Football’s Lessons More Instructive Than a Team’s Ledger

Some things are timeless.

Footballs lie on a practice field. Sweaty teenagers in the uniforms of their school colors line up in rows and, at the sound of “Ready, Go!” run wind sprints. At first an easy gait, then faster, then sidestepping, then backpedaling. A coach’s whistle punctuates the relative quiet, and the players line up and do it again. “Hustle back, let’s go!”

These are the ancient rhythms and exhortations. For as long as football has been played, teenage boys have ended their school day in the ritual of sweat and physicality and critiquing and praise all rolled up into the thing known as football practice.

If only to remind myself that it never changes, I roamed the sidelines one afternoon this week at Marina High School in Huntington Beach as the varsity Vikings went through their paces. Was it really this lifetime, back in the 1960s, when my buddies and I in Weeping Water, Neb., strapped on the gear and wearied ourselves into the growing darkness of November afternoons?

It was, indeed. But on this afternoon in Southern California, the 30 Marina footballers are nearing the end of a long two-hour practice and the end of a long season. They don’t know it, but this is a moment in their lives when they’re saying something about themselves.

Despite being 0-9 and with the almost certain prospect of finishing the season winless tonight when they take on Edison, ranked second by The Times in Southern California, they are out there on the practice field again. Instead of finding a reason not to show up, as some of their teammates have done, this group has chosen the opposite course.

Their coach says boys can handle the physical demands of football, but sometimes the other stuff gets to them: the need to be disciplined, to stay committed, to accept the repetition of doing the things coaches require of them.

The Marina boys are defining themselves by sticking it out. They are building something that will long outlive the taste of Friday night disappointments.

I can’t remember my team’s record from the two years I played but can still quote verbatim from 40 years ago things said on the practice field. And at our 10-year class reunion, I caught up with teammates I hadn’t seen since my sophomore year. We regaled ourselves more with tales from football practice than any other aspect of our their time together.

Some players get it. After Marina’s practice, senior Kurt Willingham says, “I love football. Anything involved with it, I enjoy.” He remembers being a sophomore and playing hard in practice and how the seniors respected him for it. Then, after a game against powerhouse Mission Viejo, one of the opposing coaches complimented him for giving maximum effort.

Senior linebacker Victor Ordonez says the team has had a killer schedule, which makes the record a bit more palatable. Counting Edison, Marina will have played four teams currently in the county’s Top 10. Ordonez appreciates the challenge and the moment. “There’s only one chance at high school football,” he says. “You only get to do it once.”

Coach Mike Dodd seems a bit worn down by the losses. It’s not fun to lose every week, and when I say there’s much more to prep football than wins and losses, he gives me a wry look like, Try telling that to the boosters.

Dodd says the coaches have seen growth in some of the players and that many still care deeply.

He says you could still see tears in the eyes of some of them after a loss and hear some say, “Coach, we’re going to play better next game.”

I get the sense Dodd appreciates the hidden grandeur of high school football: that still-unformed young men start filling in some pieces. “It’s hard,” Dodd says, describing what coaches tell the kids. “Ten weeks. It’s hard to play week to week, because you’re doing the same thing. You’ve got to be structured. A football team is a commitment to one within the group.”

Through the drudgery of late-season practices and the losses and the pulled quads and hyper-extended elbows that his players have withstood this season, Dodd can take solace in knowing that someday they’ll find that the real virtue was in seeing it through.

“Friday night in prep football is still a good place to be,” Dodd says.

The man knows of what he speaks, and then in a tradition that long predates him, he says, “We’ll be better next year.”

Dana Parsons can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.