Sun file
The Western High School football qualified for the playoffs despite finishing the regular season with a 0-9 record.
Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023 | 2 a.m.
John Norton, the Western High School athletic director, was walking the hallways on campus a few years ago looking for players to join the school’s football team.
He recalls approaching a student who had a big build, and started a conversation with a simple question: “Who’s your favorite football team?”
“The kid answers, Real Madrid,” Norton said.
Western’s student body is 76% Latino, and the Warriors soccer program never hurts for players — those teens who passionately follow fútbol and have dreams of playing internationally.
It’s a different story with the football team, which has just 26 players in the program and this fall didn’t win a game.
But come Thursday night, they’ll compete in the playoffs, making them one of the few if not the only team in the country to advance to the postseason despite not winning a regular-season game.
Make no doubt about it, the Warriors (0-9) getting an extra game at the end of the year is a great thing. Yes, you can argue the tilt against Somerset Losee rewards mediocrity and is nothing more than a participation trophy in this age of everyone getting a medal.
But that’s a shallow take and not fair to a group of kids that has been working together since the summer to turn around the program. Practice was at 6 a.m. most days, and those 26 players hardly ever missed the first whistle, Norton said.
The results have been ugly on paper and don’t show the individual growth. Over the past three weeks, Western has been outscored 130-20, including Friday when it was defeated 48-6 by Rancho. It was Rancho’s only win of the season.
But this is not a wasted season for Western.
First-year coach Jermod Mapp is receiving rave reviews from his colleagues around town for the improvements made by his inexperienced players, many of whom on Thursday will be playing in their 10th game all-time.
That contest will be one more opportunity to continue to learn the sport, compete with their brothers and, hopefully, get that elusive first win.
Mapp has changed the culture within the program and instilled confidence in the players. They are better teens because of football.
We are guilty as a society of getting too caught up in what the scoreboard reads at the end of the game. Prep sports are more than the outcome — it’s the lessons learned through a shared experience.
To keep showing up, even when your team isn’t winning, will set the table for those 26 teens to be great employees when they transition into adulthood. Those players are pouring all of their energy into the process when they could easily have quit to look for a job or take care of younger siblings after school. That’s the reality for many teens in the neighborhood near U.S. 95 and Decatur Boulevard, where Western is located.
Mapp and others at Western deserve credit for creating a positive environment the players want to be part of.
The school earlier in the fall inducted the football state championship teams from 1965-67 into its athletic hall of fame during a ceremony on campus. It also inducted Frank Hawkins, the former Raider and the program’s all-time best player.
It was a beautiful sight as men in their 70s flocked back to Western to reminisce about their days playing for the Light Blue and Red. They mingled with the current team members and gave them words of encouragement.
The biggest takeaway: The teens learned there were many people in this city rooting for them on any given Friday night. They also learned they wouldn’t be celebrated for the result but rather the effort. And that effort is off the charts, Norton said.
That’s why the participation trophy of a playoff game is anything but a handout. It’s a game those 26 players earned and should be celebrated for.
It’s safe to say there will be many people rooting Thursday night for Western.
[email protected] / 702-990-2662 / @raybrewer21
