but the program has benefited from its share of open-enrollment transfers. That trend appears to be waning, to Engilman’s chagrin.

“With all of our accomplishments, the thing that bugs me the most is that we have a heck of a time getting ballplayers,” he said. “Maybe I drive them away. I don’t know.”

Engilman’s game-day demeanor has mellowed only slightly. The cartoonish bulging eyes, jutting jaw and X-rated rantings still strike fear into the hearts of the toughest ballplayers.

“I tell every team the same thing,” Engilman said. “ ‘Hey, guys, I’m not going to change. I’m a perfectionist. And the trouble is, you’re never perfect.’ ”

Such fervor takes its toll.

For every outburst, there is a reflective moment when Engilman, 49, wonders if it’s worth it.

“In 1988, my senior year, he pulled me and [running back] Jerome Casey aside and told us he was leaving when we graduated,” said Woodfin, who returned to teach and coach at his alma mater after graduating from UCLA in 1995.

Engilman’s public waffling on retirement became so frequent that in 1996 The Times published a letter from a Woodland Hills reader, who wrote, “Hey, Engilman! If you’re going to quit, then quit. Nobody cares. But either quit or shut up about it.”

He has done neither.

“I was going to give it up after last year, big time,” Engilman said. “But I like to win and I enjoy being around kids. I’m still kind of a kid myself.”

He looks fit and his blood pressure is lower than it’s been in years. Every year, he relinquishes more responsibility to Woodfin and fellow assistants Dan Kelley, James McGee, Steve Perez and Keith Weiser.

All but Weiser are former Sylmar players, which makes for a tightknit group. The staff takes several camping trips a year with their wives.

“When it comes down to organization and motivation, it’s still Engilman,” said Kelley, the offensive coordinator. “When he says something during a game, we do it. Maybe that’s part of him having been our coach.”

Engilman and Madeline, his wife of more than 20 years, have no children. Or they have several hundred--every player to wear a Sylmar uniform.

He can rattle off the names of every Spartan who earned a Division I scholarship, 21 in all. He is chagrined at the “phenomenal number” of talented players who quit school or failed to qualify academically for a scholarship.

He revels in every detail of the City championships and cringes at the toughest playoff defeats. To Taft in 1997. To Carson in 1993. To Dorsey in 1991.

The game tonight is as meaningful as any of those. Engilman tried to downplay it earlier, but upon finding out that Palma’s streak was ended, he couldn’t hide his enthusiasm.

“I’ve never been into records,” he said. “But this is something that reflects the commitment of every kid in our program for 10 years. That is something special.”