Niendorf: Bear Creek football on the cusp of winning season after besting rival Stagg

STOCKTON – It’s been more than two decades since Bear Creek has celebrated a winning season, but the Bruins are on the cusp of doing just that after recording an emotional homecoming victory Friday night against San Joaquin Athletic Association rival Stagg.

With three regular season games remaining, the Bruins (4-3) must record two victories against either Franklin, Edison or McNair to achieve that goal. First-year coach Clint Wilcox, former JV coach at Tokay for three years, thinks his players can do it after snapping a three-game skid against the Delta Kings (4-3).

“This is just the accumulation of our guys starting to believe we’re as good as we think they are,” Wilcox said. “This is a huge win against a quality opponent. They played a heck of a football game; it’s awesome to see them play to the level they’re capable of.”

Since 2004, the Bruins were just 3-15 against Stagg, including a 19-7 loss last year. But Wilcox has been telling anyone who’ll listen to him that this team is ready to put all that losing to rest.

He told me his team has a bevy of young players learning how to compete on every play. That, he said, will make a difference next season when powerhouse Edison exits the SJAA for the Tri-City Athletic League.

“We expect to be one of the top teams (who’ll challenge for the league title),” Wilcox said. “It does look like it’ll be a wide-open race. We like a lot of our sophomores who are on varsity now, and we’re excited about their future.”

A Year Early?

Bruins senior quarterback Shaan Johal isn’t one of those young players who’ll be around next season hoping to claim a league championship. However, it didn’t stop him from following through on his plan to give his coach a traditional Gatorade bath following Friday’s upset of Stagg.

“I didn’t know how he’d react to it, but he was cool with it,” said Johal, who passed for 198 yards and a touchdown. “We’re here to have fun, and football is fun.”

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Feeling the Spirit

Wilcox, who has been a Sunday School teacher at his local church, sees how football can parallel life at times.

“Really, as a teacher (and coach), it’s about having faith in a set of standards and it’s important to stay on track,” Wilcox said. “If you make that one mistake, and get off track a little bit, you have to get back on the path.”

Would that big bucket of Gatorade then be considered a baptism?

Christmas Spirit

Neighbors living on Wilcox’s street will never win the “Best-Christmas-Lights Award” in the neighborhood. After all, Wilcox estimates he uses between 5,000 and 10,000 lights on his home to go along with a herd of reindeer on his roof. And that’s just the beginning.

“Traditionally, our electricity bill triples in December,” he said.

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Dirty Laundry

Stagg’s sideline of coaches and players were well past the frustration point by halftime as mounting penalties continued to stall drive after drive.

By the game’s end, a whopping 18 accepted penalties had been issued against the Delta Kings for a stunning 185 total yards. That included eight of the 15-yard variety for unsportsmanlike conduct or personal fouls.

Considering Bear Creek was whistled just seven times for 50 penalty yards, the disparity was seemingly evident to everyone but the officials.

In addition, game film will reveal that on one drive a Bear Creek player stepped out of bounds not once, but twice, inside the 5-yard line on his way into the endzone. The sideline official, however, ruled it a touchdown.

Fortunately for Stagg, Bear Creek was flagged for holding and the touchdown taken off the scoreboard.

Delta King

It was great reconnecting with longtime coach Don Norton, who is in the midst of his 43rd year of coaching. He was denied win No. 112 against the Bruins, which would have extended his mark as the all-time winningest coach at Stagg.

Next year will be his 20th for the Delta Kings should he decide to return.

“I enjoy it,” said Norton, who’ll turn 68 years young in two weeks. “So far, nobody’s asking me to leave. I won’t commit to saying this is my last year anymore because when I tell people that, I never follow through.”

With next season’s SJAA race up for grabs, the Delta Kings will be among the few teams with a valid chance at capturing the title. I think Norton sees that as too good of an opportunity to pass up — finishing his career with a league championship.

Current Stagg Athletic director Hung Nguyen, a student in Norton’s PE class years ago, said Norton is the only one who knows what the future holds for him.

“He’s at that stage where you don’t tell him when he’s done,” Nguyen said. “He’ll decide that; he’s earned that right.”

Mile Run

Norton put a scare into Hung back in the day after taking 10 minutes to finish the mile run.

“He got mad at me because I was on the basketball team and he held us to a higher standard,” Hung said. “That was the last time I didn’t run a sub-7-minute mile because he could be a scary dude. I’ll remember that day the rest of my life.”

Country Run

Speaking of running, I still see Norton periodically running around a park near where I live. He wears a headset to listen to a country music radio station during his 4.2-mile run four times a week. Do his players even know what country music is?

“I make the guys listen to it during some of our weight-training sessions, or out at practice,” Norton said. “They’ve had to listen to it so much they understand it.”

Count me out as a country music fan, considering all the songs are seemingly all about one of three things: divorce, death or a truck.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Bear Creek football on the cusp of winning season after besting Stagg