This Team Has a Prayer

Spin it a little and you could say that the boys on the Saddleback Valley Christian football team have enjoyed a storybook season.

Storybook in that they’re like football’s version of the make-believe Bad News Bears or Mighty Ducks. There’s just one flaw: With an 0-6 record, there is no hope of a comeback leading to an unlikely championship when the Warriors play their final game today against Riverside’s Bethel Christian.

But finishing the season is victory enough for this scrappy, start-up team of 14 South County boys who have far more spunk than skill.

“They told us we were nuts; they said we were crazy, and maybe we are,” Coach Mike Henjum said. “But I’m really proud of these kids. We’ve done it. They’ve done it.”

The tiny new private high school in San Juan Capistrano has faced one setback after another this season as it launched an 11-man football team against the advice of many. With an enrollment of 95, the high school has only 42 boys--fewer than many varsity football rosters in the county.

Size is a problem in every way. Barring injuries, the Warriors have a maximum of three substitutes, and several of the players--who are mostly freshmen and sophomores--are so small they seem lost inside their uniforms. Many, having never played football before, didn’t know basics such as how to block--or follow a block. And then there were all those pesky rules.

When sophomore Dan Martin got into a game for the first time, coaches kept it simple, instructing him to hit as hard as his 135 pounds allowed. Teammates collapse in laughter recalling how the opposing player went airborne when smacked from behind, and Martin’s surprise at being penalized for clipping. “No one told me that was illegal,” Martin said.

Mickey Bodnar, an assistant coach, said he can do little but shake his head in moments like that--or when missed passes, misdirection and misunderstood calls lead to yet another loss.

“It’s so easy to get frustrated, but when that happens I step back and look at what these kids are doing,” he said. “They’ve been really outmatched this season--so many of them are young, with no experience--but they keep coming out here. . . . I have to admire them.”

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The season played itself out against a churn of change that threatened the team’s stability. Henjum, in his first year as head coach, was drafted in the spring to replace a coach who quit to guide a more established team. Then, the most experienced assistant left after a few frustrating games.

The starting quarterback was dismissed for disciplinary reasons after two games, forcing 15-year-old Chris Frey to take over a position for which he had little training. The team lacked basic equipment, like a blocking sled. Practice and game fields had to be borrowed or begged from other schools, and there were days when even coaches were confused about where or when games were scheduled.

But the biggest challenge by far has been facing a season with so few players, when an illness, a pulled muscle or a family emergency could have ended it all. Every boy is expected to know two positions on both sides of the ball, which means they rarely get a rest during games. To wit: Jayson Boyd, a 140-pound sophomore, has been given the nickname “Slash”--as in running back/receiver/offensive guard/linebacker--because he plays nine positions in all.

At a practice this week, only 10 players were on hand when Henjum instructed the offense to start running plays. So athletic director Rod Markum’s 8-year-old son, Josh, was drafted to stand in as wide receiver to help hold the formations.

“We’ve learned to make do with what we’ve got,” Rod Markum said.

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That attitude best describes one player in particular, freshman Kell Ryan, who “rounds up” his weight to 140 pounds and claims to stand 5 feet 7, which Henjum says still makes Ryan one of the smallest linemen in the state.

Ryan earned the admiration of his teammates and coaches in preseason practice, when the slight, freckle-faced youth was learning the basics of blocking, and doing it all wrong. And then getting up and doing it all over again.

Coaches ordered Ryan to sit down because they feared he was going to hurt himself. And that’s how the 15-year-old got the nickname “Rudy,” after the movie about a boy who chases a dream to play for Notre Dame.

Perseverance is the running theme for both the team and the school, which is still in the blueprint stages. Classes are held in borrowed facilities of nearby churches. Plans include a sprawling 67-acre campus just south of Interstate 5. There will be a state-of-the art athletic compound and classrooms to accommodate nearly 1,800 students, K-12.

Record aside, the Warriors are, in some quarters, considered nothing less than campus heroes, symbols of a bright future for a campus struggling to find its identity.

“As far as the scoreboard goes, it’s been a difficult season, but you’d never know that from the spirit of the kids on campus,” Principal Kevin Rex said. “Somehow, [the players] recognize that even though some of them might not be around to see the fruits of their labor, they’re part of the foundation that’s making this happen. They kind of feel like pioneers.”

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The Warriors can also count opponents among their fans.

“You have to give those boys all the credit in the world,” said St. Genevieves Athletic Director Marlon Archey. When his team played Saddleback Valley Christian early in the season and was well on its way to a 53-0 victory, it offered to ease up. “We wanted to make sure that by no means were we humiliating the boys or their fans.”

No thanks, the Warriors said.

By game’s end, Archey said, he was cheering on the boys from Saddleback. “When we looked over on their sidelines and saw only two or three players who could sub in, we found ourselves praising them to keep their heads up and make a tackle,” Archey said.

The team stepped onto the field for its first game in September, and the Warriors were pummeled by Daniel Murphy, 47-0, managing to move the ball to their opponent’s side of the field only once. Over seven games, including one junior varsity contest, they’ve given up an average of 37 points, and were outscored 263-106.

But while they were shut out in three of their first four games, the Warriors scored 46 points against Noli Indian School, losing by only two points.

Then came a 26-0 win over Newport Beach Sage Hill, another first-year school. While the victory doesn’t count toward their varsity record--Sage Hill fields only a freshman-sophomore team--it is clearly the highlight of the Warriors’ season.

“It was like the Super Bowl,” said the team’s chaplain, Bill Frey, who is also father of the quarterback.

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As the season draws to a close, the Warriors can look back at the Sage Hill game, the narrowing margins of defeat and the fewer points they’ve allowed in varsity games as undeniable evidence that they are improving.

Deeply devoted, they pray after every practice, after every game, giving thanks for a season that has been free of anything more serious than bumps and bruises. Whereas most teams holler “Defense!” in their huddles, on the count of three the Warriors shout “Family!”

Other traditions are growing as well. On the nights before games, players crowd into a teammate’s house and eat everything in sight before settling down for a prayer session and Bible study. And during the first practice after every game, Coach Henjum calls players out for jobs especially well done.

The reward is a tiny blue sticker of a Christian Warrior, placed on a player’s helmet. It is more cherished and sought after than any number posted on a scoreboard.

“We knew going into this that we were going to lose some games, but we never gave up,” said freshman David Pickett, 14, a defensive end and offensive tackle, showing off the 18 warrior stickers that adorn his helmet. “That’s what these stickers say: We never shut down, no matter what. We never quit.”