Acorns try to recapture deep football roots of ’80s

MORGAN HILL
– Live Oak is looking to return to its years of greatness that
it enjoyed in the 1980’s.
MORGAN HILL – Live Oak is looking to return to its years of greatness that it enjoyed in the 1980’s.

The Acorns have won 13 league titles and have won the Central Coast Section championship games in four of the six appearances in the big show.

The last time that the Acorns won the league title was when they went back-to-back in 1993 and 1994 with current 49er linebacker Jeff Ulbrich. Ulbrich has repeatedly stated that it was assistant coach Glen Webb, who worked with the defense, that he learned the most from while playing free safety at Live Oak.

Live Oak with its 40 playoff appearances is second in the league only to Palma’s 43 appearances. Much of Palma’s success was between 1989 and 1992 when it put together a 48-game unbeaten streak – a streak that still stands as the longest in CCS.

Live Oak, in fact, is seventh in CCS for most playoff appearances behind St. Francis (79), Oak Grove (57), Bellarmine (49), Saratoga (43) and Los Gatos (41).

Norm Dow was an assistant coach for four years under Larry Kiester before taking over in 1980 as the head coach and then leading the team to its first ever CCS championship in his first year.

“They were not real strong originally,” Dow said. “Larry and I worked together, and we ended up winning league championships and going to the playoffs. So by the time I became head coach, it was a fairly strong program.”

There is not a real formula for success, Dow said. But there are a few things that help build a winning program.

“There are always three things that are involved,” Dow said. “You got to have descent players with good attitudes. You have to have good coaching, and you have to have the support of the community. I had all that basically throughout my career.”

All four of Live Oak’s CCS titles were secured under head coach Dow, now the Live Oak ASB director, during his 18 years as coach before retiring. There were only a couple of years that Dow recalls not being in the playoffs during his time at coach.

“I wouldn’t have been doing it for 18 years if I didn’t enjoy it,” Dow said.

In the first couple years Dow was coaching, the team was in the Santa Teresa League before moving over to the Monterey Bay League. Now the team plays in the five-team Tri-County Athletic League.

Live Oak won its first Central Coast Section title in 1980 in the newly former Metro Division of mid-sized leagues, defeating Carlmont 28-14 to finish with a 10-2-1 record. And then the Acorns again won the title the following year after defeating Blackford 26-20.

In 1986, Live Oak finished in second place after losing to Bellarmine 23-22 in a tight contest. Up to that game, Live Oak had gone undeafed that season, receiving the No. 1 seed in the new point system that took into account overall record, school size and how both the team and the league did in the playoffs the last three year.

But Live Oak bounced back the next two years winning championships after defeating Santa Teresa 38-15 and St. Francis 33-22. St. Francis got the better of Live Oak in 1989, winning 24-19 in the title game.

But the highlight of Dow’s coaching time was the wild game against Gilroy that Live Oak won in the final seconds in the early 90s to remain undefeated.

Gilroy moved the ball down the field and scored with about 40 seconds to go to take the lead, but Live Oak went into a hurry-up offense and scored on a touchdown pass with no time left on the clock. Live Oak went for two and completed the option play for the win.

“The Gilroy team and fans had emptied onto the field thinking the game was done,” Dow said. “I thought their chances of winning looked good too especially when the other team knows you have to go down the field and score and can play back. After the game, the Gilroy players were all over the field, and it looked like a Civil War battle. It absolutely crushed them.”

Many of the current coaches at Live Oak coached under Dow and were a big part of the success Live Oak enjoyed, Dow said. Although Live Oak has been on hard times recently, these coaches, who have enjoyed success in the past, know what it takes to win.

Both brothers Glen and Lloyd Webb coached under Dow. Lloyd is the head line coach, and Glen, in addition to heading up the program, also works with the defense.

Bill Sanford, another one of Dow’s coaches, is in charge of the defensive backs. Offensive coordinator David Snapp played for Dow in the glory years.

“One person can’t do it,” Dow said. “I have the greatest respect for the current coaches. All those guys worked for me when I was the head coach. They were the ones that made the team go. They are very dedicated and are very intelligent. I just wish they would have a little more luck. Live Oak is always in every game.”

It has been tough the past couple years especially for Coach Webb, who helped the freshmen team get started before seeing the coaches let go for forging the CPR certifications. This year Webb lobbied to keep the freshmen team going, which was slated for the chopping block with budget cutbacks.

“I know they will get the job done as best as can possibly be done,” Dow said. “I know they care for kids. These were the guys that helped me create championships. They were all responsible for our glory years. I don’t know why they haven’t had better luck, but it is not because of the coaches. There are so many factors involved.”

In the public school system, players always come in waves, Dow said. There is not that consistency that a private school has.

“Sometimes when you get a good program started they feed on that,” Dow said. “But your at the mercy of what talents you get. Obviously there are some years you might have a stronger group than others – in attitude and ability.”

Dow’s Green and Gold teams were well disciplined and had a strong work ethic.

“I tried to be fairly disciplined and have the same rules for everybody,” Dow said. “I instituted the two platoon system that we used 99 percent of the time. Kids wouldn’t play both ways so I would have 22 starters. It helped morale and made coaching easier. They could concentrate on one thing. In practice the defense always practiced against the offense. If someone gets hurt, you lose one starter instead of two.”

But many times now that luxury does not exist especially if the team doesn’t have a lot of depth.

“We used to take some kids that wouldn’t have started at a lot of other schools,” Dow said. “They ended up playing with us because of all the work they did at their positions.”

One of the things that made Live Oak great was the ability for Dow and the coaching staff to change strategies for different teams.

“We had a very strong scouting system,” Dow said. “A lot of times we knew our opponents really well. What they did depended on what we did. We tried to pass and run the ball so we were not one dimensional.”

Many of the players who played for Dow had the ability to be creative and make the plays.

“I definitely had a lot of great high school players – there is no question about that,” Dow said.

The playbook that Dow and the coaching staff developed and perfected is still used today.

“They do a lot things that were successful when I was there,” Dow said. “I am not real familiar with the players, but they probably have the toughest league in the CIF except for some of the Catholic leagues.”