Lineman Cabrera Grows in Stature

The turnaround within the turnaround is just as obvious.

UCLA is 2-0, ranked 14th in the nation and about to play host to the No. 3 team, Michigan. And, Oscar Cabrera is a team captain.

“That was the thing that shocked me,” he says. “The fact that I did get chosen by my peers.”

Chosen by the very players who were angered last season. Not at Cabrera in particular, but at the group involved in the handicapped-placard scam, of which he was one.

Chosen by the very players--running backs, quarterbacks, even receivers since this is a trick-play offense--who were flattened last season. Not by Cabrera in particular, but by the group of offensive linemen whose struggles in 1999 were part of the Bruin downfall.

“I expected some other people to be picked captain,” Coach Bob Toledo says. “It kind of surprised me. He’s so quiet. He doesn’t really say a lot. I think it was a combination of all those things. Yeah, that surprised me.”

So, why then?

“He withstood a lot of the problems that happened last year,” Toledo said. “He handled it. He’s come a long way.”

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The starting left guard on the No. 14 team in the country--the team that has opened massive holes for DeShaun Foster, the one that is scandal-free--came from Eagle Rock and Franklin High. He played baseball for four years at Franklin, hitting the game-winning double at Dodger Stadium in the 1994 City Section 3-A championship game. He played three years of football, eventually being named second-team all-state by Cal-Hi Sports.

He arrived at UCLA in the fall of 1996 with the typical insecurities--Can I keep up academically? Will I fit in personally? He was shy, even withdrawn sometimes. Besides that, he was an afterthought on the depth chart, spending that first season on the scout team and playing sparingly in ’97. And if that wasn’t enough, he was on the same unit as Andy Meyers, Shawn Stuart and Kris Farris, a great group of guys, except that Meyers would just as soon eat freshmen for lunch as acknowledge them.

Cabrera’s chance came in 1998, the Rose Bowl year, when he and Brian Polak were the newcomers on what became the dominant offensive line in the conference and among the best in the nation. Cabrera started seven times in that sophomore season.

Then came ’99. Farris, Stuart and Meyers were gone. The invincibility was gone, with only one team in the Pacific 10 allowing more sacks and only one gaining fewer yards on the ground. And Cabrera was gone for the first two games. Even while being well aware of his prominent role in the Latino community, he got involved in using the handicapped placards.

And now look.

The turnaround within the turnaround. Back in form, as a senior. As a captain.

“It definitely shows how far I’ve come,” Cabrera said.

He could never have imagined making up this kind of distance. The handicapped issue faded during the off-season, but then to be given the honor, along with defensive end Kenyon Coleman, of being voted by peers to represent the team? No way.

“Because of all the stuff that went down last year,” Polak said. “You wouldn’t think that an offensive lineman would lead the team out there, because of all the heat we got. But he’s a great guy. He interacts a lot. He has a good personality. He can reach out to people.”

Being named team captain was a meaningful step for Cabrera, who plans on a career in social work after he graduates with a degree in sociology.

“We can’t even think of a time he was that excited,” Lupe Cabrera said, recalling the recent night his son called home with the news. “We hadn’t heard him that happy in a long time.”

It was special for Oscar. It was special for the family, parents Lupe and Grace and younger sisters Judith, a freshman at Franklin, and Anabel.

It was special for everyone.

“Everything he does is being watched,” said Anabel, who just graduated from Franklin. “Everyone is so proud of him and it’s like everyone wants that connection with him--’I was one of his teachers’ or ‘I was his coach.’ Things like that.”

Things like this:

“I’m from the inner city,” Oscar said. “My high school is not very well known. I feel like ever since I’ve been here, I represent the Latino community. Maybe everybody doesn’t see it like that, but I feel like that. I kind of feel like if I do good, it can show other people that they can go out and do it if they work hard.

“I’m sure there’s quite a few Latinos out there who are on scholarship playing for a major Division I program. But to me, it’s special because I’m from L.A. and I’m here playing at UCLA. And I’m a captain? Wow, who would ever have thought that?”

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No. 3 Michigan

at No. 14 UCLA

12:30 p.m. Saturday

Channel 7

Marked Man

Rick Neuheisel can take the high road, writes Chris Dufresne. Page 8