Pierce Coach Nurtures His Fledgling Program : Enger Rebuilds Football Team, Scoffs at Skeptics

Want to play college football this fall? Want to stay near home? Want to go into practice with the knowledge that you won’t be battling any returning players for a starting position because there are no returning players? Well, Pierce Coach Bob Enger has the deal you’re looking for.

“We’re selling the opportunity to start because everything is wide open,� Enger said. “I mean everything.�

There are no returning players at Pierce because there was no football team at Pierce last year. Or the year before. Enger is faced with the major task of rebuilding a football program from the cleats up.

It has not been easy. And one of his chief rivals, Valley College Coach Chuck Ferrero, believes that Enger will go through a boxcar full of antacid tablets before he can bring the program back to its previous proud status.

“Let’s face it, no matter how good a coach you have it takes time to establish a program,� Ferrero said. “When I first got this program going in 1980, it was very tough. We were getting players that other schools didn’t recruit and didn’t want. I got other people’s castoffs. You can get 100 guys to show up for your workouts, but mostly they’ll be 100 guys who nobody else recruited very hard. Pierce is probably in that situation.

“The main problem is that right away you get into conference play against some good, established teams and nobody has any mercy on you. And when teams start beating you real bad, it becomes very hard to recruit. It takes time, maybe three or four or five years before you can turn the corner. You’ve got to have great patience.�

To this kind of talk from his rivals, Enger has a general message: If you keep your mouths open that wide, you just might be having a Pierce football surgically removed from your throat some Saturday night this fall.

“We don’t have anyone locked up yet,� he said. “We know we don’t have anyone coming back from last year like the other schools. But there’s a nucleus here to work with. We’ve found some of the kids we wanted. I’m satisfied. We’re ahead of where we thought we’d be.

“As a matter of fact, I’m ahead of where I was in the spring of 1968 when I coached at East L. A. College.�

And that year he took the team to the state junior college championship game.

When Enger was hired in December to breathe life back into the program, he had this to say to the critics he knew were out there: “I don’t intend to slide through a losing season and blame recruiting. I intend to win the championship next year. I wouldn’t bet a whole helluva lot on it, but I wouldn’t bet against it, either. I don’t mean to sound cocky, but I have a lot of confidence in my football coaching ability. If I can get a few of the right people with me, I’ll beat you.�

Before the rivalry turns into a feud, Ferrero wants Enger to know that he wishes him no evil. He only anticipates it. And if a few talented players happen to attend Valley because of potential problems at Pierce, well, there’s nothing he can do about that.

“Something that always bothers me is other coaches talking about programs that aren’t their own,� said Ferrero, whose team was bumped from a tie for the Southern California Conference championship last year because it used an ineligible player in three games that later were declared forfeits.

“I’m not at Pierce and I don’t know what happens at Pierce. Some JCs are talking down Pierce to their potential recruits, criticizing the new program and telling the kids the program will never make it. We don’t do that. We do ask them if they want to invest their future in an unknown commodity, but that’s not talking anyone down.�

Enger smiles at such words. It’s the kind of smile a hungry leopard shows when it spots a herd of giraffes.

“We know some of our neighbors have spread some stories about Pierce,� Enger said. “That kind of recruiting comes back to haunt you. I’ll remember it.�

Among the players working out at Pierce is quarterback Andy Ramos, a backup at Moorpark College last year. Enger thinks he has found the hub of his offense in Ramos.

“He’s a kid who just didn’t fit into Moorpark’s system,� he said. “He’s tall and throws real well, but he’s a dropback thrower and Moorpark’s system was based on a rollout and sprint-out quarterback. But this is what he does well, and he looks to be the best quarterback we’ve got.�

Pierce and Valley will compete in the realigned Western State Conference, along with Bakersfield, Harbor, Compton, Glendale, Southwest, Moorpark, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Santa Monica and West L. A. colleges. The conference will be split into two divisions, with the two winners playing in a conference championship game.

Pierce plays its first game in two years Sept. 10 against East L. A., which also has been without a football program for two years. Enger and East L. A. Coach Al Padilla have known each other for 20 years, and Enger said he expects neither team to take the opportunity to beat the other to sawdust in the nonconference game.

“We’ll go easy on each other in that one,� Enger said. “We know where each other lives.�