New El Capitan High football coach focusing on character. ‘Our culture is our heartbeat’

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Editor’s note: This is the first part of a series as we follow the El Capitan football program during the season.

The seventh period bell just sounded on this Wednesdasy afternoon at El Capitan High School in Merced.

And the football players are filing into the locker room for practice.

All three levels — freshmen, junior varsity and varsity teams — crowd into the connected locker rooms. However, before putting on their practice gear every player opens up their chromebook.

It’s grade check time.

Even though it’s just a few weeks into school, the football coaches want to stay on top of their players’ grades.

The varsity players show coaches their grades. After getting their grades cleared, those players then check on the younger players, making sure they are passing all their classes. If a player is failing a class, they don’t dress for practice. Instead they use that time to make up their missed assignments.

Senior running back Dejuan Franklin explains to a freshman player what the younger player needs to do to succeed in his Spanish class. Franklin has had the teacher and explains if the freshman needs help, don’t be afraid to ask the teacher.

Varsity linemen work with the freshmen and junior varsity linemen. The older receivers work with the younger receivers.

“I want the young guys to be respectable and good young men,” Franklin said. “I want them to be able to take criticism and be coachable. That’s a big thing because we haven’t had coachable players, we’ve had some hard-headed guys... I want that to turn around and I think teachers have been seeing a big change.”

Helping younger players

The mentoring program for the Gauchos was suggested by assistant coach Rob Davenport, stealing a page from his time in the Navy.

“We had a mentorship in the military so when we checked into a new group we didn’t feel alone or afraid,” Davenport said.

Assigning varsity players to mentor freshmen will help the younger players get acclimated to high school and make them feel a part of the program from the start by having someone to turn to for guidance.

“That way when they come in they already feel connected, they’ve been talking with someone through the summer so when they show up it’s not like it’s their first day and they have no clue what to do,” Davenport said.

The mentoring program is part of a culture of unity, citizenship and an academics-first mentality that first-year coach Xavier Ramirez is working to instill into the football program.

Struggling program

The Gauchos football program has floundered. Since El Capitan opened in 2013 the football program has never had a winning season, including a 7-47 record the past six years, and has never reached the playoffs.

The success of other athletic programs on campus in the past decade such as boys basketball, water polo, baseball, track and wrestling suggest it’s not because of a lack of athletes.

Instead, instability at the top of the football program is a main reason the program has never gotten off the ground. The team has had seven different head coaches since 2013, with Ramirez being the fourth head coach in the last four years.

“It wasn’t an athlete problem,” said El Capitan principal Megan Cope. “I think you can look at Merced High with Rob Scheidt and Golden Valley with Rick Martinez, and you can see that they’ve been there for a long time and they’ve been established as coaches. Their vision carries on through their other coaches and their athletes year after year. I think that’s what El Capitan has been missing.”

The hope is Ramirez is finally the right man leading the program. Ramirez coached the junior varsity team the past two seasons, and has been coaching in the Gauchos’ program for the past six years.

The Gauchos are off to a 2-1 start this season with a 52-0 win over Hug of Nevada in the first week and a 34-0 victory over Beyer on Sept. 13. The lone defeat was a 23-13 loss to Ripon Christian in the second week of the season.

Off-field focus

The early wins are nice, but Ramirez has a big-picture focus for the program. Paramount is establishing a winning culture that starts off the field.

“It starts in the classroom,” Ramirez said. “It really does. It has to start there. It has to start with the character of these kids.”

He said the belief is if if the players take care of business off the field, then they’ll be better prepared to excel on the field.

The questions Ramirez wants his to ask his players include are you good in the classroom? Are you being a good teammate? Are you doing your part? Are you taking care of business in the weight room, in film sessions, around school and at home?

Ramirez is asking his players to hold themselves accountable.

“If you can’t trust your teammate off the field how are you going to trust him on the field,” senior Diego Ultreras asks. “So building the trust, the communication with young guys, and showing them how to hold each other accountable in the classroom, out of the classroom and on the field, that’s going to lead to the next step which will help us start winning games.”

Expectations

Ramirez said he feels every player has to play a part. It starts with the players who were voted team captains by the players. Ramirez expects his captains to set the example for everyone else and hold the other players accountable.

“It’s about the men to the left and right of you,” said Ramirez, who also served in the Army. “It’s not about you. It’s about that person that you’re in that huddle with. It’s that person that you’re on the sideline with. It’s that person you’re willing to do whatever it takes for them, not for you because it’s just the selfless acts.”

His message seems to be landing as more players are making an impact on campus. According to Ramirez, there are more players involved in leadership and link crew, which is a school-wide program that teams up older students with freshmen to help the younger students feel comfortable and succeed in their first year of high school.

Ramirez said there are also football players serving as teacher’s assistants across campus.

“You see (football players) in all different capacities of leadership on campus,” Cope said. “I think that’s (Ramirez’s) mentality. It’s not just about football, it’s about these boys, these athletes, and who are they going to become. Because Xavier is from the community, he was raised here, and knowing all of these athletes are from here, how are they going to contribute to society? How do they contribute to the school? What legacy are they going to leave? It’s not just on the field, it’s at school, also it’s in the community.”

Again, Ramirez is building the culture in the program by focusing on character, leadership and other aspects away from the field. Taking care of business off the field will make it easier to focus on what needs to be done on the field.

“Our culture is our heartbeat right now,” Ramriez said “It’s what’s keeping this program going. When we talk about culture, we just talk about doing the right thing, right place at the right time. You get those things done, you can do a lot of good stuff. I feel like everything that we’re trying to get accomplished right now is working. We just got to keep moving forward with it.”