University Football Ready for Turnaround

Carrying a 24-game losing streak into the 2011 football season, there is no where to go but up for the University High varsity football team. The Wildcats have a new coach in Lee Lowe, who was an assistant coach for three seasons during University's recent glory days that culminated in a runner-up finish in the 2007 CIF L.A. City Section Invitational (now Division II) championship.

However, since that night four years ago when University lost by five points to Garfield in the final before a huge crowd at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Wildcats are 1-28, the last win by two points over Cleveland of Reseda on Oct. 10, 2009.

No one is more ready to embrace a new season than the Wildcats, starting with their season opener Sept. 9 against Animo South.

“We’re going to get better,” Lowe said. “We haven’t won a game in two years, but that’s just because there wasn’t a winning attitude. Now we have to create one.”

The good news is that University has a solid quarterback, and that’s always a good place to start. Alif Vannah, a 6-foot-4 senior, is back, and his continued develop should be a key to University’s success. As a junior, he passed for 532 yards and one touchdown with five interceptions, completing 45.5 percent. Not John Elway numbers, but Lowe believes in his quarterback.

“He’s gotten way better than he was last year, and he has a really strong arm and very accurate, plus he’s smart,” Lowe said. “I am telling you, he has a big-time arm. He can really let the ball go.”

Several other top players are back, including promising running back Tevin Epps. As a sophomore, Epps showed a lot of promise last fall. In an Oct. 15 game against Hamilton, he rushed for 168 yards in 13 carries and caught five passes for 118 yards a touchdown, but he was never heard from again for the rest of the season.

“Tevin is like a slasher-type back, very elusive,” Lowe said. “He runs track, and he has a lot of speed. He’s very fast.”

Some of University’s other top players are linemen Sebastian Armas and Jameel Baker, safety Shareef Muhammad, and linebackers Myles Jackson and Jose Arevalo. Armas is a 6-4, 285-pounder who should anchor both lines. Baker is just a sophomore, but he is already 6-4, 245 pounds, and Lowe sees a star in the making.

“Jameel is probably our best player overall,a very smart kid but very physical and very athletic for his size," Lowe said. "Muhammad is fast and rangey, a ball hawk, and Jackson is a big-time hitter.”

Arevalo, prized for his toughness, is a team captain.

To prepare for the season opener, University scheduled a scrimmage against Culver City, a perennial power in the highly-regarded Western Division of the CIF Southern Section.

“I set it up that way because we wanted someone really good to measure where we are,” Lowe said.

Once Western League competition begins, it’s going to be difficult for University to keep up with traditional powers Faifax of Los Angeles (the defending City Division II champion), Venice (the reigning league champion) and Westchester.

When you haven’t won a game in more than two years, however, you learn to take things one step at a time. One small step at a time, even, and that’s exactly what University intends to do.

UNIVERSITY HIGH VARSITY FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 9 – Animo South, 3 p.m.
Sept. 16 – Panorama, 3 p.m
Sept. 22 – vs. Los Alamitos at Veterans Stadium, 7 p.m.
Sept. 30 – at Eagle Rock
Oct. 7 – Cleveland, 3 p.m.
Oct. 14 – Palisades, 3 p.m.*
Oct. 21 – Fairfax, site and time TBA*
Oct. 28 – at Westchester, 7 p.m.*
Nov. 4 – at Venice, 7 p.m.*
Nov. 10 – at Hamilton, 2 p.m.*

* Western League game