More Than Just Injuries Hurt CSUN : College football: Several players believe a lack of team unity contributed to a lackluster season in ’91.

Cal State Northridge’s fall from 1990 Western Football Conference champion to a 3-7 record last season cannot be traced solely to the injuries that plagued the offensive line and quarterbacks.

The dismal year ended with a humiliating 55-12 loss at Cal State Sacramento, and several players believe the team’s lack of unity sabotaged the season. In some cases, it was a black-and-white issue.

With few exceptions, African-American players traveled on one bus and white players traveled on another.

“It was, let me stress, the players’ decision,” said Don Martin, a 1991 senior. “It was not like we got together and decided it.

“We had a black driver and he played the music we liked. It was like an unwritten law. Eventually, we became aware of it and we realized that that’s what we lacked as a team. We didn’t mingle with the others.”

The gap widened last March when several members of the football team took leading roles in the Black Student Union and the Black Student Athletes Assn., which charged the athletic program with racism and called for the resignation of Athletic Director Bob Hiegert.

The 9.2% graduation rate of Northridge’s African-American athletes and the absence of African-Americans on the football coaching staff were among the circumstances that outraged the BSU and BSAA.

Three African-American coaches were added to the football staff this year, although Coach Bob Burt insists that their race is a coincidence. Graduate assistant Cornell Ward was hired before the BSAA protests, volunteer defensive back coach LeRoy Irvin initiated contact with Burt, and quarterbacks/wide receiver coach Dale Bunn, a Cal State Fullerton assistant for eight years, was the most qualified candidate for the job, Burt said.

While the new coaches have been well received, some players fear that the efforts of the BSAA might undermine team unity. “The only thing you can try to do is keep it off the field,” said senior Marty Fisher, a team captain and quarterback. “They are BSU members off the field, not BSU members on the field. They’re CSUN players, black, white, Hispanic and Vietnamese.

“As far as the racial stuff, we’ll deal with it when it comes. It’s going to be tough. It’s there. It’s in the world.”

Uniting players of different racial backgrounds is only one step in the healing process. Some of the divisions on last season’s team had nothing to do with race.

Annually in the fall, several junior college players transfer to Northridge. Along with incoming freshmen, the newcomers have only three weeks before the season starts to get to know each other and the returning players and to establish team identity and unity.

“Last year, a lot of guys like myself came in late (last August), so the unity wasn’t there,” linebacker Tyrone Dorsey said. “This year, we’re tighter. We went through spring training together.”

After what he went through, Dorsey and other team leaders are determined to make sure that new players feel welcome. To that end, the players met in small groups of four after each two-a-day session. “We would find a group of guys we didn’t know, sit down, say where we’re from, what we think of camp and where we picture ourselves on the depth chart,” team captain Eric Treibatch said.

The meetings are the first of their kind in Treibatch’s six years at Northridge.

“When things don’t go right, people try to find the reasons why,” he said. “I don’t know why we weren’t close last year. I really can’t figure it out.”

Fisher attributes the disharmony on last year’s team to an unwillingness among players to break out of familiar circles. “We had our own little cliques,” he said. “But it was not a black-and-white thing. Two years ago, we were as much a unit as ever. We were friends, joking around.”

But last season, players were offended by jokes, according to Fisher.

Northridge’s 1-2 start didn’t help matters.

“We were gung-ho and high and mighty and then we start off 1-2 and guys lost faith and lacked confidence,” Fisher said. “The coaches hung with us all season, but there were a few guys who quit . . . I won’t name names.”

Fisher claims that some players refused to accept their roles, particularly those who did not make the starting team. He knows whereof he speaks. As a freshman and sophomore, Fisher was limited to holding for kicks. On rare occasions, he filled in for starting quarterback Sherdrick Bonner.

“Sherdrick and I were the best of friends, on and off the field,” Fisher said. “That was our winning season. Everybody had the same attitude I did.

“We gotta find that attitude. Last year, too many guys took it personally when they were not playing. We’ve got mature guys now and if guys don’t (shape up), guys will tell them.”

Burt insists that a few poor attitudes will not spoil team chemistry.

“It’s not gonna happen,” he said. “Anybody who can’t stay focused or who puts themselves above the team will not be with us. There’s a lot of people who think that way. This isn’t last year.”