THE WRONG KIND OF LEGACY
MEMORIAL PARK For a team that hasn’t won a game since September 2005 and hasn’t scored a single point in its last four, St. Monica’s squad looked surprisingly upbeat at their practice here Friday afternoon.
Teammates were cracking jokes on one another as they milled around waiting for their coach to arrive. Others tossed around a football or talked about hip-hop, girls and the homecoming dance this Sunday. There wasn’t a frown anywhere to be seen.
“We’re all feeling pretty good right now,” said Micky Bowe, 17, a co-captain for the varsity squad and a defensive tackle who has played all four years at the small Roman Catholic school located on Lincoln Boulevard, just north of Wilshire. “We’ve lost a lot of games and so it’s hard to stay positive, but that’s what this team’s about. We go out and have fun and we just try to concentrate on that. No matter what the score is, I’m still playing football and still have the chance to knock somebody down.”
The Mariners will be looking to snap a 24-game losing streak Saturday night when they take on the talented, and still undefeated Bishop’s School. The Knights of La Jolla have beaten their opponents by an average of 51 points per game and are heavily favored to win, even by St. Monica’s coach, Sean Ritter.
“We’re just looking to be competitive and use this game as a tune-up before we start league play,” said Ritter, a former offensive lineman for the University of Connecticut who took control of the Mariners over the summer. He’s the third coach the team has had in the last three years.
“It’s been a frustrating year so far,” Ritter added. “Last year we didn’t have much of a chance, but this year expectations were a little bit higher and we’re not delivering right now. Out of the five games we’ve played, I think we’ve had four we should have competed in and maybe three we could have won. We really haven’t competed in any of them.”
The reason for the string of defeats this season could very well be the team’s performance last season. Having not won a game in more than two seasons can take its toll on a team’s morale and their desire to compete.
“Losing is definitely contagious,” said Jack White, the assistant athletic director for St. Monica. “I think the problem is self perpetuating. Once you’re down, there’s a stigma that goes along with that. The kids you would like to have involved, some of the better athletes, don’t want to associate themselves with a particular program. They’d
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 13, 2007. Read the original PDF.