Fertig’s boys

Lolita Harper

Dirty pairs of Nike and Adidas shoes were tossed haphazardly on the

ground outside of Estancia High School Football headquarters.

Veteran coach Craig Fertig -- but a rookie at Estancia -- kicked a

black one out of his way, shook his head and smiled.

“My boys,” he said, “they are a mess, but they work hard.”

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It was a consistent theme throughout the afternoon, as the

acclaimed coach and former college and professional standout gave a

tour of his new digs. The accommodations were a little rough around

the edges but had the basics: four walls, a roof, a solid foundation

and character. Nearly everything about his headquarters was

representative of his new high school football program, which he

inherited with a 1-9 record and 19 returning players. It may be a

little shabby from an outside perspective, but it has great

potential.

And Fertig, who is well on his way with a 3-2 record 49 players on

the roster, vows to get the job done -- starting from the ground up.

“We are a first-class team,” he said. “And we are going to make

everything around us first class.”

Fertig stepped over the second black shoe and rested his hand on

the framework of a slanted bench press.

The bench and others like it, along with free weights, squat

machines and dumbbells, were lined up on the blacktop surrounding the

half-painted office of the west side of the high school.

“We didn’t even have a weight room before,” Fertig said, while

perusing the weather-beaten equipment. “My boys painted all of these.

They are really hard workers.”

Coach, as he is called on and off the field, wants to drape a tent

above the outdoor weight room at least to try to protect a crucial

weapon in his team’s arsenal.

“How can you expect to have a winning program without a weight

room?” Fertig asked shaking his head.

CLEANING UP

The interior of the Eagles’ football headquarters was as scruffy.

It housed old desks for team meetings, a modest television and VCR

and a small office for the coaching staff. Fertig has plans for the

quaint command center as well. A big screen television will line the

east wall and “first-class” equipment will be brought in for the boys

to study film on.

“It’s a dump now, but we’re working on it,’ Fertig said.

A wide receiver -- one of two special education students on the

roster -- who was sitting at a desk, with his head buried in a book,

looked up to agree with his coach.

“We gotta clean this place up,” he said.

He receiver promised to tidy up -- after he finished his homework.

Poor academic performance is no longer accepted in the Eagle

football program -- coach won’t hear of it. If these kids want to

strive for excellence on the field, they cannot settle for mediocrity

off of it, Fertig said.

Those who are ineligible to play -- averaging less than a 2.0

grade point average -- are not barred from practice, though. They are

welcome -- even required -- to be on that field at 3:05 p.m. But

instead of planting hard to drive through a tackling dummy,

ineligible players are planted in their desks, studying.

Yes, they bring the desks out onto the practice field and do what

is required of them academically to get them out of that chair and

back into pads.

“They can sit out there and watch their buddies work hard for

distinction, while thinking about what it is going to take to get

them back out there,” Fertig said. “How is that for motivation?”

Hard work. Tough love. Fun. Class. Relentless drive. Winning

attitudes. Faith. His boys have it all, Fertig said.

“My money is on these boys,” the coach said, pulling out a wad of

bills from his pocket. “I tell them that. I pull this out and toss it

on the ground and say, ‘My money is on you.’ And they respond. They

are a bunch of really, really good kids.”

A TURN AROUND

Estancia High School sits on the Western-most border of Costa

Mesa, a side of the city that is a breezy ocean paradise and breeding

ground for trouble all at once. Half-million-dollar homes in Mesa

Verde and $850-apartments on Wilson all fall within the boundary

lines of the high school.

While some have written-off Estancia as a football powerhouse --

or even as a first-rate learning institution -- the men on that

field, young and old, believe they will prove them wrong.

They believe they can turn street survival instincts into powerful

athletic weapons. They can turn negative criticism into fuel for the

fight. They can prove all the naysayers wrong.

“These kids just needed somebody to believe in them,” said Nancy

Kapko, mother of senior running back Bubba.

She pointed to Fertig.

“You did it. You came in here and did that for them,” she added.

“These seniors are disappointed they are graduating. Usually in your

last year, you are excited, but they want to stay and play under

coach.”

“It’s not me,” he said. “That was all my boys.”

“My boys.” The phrase is a staple in Fertig’s vocabulary. He has

used it to describe many who have played under him in the

professional and college ranks. At USC and Tampa Bay, “his boys” were

actually men, many with cushy contracts, families, homes and nice

cars.

The Estancia players are truly boys. They are high school athletes

who have their entire lives ahead of them. They are boys who are

coming into their own and forging a path for the future.

To help them carve out their paths, Fertig has customized a team

shovel. It is a phenomenal shovel -- first class all the way -- with

a strong wooden handle painted in cardinal and gold.

Coach taught the boys how to hold the shovel, the difference

between an East Coast and a West Coast grip, and described the

various techniques for breaking through cement, asphalt of hard dirt.

“See this shovel?” Fertig asks his boys. “You better get real

comfortable with it, because if you don’t get your acts together in

school, you are going to be using it for the next 40 years of your

life.”

The player with the lowest grades at progress report time must

carry that shovel around campus.

“That shovel lets everyone know, ‘I am the dumbest S-O-B on the

team,’” Fertig said.

One day, the player with a 3.2 GPA will be carrying it.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

A group of powerful Newport Beach men, many of whom belong to a

group called the “6 O’Clockers” that meets in the morning at the

Balboa Bay Club, were especially impressed with the shovel.

“Coach, tell about the shovel again. That is really worth

repeating,” Louis Earlabaugh said Monday at a luncheon at which

Fertig was the guest of honor.

The head coach had ditched the grassy practice field on Monday to

join the men in the back room of the Arches restaurant for two

pointed reasons, he said.

The first was to keep his players toes and allow them to

independently assess their come-from-behind victory just a few days

earlier. The second was to gather the community support he will need

to build a first-class program.

Former players from UCLA, Kansas and Ohio State and the majority

from USC -- also Fertig’s alma mater -- reveled in hearing the

coaching techniques of one of the game’s local legends.

Fertig called attention to the shovel, the grades, the desks on

the field, but most importantly, he drove home the message that “his

boys” work hard.

“They are good kids,” Fertig said. “They are really, really good

kids. We’ve got something special here. Believe me when I tell you.

These kids are something else.”

And the men believed. Raised in the church of football, nearly

each of them nodded vigorously and even shouted out during Fertig’s

afternoon sermon. And when the offering plate was passed, 15 Newport

Beach men contributed more than $1,500 to help the Eagles soar.

Football will build their mental and physical strength, the group

agreed. It will instill a tough work ethic and, most importantly,

teach them to drive through hard knocks, while keeping an eye on the

goal line.

“Keep these kids off the streets,” one man shouted from the back

booth.

But it goes further than that, Fertig said.

Sure, a winning program will attract more young men who otherwise

may be drawn to more destructive pastimes. For those who seek

purpose, camaraderie and die-hard loyalty from gangs or “crews,”

football can provide an attractive alternative, Fertig said. Parents

who find it difficult to get involved in school work that in some

cases out-ranks their own education level, can be welcomed in the

football stands, where other parents, teachers and students will

cheer with them and get to know them.

Those are all wonderful consequences of winning, but it is not the

only reason Fertig is at the school.

A VIEW OF THE SCHOOL

Not all who don the cardinal and gold uniform are necessarily at

risk of gang violence or dropping out, he said. A winning program

will make people stand up and notice that many well-to-do families

feel perfectly comfortable sending their children to Estancia High

School. It will show detractors that not all “white” families felt

the need to send their children to private schools because of a shift

in demographics.

“I never did understand that,” said Fertig, who grew up in

Highland Park in East Los Angeles. “Any kind of flight is a sign of

weakness.”

Those attracted by the Eagles winning football record will be

confronted with the palatable synergy of the diverse group of men who

sweat, bleed, cry and fight together. It will prove that Estancia is

not the “failure” some people like to make it out to be, the coach

said.

“We’ve been treated like stepchildren up until now, but that is

going to stop,” he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, Fertig was back on the practice field,

watching his boys prepare for their toughest challenge of the season:

Friday’s game against Westminster High School.

The players were dressed in hand-me-downs from past teams but wore

a brand new attitude. They ran through drill after drill, with Fertig

merely observing when it was time to observe and yelling when it was

time to yell.

“Defense, what do you use?” he yelled during a tackling exercise.

“Your hands,” they shouted in unison.

“Then dammit, use your hands. Get in there and grab something,”

Fertig shouted back.

And they did.

It was time to let his talented coaching staff do their jobs, he

said. Estancia assistant coaches are the best at what they do and

only need “the old coach around” to structure to success, he said.

Again, he shook his head while watching his team.

“Look at my boys,” Fertig said while walking back to the

sidelines. “They are a mess, but they are hard-working. We’ve got

something here, I’m telling you. You keep your eye on us, because

we’ve really got something here.”

* LOLITA HARPER writes columns Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and

covers culture and the arts. She may be reached at (949) 574-4275 or

by e-mail at [email protected].