A Football Team’s Merit Is Relative

The game wasn’t on television, so there’s no need, as there is on the big dailies, to write a discursive lead telling everything but who won and the score.

The Brentwood Eagles defeated the Flintridge Prep Rebels 41-21 in a game played on the natural grass of the Brentwood field before a crowd of 2,000 from both schools (and families).

If you look on page C14 in The Times of Nov. 26 (The Day in Sports), you will find that score under High School Football, Eight Man Playoffs, Large Division Playoffs, the “eight man� referring to the fact that each team had only eight players (and the field was only 80 yards long).

Nevertheless, it was real football, full of spectacular plays, with the enthusiasm kept high by the almost constant urging of the cheerleaders, all girls. The Flintridge girls were in short white costumes trimmed in black, the Brentwood group in red, white and blue.

Since there are grandstands on only one side of the field, the two schools’ crowds sat together and the girls took turns leading yells. They were indefatigable. When the other team had the ball they yelled “Defense, Defense,� or “Go, go get ‘em! get ‘em!� “Don’t let ‘em gain a yard� or “Take that ball away!�

When Brentwood had the ball, the school’s cheerleaders yelled, “Go! Go! Let’s go all the way.�

When Brentwood scored they yelled, rather prematurely, I thought, “Yes we are . . . superior by far !�

The Times listed the touchdown plays, including three by Scott Fagan, and three spectacular runs of 65, 55 and 26 yards by Rico Saken. My grandson Casey Smith, running back and linebacker, played a creditable game, making several bone-rattling tackles, a quarterback sack and an interception.

The game’s first play from scrimmage had been ominous for the Eagles. Rebel tight end Bob Lee caught a pass from quarterback Brian Christian and ran 65 yards for the game’s first touchdown.

The teams came into the game with records of 11-0 (Eagles) and 9-1 (Flintridge), that one Flintridge loss being a loss to the Eagles in an exciting 48-40 game.

So the Eagles can yell, “Yes we are . . . superior by far.�

It was a beautiful afternoon. On one side, the field is surrounded by eucalyptus, sycamores and pine trees. Handsome school buildings may be seen.

I write about Brentwood and Flintridge only to remind my readers that USC and UCLA are not the only football teams on the horizon.

Meanwhile, I am chastised by a Cornell alum for writing that in her letters to her parents, my granddaughter Alison, who began this semester as a freshman at Cornell, did not mention the Cornell football team. “Evidently,� I said, “it is nothing to write home about.�

“I graduated from Cornell in 1994,� writes Scott Bielicki of Hermosa Beach. “While there I spent a great deal of time with a number of football players. Your remark was ignorant. Over the last several years Cornell football has one of the best winning percentages in the Ivy League. Currently the team is 2-1, the loss the result of its fourth quarter comeback against Princeton that came up two points short. If you read your own paper a little more carefully you would have found this information in the sports section.

“More important than the team’s record is the quality of its players. I’m not speaking of 4.2 second 40s or 500-pound bench presses. I’m speaking of 1,300 SAT scores and 3.5 GPAs. Unlike some of the programs that you feel are worthy of ‘writing home about,’ Cornell produces true student athletes. Grades come first in the Ivy League. If you don’t have them you don’t get in and if you don’t keep them you don’t play.

“Finally, you don’t have Cornell players getting in trouble for selling crack, beating up their girlfriends, or being accused of murder. They play for four years, get their degrees and then go on to be doctors, lawyers, teachers, businessmen, actors and even American Gladiators.

“If your granddaughter doesn’t think these players are worth writing home about, then I urge her to go and speak to some of my friends still on the team (Greg Bloedorn, center; Steve Joyce, quarterback) . . . I bet she will be impressed.�

I hope Bielicki doesn’t blame my granddaughter for my suggestion that the Cornell football team is not worth writing home about. That was my thought, based only on the fact that she hadn’t mentioned the team.

Well, there is a lot to write home about for a young woman newly enrolled in the Ivy League. We have to give her time. I’m not suggesting, either, that she look up the players Bielicki mentioned, though if she wants to meet a boyfriend who won’t beat her up it’s not a bad idea.

* Jack Smith’s column is published Mondays.