Coaching for Pizza: A Special Day Awash With Great Memories and GREATER Men

Friday, August 19, 2022

After planning for over six months, the day had finally arrived!

Today, 24 members of the 1972 Marmonte League Football Champion Thousand Oaks Lancers reunited to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of their collective achievement.

The 1972 TOHS Roster

This group of now mature men overcame any deficiencies that they may have had in size or God given ability by relying on their mental and physical toughness, resiliency, dedication to fundamentals and amazing team bonding.

The day started at the TOHS track for the running of the Six Minute Mile. A half a century ago, on what was then a dirt track at Lancer Stadium, all of the Lancers had to run the mile on the first day of practice to determine what shape they were in on report day.

If you ran it under six minutes, you were considered to be in great shape. If you finished the ordeal in over six minutes, you had a problem that only unwanted extra conditioning for the next several practices could solve.

Our 1972 Offensive Tackle Greg D'Haenens put out a request for those attending the reunion to meet at the TOHS track at 9:00 a.m. to see how they could do in another Mile Run.

Many were called,

few were chosen

I arrived in time to do some of the timing for these three brave Lancers who answered the call.

From Left to Right next to me are OG/LB Kirby Reed, OT Greg D'Haenens and OT Stewart Black who were all Juniors on the 1972 team.

Amazingly, all three made it in under six minutes! Some witnesses say that I may have accidentally paused my wristwatch's stopwatch function for as much as a minute.

Or five.

Anything is possible.

On to the reunion at the Sunset Terrace Restaurant and Lounge in Thousand Oaks. The owner, Tyrone Knox, was an awesome host who made the afternoon a delight.

Thanks to the long ago scrapbooking

of Chris Pruitt's Grandmother, we each

received this wonderful keepsake of

all of the newspaper articles about the team

The 1972 Marmonte League Champions

C.I.F. "AAA" Quarter-Finalists

8 Wins - 3 Losses

Non-League Games

Hueneme 20 - T.O. 18

Agoura 36 - T.O. 28

These first two non-league games were both hard fought, tough losses but as I stated earlier, this team was mentally tough and resilient.

On to league play . . .

Marmonte League Games

T.O. 8 - Camarillo 0

T.O. 54 - Royal 12

T.O. 28 - Canyon 20

T.O. 36 - Oxnard 20

T.O. 8 - Simi Valley 0

T.O. 36 - Hart 12

T.O. 16 - Newbury Park 14

The Newbury Park Panthers game

It was the final game of the regular season and would be played at a neutral field at Newbury Park's request.

It was their home game and at the time they did not have an on-campus stadium, playing all of their "Home" games at Thousand Oaks High School's Lancer Stadium. Thus, the Panthers felt that this game, featuring two clubs with matching 6-0 Marmonte League records playing for all the marbles, needed to be played on the neutral field at Camarillo H.S.

The field that night was a complete quagmire which definitely aided the Lancers with our ground oriented attack and hard-hitting defense.

The Lancers' 16-14 victory over crosstown foe Newbury Park marked their first win in the Conejo Valley Rivalry in three attempts of the then budding series and the school's first Marmonte League Championship in 1972.

Under the calm, disciplined leadership of beloved Head Coach Joe Howell the Lancers' Golden Era would also win Marmonte League titles in 1973, 1974 and 1976.

At a time when only league champions made the playoffs, the Lancers were now off to play in the C.I.F.'s tough "AAA" division.

C.I.F. "AAA" Playoffs

Opening Round Game

Marmonte League Champion

Thousand Oaks 36

Foothill League Champion

Burbank 12

Burbank was a big physical team but the Lancers were quicker and tougher on this night.

C.I.F. "AAA" Playoffs

Quarter-Final Game

Northern League Champion

Santa Maria 36

Marmonte League Champion

Thousand Oaks 6

Santa Maria entered the game ranked #1 in the C.I.F. "AAA" playoffs with a perfect 10-0 record. They proved to us that they deserved their ranking.

Still, what a great season!

Personally, I was blessed to be a young coach on a coaching staff made up of great role models and teachers. I also had the honor to work with some amazing athletes that, for me, were among the best I ever coached due to their incredible toughness and dedication.

As for to the reunion . . .

Greg D'Haenens arrived in a

foul mood after the morning run

David Palmer was all smiles

upon entering the restaurant

Obviously, he did not run the mile today.

HUGE kudos to David who was one of the two key players who reached out and contacted so many of the players that were here today.

Stewart Black relating to

Bill Breucklander how well

he ran today

Rich Kluck sitting and

Steve Rote in blue

Steve is the other Lancer who was incredibly important in contacting players and getting them to come to the reunion.

THANK YOU STEVE!

Rich Kluck, our Outside LB, was simply the toughest football player that I ever coached. He came to practice every day with only two thoughts in mind, give 100% effort on each play and hit whoever had the ball before the whistle blew.

Sometimes after the whistle blew as well.

Rich Kluck's profile in 2022

Rich Kluck's profile in 1972

Steve Rote and Bill Breucklander

Dennis McCrillis, Tim Ahtye, Steve Rote,

Kurt Herman, Rich Kluck and Bill Breucklander

Dennis was not on this team as he was a Freshman at the time if memory serves me correctly. He would eventually become a stellar Lancer defender.

David Palmer, Mrs. Gudmundson,

Bart Gudmundson and Steve Rote

With Laurie and the

ubiquitous Steve Rote

One of our players asked Laurie if she was "the original Mrs. Contreras?"

So far . . .

Steve Rote, Dennis Russell

and Mike Hubbard

Steve Rote with

Ray "Sugar Bear" Hinton

Steve Rote, Mike Hubbard

and Dennis Russell

Tim Ahtye and Buck Randall

giving the camera the Evil Eye

Where the heck was Steve Rote?

With Mike Regan and

Coach Robert Richards

Mike was not yet a student at TOHS in 1972 but grew up idolizing many of these players as a youngster. He could not resist seeing his heroes one more time.

Robert has coached high school football in the Ventura County area with great success for over 55 years!

It was time for the team to move on to Lancer Stadium to be introduced to the assembled crowd at the 2022 Lancers season opener against the Segerstrom Jaguars.