Coach Ancich

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL



Marijon Ancich is still up to old tricks



Now in his third tour of duty at Santa Fe Springs St. Paul, where his legendary

coaching career started, he is teaching young men about the sport and life.



By Ben Bolch

September 22, 2009



Marijon Ancich barely moved, his expression never changing.



The white-haired football coach from Santa Fe Springs St. Paul High showed no

emotion as his team converted on fourth down early in a recent game against

Whittier Pioneer.



Ancich remained similarly stoic after quarterback Paul Lopez salvaged a broken

play by passing for a touchdown.



But this riled him: Leading by two touchdowns, his team was penalized for a

false start.



"What the hell is going on?" the suddenly animated coach bellowed as he hobbled

along the sideline on his balky right knee.



It was vintage Ancich -- taking the good in stride, fuming over perceived lack

of discipline -- exactly what those who know California's winningest high school

football coach have come to expect.



"The only time he gets mad," said Don Ward, who has roamed the sideline as a

photographer at St. Paul games for 37 years, "is if a guy makes a mental

mistake."



Ancich is three games into his third stint as coach at St. Paul, where he

started in 1961. He has won 72.5% of his games overall and logged 281 of his

state-record 346 victories in 35 years with the Swordsmen. Ancich leads Concord

De La Salle's Bob Ladouceur by one victory going into Friday's home game against

Lancaster Paraclete.



These days, though, milestone victories seem to stir the players more than the

coach himself. After St. Paul defeated Los Angeles Garfield this season, players

shouted "Three forty-five! Three forty-five!"



Ancich just went about his business. He says he returned to St. Paul to win a

different numbers game: The school has only 625 students, less than half than in

its heyday in the 1980s. The number of boys is 290; in 1973, 273 came out for

spring football.



The decline prompted an aggressive marketing campaign intended to help

enrollment reach 1,000 within five years, with Ancich a central figure in the

movement.



"He's the winningest coach in California," Principal Lori Barr said. "That

itself brings a level of interest that no other school can bring."



Defensive tackle Mark Cabral said he got goose bumps when he heard the legendary

coach was coming back for his senior year. Lopez, the senior quarterback, said

he was thrilled he could play for the same man who coached his father in the

1970s, and even more pleased to learn that Ancich had incorporated more passing

in his offense over the years.



"Back then it was six yards and a cloud of dust," Lopez said, referring to his

father's playing days. "Just shut up and run the ball -- power, power, power.

You know we're going to run; try and stop it."



Ancich still calls the Swordsmen's offensive plays, but he would more readily

divulge his playbook than his age.



"Let's just put it this way: I'm leaning on the number seven," he said with a

chuckle. "I'm going to get near that 70."



If Ancich was 22 when he graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1959, then

that would put him in the neighborhood of 72. Barr said she knows Ancich's age

but won't tell. Anton Felando, a longtime friend, joked that a trip to the

coach's native Croatia might be required to determine his actual age.



Ancich's wife, Jacquie, shoots a how-dare-you-ask look when pressed. "You won't

get that answer out of me," she said. "He'll get a divorce."



Those who have been part of Ancich's three tours at St. Paul -- he also coached

the Swordsmen from 1961 to 1981 and from 1993 to 2005 -- say, however old he is,

the coach is as active as ever. He assembles detailed practice plans, runs

"chalk talk" sessions with players and returns home around 11 p.m. to complete

his second or third crossword puzzle of the day.



His words also still hold gravity.



"He can make a guy like me that's 5-6 feel like I'm 6-5," said running backs

coach Lou Cabral, who was a third-string tailback at St. Paul in the early

1980s. "When we look at the film, we don't know how we did it, but we did it

because he said we could do it. Unbelievable."



Cabral said Ancich's ability to instill confidence in his players extends beyond

the high school football field.



"That goes on to your college and your workplace," Cabral said. "You believe it

here, you're going to believe it after you leave here."



Paul Lopez Sr. said Ancich's presence was comparable to that of the college

coach he played for -- Alabama's Paul "Bear" Bryant.



"That was one of the reasons I went back there," Lopez said, "because I figured

I played for a legend in California, so I might as well try to play for a legend

in college."



Longtime observers say Ancich hasn't changed much, but he says he has made some

adjustments. He has had to. The days of "yes, sir" and "no, sir" are mostly gone

and teachers and coaches compete with iPods and Blackberrys for students'

attention.



"The climate has changed and it's a little harder to get things done," Ancich

said. "It isn't where you just coach. You have to be a psychologist, a referee

and about everything now."



Perhaps that's why some of St. Paul football's long-standing traditions seem

more comforting than ever. Players still gather in the school gymnasium for

pregame steak dinners wearing navy blue blazers, gray slacks, light blue dress

shirts and dark blue ties. Talking is not allowed.



"You're basically getting yourself mentally ready for the game," Paul Lopez Sr.

said.



Ancich's methods have generated more than victories: By his own count, his St.

Paul programs have produced more than 200 four-year college players and 49 high

school and college head coaches. Ancich rarely coaches in a game in which there

isn't at least one coach on the opposing sideline with ties to him.



"It makes it comfortable because I know what they're all doing," he joked.



The first time Ancich left St. Paul, after the 1981 season, it was to try

college football as offensive coordinator for Northern Arizona. But he didn't

like recruiting or dorm checks or monitoring whether the players were in class,

triggering a quick return to the high school level.



Ancich's second stint at St. Paul ended in 2005, those close to him say, because

of differences with a since-departed administration. But Ancich felt so uneasy

about the way he left things that Barr said she wasn't even finished asking the

coach back before he agreed to return during a breakfast meeting last December.



"He built this school and built this program and he didn't go out on his own

accord," said Barr, who is in her second year as principal. "He deserves to do

that."



How long might that take? Ancich said he wants to restore the Swordsmen to the

highest division of play in the Southern Section, a level they haven't competed

at since 2001.



St. Paul is playing this season in the section's Western Division, a couple of

notches down from the top level. So the climb back could take several years.



But the notion that Ancich would stick with it that long comes as no surprise to

those who know him best.



"I'm just assuming," Jacquie Ancich said, "he's going to drop dead on the

field."



ben.bolch@latimes.com



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