Rancho Buena Vista

It’s Tough To Be A Fan

During my formative years,  we lived in Dallas, Texas from when I was four years old to about eight years old.  At some point during this time, I developed an interest in the NFL.  I was a big Cowboys fan during the days of Roger Staubach, Drew Pearson, Tony Dorsett, “Too Tall” Jones, Hollywood Henderson and others.  The Cowboys were a great team to root for.  They were in the Super Bowl five times during the 70’s and won it three of those times.

We moved to southern California in 1976 before the dawn of Air Coryell.  We lived on a wide street in Pacific Beach.  All the boys of the neighborhood would get together everyday after school during football season and play two hand touch in the street.  It was sandlot football on the hardtop and a lot of fun.  We would even play at school where we had a nice green field to run around.  Since we had soft grass, this is where we played tackle and the game wasn’t football.  The game was “smear the queer.”  Could you imagine this happening in today’s world?  The noon duty would have had us all in the principal’s office for being too rough and for being haters.  We would have probably had to go to some gay and lesbian sensitivity training.

Fast forward thirty three years.  I have been a Charger fan since the late seventies.  I’ve been through the Air Coryell years and the Bobby Ross era to the hardass Marty Schottenheimer years.  There has been a lot of bad football throughout the years in San Diego, but there has been no tougher time to be a Charger fan than the Norv Turner era.  I don’t have a lot of time being a husband and father of three, so the only football I usually can squeeze into my schedule is the weekly Charger game.  However, these games are so hard to watch.  It always seems to be a lack of focus or preparation surrounding this team that you want to throw your bottle at the television screen.  This team has so much talent but always seems lackadaisical.  Lack of focus and preparation usually points to a lack of leadership.

What to do as a fan?  Well, my son started playing high school football.  I was so looking forward to attending his football games and also start attending the varsity games on Friday nights.  My son and I decided to attend the freshman game this week because a good friend of mine coaches on the freshman team at La Costa Canyon.  We sat  and watched La Costa Canyon rip Rancho Buena Vista  in a 48-6 total domination.  I have nothing to do with these players and coaches, but I was embarassed sitting in the stands.  I think the score would have been 96-12 if the La Costa coaching staff didn’t start subbing in second and third string players. 

At half time, the RBV coaches made the kids do wind sprints as punishment for their poor play.  This really pissed me off.  I wanted to go down on the field and make the coaches do the wind sprints.  The boys on both teams are all fourteen and fifteen years old.  They all come from similar socio-economic backgrounds.  They have similar practice facilities and by rule they have the same amount of practice time.  Why such the disparity on the field?  Leadership.  You can’t blame it on the kids.  The kids are there of their own free will and playing for the love of the game.

I didn’t even bother going to the jv or varsity games.  It was a clean sweep by La Costa Canyon and granted they have a great football program, shouldn’t the games at least be competitive?

I’m not even going to bring up San Diego State.  What an abomination!

Maybe I’ll become a 49′er fan, I love that Mike Singletary guy.  That’s leadership.

It’s tough to be a fan.

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