Once-Ailing Poly Is Perking Up

Hours before game time, Poly High football players gathered in a dreary classroom for their weekly home-cooked meal of rice, beans and ground beef.

Normally they would go about eating and watching game film on a television set at the front of the room, then wait their turn to climb onto a desk and have their ankles taped.

But last Friday the players arrived to find dozens of cards and letters taped to the bare walls. The mail was from across Southern California, from people who read about the winless team in an Oct. 17 article in The Times.

There were handwritten notes and typewritten pages, messages of sympathy and support for a team that had not won in nearly two years, a team that had lost its first six games of the season by an average score of 45-6.

And there was more.

Some people sent money. Actor Billy Barty, a dwarf, volunteered to speak to the team about overcoming adversity. A national cable network was sending a crew to the game against North Hollywood that night.

The players walked around the room in disbelief.

“Usually with Poly, people don’t care,” said Matt MacLearn, a senior lineman.

“They just talk trash. They don’t talk about the good things.”

*

The Poly Parrots finally won a game, beating North Hollywood, 27-16, before a raucous home crowd.

When the team scored a fourth-quarter touchdown to seal the victory, junior fullback Leo Molina could not contain himself. Molina turned somersaults--helmet, shoulder pads and all--across the field.

He was promptly flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“We hadn’t warned the team about celebrating after scores,” Coach Lee Jackson said. “It wasn’t something we had to worry about before.”

John H. Francis Polytechnic is an ordinary-looking school in a working-class Latino neighborhood. The players tend to be smaller and less-experienced than their opponents. Some are immigrants new to the game.

Their rookie co-coaches, Jackson and Bobby Mesa, had challenged them with some old-fashioned ideas about high school athletics.

The coaches created a mandatory study hall for players in danger of failing. They demanded the team be attentive in class and wear ties to school on game days.

Some players quit. Others responded with improved attendance and better grades. Even as the losses mounted, the coaches continued to preach that striving for a victory can be as important as logging one.

Through it all, the team remained dedicated.

“The things we’re doing here are going to build backbone,” Mesa told them. “Things like showing up every day, just like you’ll have to show up for a job.”

After the story ran in The Times, other coaches called to voice support and to say they were waging similar battles at their schools.

Fox News Channel taped a segment that is scheduled to be broadcast today at 8 a.m. A longer piece is scheduled for the cable network’s Sunday sports show at 7 a.m.

Among the donations was a $2,000 pledge from Danny Alcala, a Sun Valley Realtor who said he came to the United States as an immigrant and built himself up from nothing.

“I really believe that if kids are involved in sports, they have a much better chance of staying out of trouble,” Alcala said. “They may not be doing as well as other schools, but if these kids stick with it, they are going to make it in their lives.”

There were smaller gifts too. A San Diego businessman who had owned several athletic gyms offered to help devise an off-season conditioning program for the team. An Irvine company and an alumna from the class of 1966 sent $100 checks.

And there was fan mail.

“You haven’t had a scoreboard win yet, but you are all winners,” wrote a woman from Santa Barbara.

“As I go about our city, I find reason to believe that a beautiful new America is growing in our land, and your kids are part of that vision,” wrote a Los Angeles man.

A Tarzana woman said she was a “mother of three daughters who would love men like these to be sons-in-law.”

The coaches took these comments as reassurance that “maybe we’re doing the right thing,” Jackson said. Most of the players felt proud.

“It was great,” said David Valencia, a sophomore running back. “We realized people really care.”

Some of his teammates, however, were motivated by a different emotion.

“It felt good but I hate taking sympathy,” senior linebacker Ramon Ayala said. “There was something missing . . . it was a victory.”

*

Poly’s home field is spruced up this season with community donations such as yellow paint for the goal posts and lightbulbs for the scoreboard.

The crowd for the North Hollywood game was larger than usual, Jackson said, including some of his old friends who had read the article and wanted a closer look. The home team wasted no time giving them something to cheer about.

The Parrots took the opening kickoff and drove the length of the field, scoring on a one-yard run by senior Albert Diaz.

“[The letters] fired up the coaches, fired up the team,” MacLearn said. “Everyone was trying a little harder.”

The defensive line stood its ground for the first time all season. Quarterback Alex Marroquin completed a few passes. Mario Muro, a 305-pound lineman, chugged downfield on punt coverage to make a tackle.

“He hasn’t hustled like that all year,” Jackson said. “The kids started to see that they could win.”

Poly never relinquished the lead, though there was concern when North Hollywood scored twice in the third quarter to close the gap to 21-16.

But then Valencia’s 20-yard touchdown run with 1:39 remaining put the game out of reach.

Molina somersaulted. The team was mobbed coming off the field.

“The cheerleaders are running up to you, the principal is hugging you and parents are patting you on the back,” Jackson said.

Players celebrated in the locker room.

“A lot of screaming and yelling,” Valencia said. “Guys were sliding all around the showers.”

It is a memory the team wants to preserve.

“Now we all know what it’s like to win,” Valencia said. “We want to keep on winning.”