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Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009

James Burns: Stubbs, Martinez and Alvarez have experienced improbable playoff run

LODI -- Staring out the window, studying the sky above the Woodbridge Golf and Country Club, you half-expected to see pigs flying.

Maybe a green giant with his head stuck in the clouds.

Or, as in 1985, Villanova beating Georgetown.

Because inside, where many of the top high school football coaches from Sacramento to Le Grand gathered for the National Football Foundation luncheon, much of the talk was about defying odds, believing in the impossible and investing in faith.

Maybe they were drunk on the aroma of freshly cooked tri-tip, or bleary-eyed from an early morning drive, but the coaches who viewed themselves as underdogs held tightly to sport's ultimate aphorism:

Anything can happen.

Coach after coach said it, in more or less words, like they were trying to convince even themselves.

But for the three huddled together in the middle of the room -- Los Banos' Dennis Stubbs and Le Grand's Rick Martinez and Raul Alvarez -- they understood the truth in the cliche.

They lived it.

They know the power in believing, and how it can write a Cinderella story.

For Stubbs, that's the hope; that No. 8 Los Banos can beat No. 1 Tracy this Friday.

For Martinez and Alvarez, two of Stubbs' former assistants, their challenge is to guard against it. Le Grand is seeded second in Division V and will host No. 3 Highlands.

"You don't need to have the best players. What you need to have is the best team. Everyone has a chance," Stubbs said.

"The goal is, and I tell my teams this every year, the goal is you've got 10 weeks to figure it out. And when you figure it out, that's when the magic starts happening."

It was the fall of 1995, and Golden Valley was in its second year of existence. Still just a baby.

Stubbs, a Mark Speckman disciple and an already proven winner, had come over from Le Grand, where he helped turn the small school into a big-time player.

Golden Valley was, by most accounts, an OK football team. The Central California Conference sent three to the playoffs that season, and GV needed a victory over Beyer in its finale and help elsewhere to clinch the third seed.

The chips fell into place and GV snuck in.

Its reward: St. Mary's, a team as loaded and as scary then as they are now.

"Even our parents didn't think we had a chance," Stubbs said.

Golden Valley tried to slow the game down, using the length of the play clock on every offensive down, but ultimately won a barnburner 42-31.

See, anything can happen.

The next week, Golden Valley's Morgan Madruga hauled in a two-point conversion on the last play of the game to beat CCC champion Turlock, 22-21.

"We didn't want to go to overtime because they were huge," Stubbs said, referring to Turlock's Micah and Josh Webb, a pair of UCLA recruits, and Ryan Horning, a Cal tight end.

So he went for broke, dialing up a fade route for Madruga, and came out a richer man. Golden Valley was headed to the Division I semifinal against another familiar opponent, Grace Davis, then a member of the CCC and arguably the only team hotter than Golden Valley.

GV beat them, too, 40-34, making them one of the unlikeliest of finalists in section history.

Ultimately, as we know now, Golden Valley fell one step short of a section title. Jesuit flashed a little magic of their own and hung on for a 21-19 victory.

But by getting there, when nobody else gave them a puncher's chance, that Golden Valley team proved what so many believed to be true on Monday.

Anything can happen.

And in the right offense, yes, pigs can fly.

Atwater was a no-show at the luncheon, but was never off of Master of Ceremonies Len Frizzi's radar.

"They probably got lost in the fog, Frizzi said playfully of Atwater during the Division II portion of the program.

Later, when introducing Sheldon coach Ed Lombardi, Frizzi took another shot at Atwater.

Lombardi coached Elk Grove to back-to-back Division I section titles in 1997-98, beating Atwater twice by a combined score of 120-51.

"Atwater was supposed to be here," Frizzi started, "but I can see why they're not. They're afraid of running into Ed again."

James Burns is sports editor of the Sun-Star. He can be reached at jburns@mercedsun-star.com.