Karl Dorrell was confused. As a recruiter for the prestigious
University of Colorado, he had always been welcomed wherever he
went. But there he was at Crenshaw High School being told that the
school would not be sending him any players. “Get the hell
out of my school!” Crenshaw High School football coach Robert
Garrett said he told Dorrell. “He thought I was joking. I was
serious. I kicked his ass out.” Dorrell’s introduction
to Garrett was a humorous and unusual one, since the two have since
developed a healthy business relationship. Dorrell, who is now
UCLA’s head coach, returned to Crenshaw on April 12, this
time as an honored guest. It was later learned that Dorrell’s
dismissal from Crenshaw had been the result of a miscommunication
that occurred between Garrett and a former Colorado coach whom
Dorrell had replaced. “It dawned on me at the time that you
have to make sure these type of situations don’t happen in
your own backyard,” Dorrell said. Earlier this year, Dorrell
and the entire UCLA staff put on an all-day free clinic for
inner-city high school football coaches that they hope to make an
annual event. “The clinic was really something I thought
would set a statement right away about trying to control those
stereotypes and misconceptions about UCLA being the nice, pretty
school over here in Beverly Hills and not really wanting to recruit
the inner-city kid,” Dorrell explained. “I don’t
think UCLA deserved that type of stereotype.” “We are
going to get those kids, whenever possible, the opportunity to be a
part of our program and our university,” Dorrell said.
Making The Cut That opportunity, however, depends largely on
test scores and grades. Defensive line coach Don Johnson opened the
clinic, not with pass-rushing drills but a lecture about NCAA
eligibility requirements ““ 14 core courses, a 2.5 GPA and an
820 SAT score. One of the greatest areas of miscommunication and
one of the greatest challenges for UCLA in recruiting inner-city
youth are the school’s academic standards. Although a student
may be eligible to play at a Div. I program, he may not be admitted
to UCLA because an independent committee makes admissions
decisions. This spring, non-athlete admits boasted an average
weighted GPA of 4.24 and a 1333 SAT score. While the standards for
athletes are certainly more lenient, they still exclude many
athletes from high schools that lack encouragement or structure.
“I think it has to start in the school system first.
They’ve got to push people,” sophomore safety Jarrad
Page said. “I know at my school they just let people get by
taking just algebra. Some people, nobody in their family has ever
been to college so they don’t know how to get there.”
Certain Pac-10 schools, like Oregon State, which has seven players
from the Compton/ Inglewood/ South L.A. area, take advantage of
lower academic standards and their relative ease in admitting
junior college transfers to get talent out of the inner city,
particularly in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Former Washington
State head coach Mike Price even joked at last year’s Pac-10
media day that he enjoys stealing all the best talent out of
California. “It’s the environment. They (other kids)
don’t think they can make it out,” Oakland Tech
graduate and redshirt freshman defensive lineman Thomas Patton
said. “There is talent in Oakland, there are just
distractions.”
Location, Location, Location Johnson said the staff continues to
do the same recruiting in the inner city that they always have, but
Dorrell has a greater presence in the community than previous UCLA
head coaches. “Everybody is excited about the coming year.
And secondly, I think they are excited to have a minority coach
running one of the better programs in the country,” said
Dorrell, one of only four black head coaches in the 117 Division
I-A football programs. “Ultimately, it comes down to
I’ve got to win my share of games.” On the 2002 roster,
USC had seven players from Long Beach Poly and seven from the
Compton/ Inglewood/South L.A. area. USC has an advantageous
location for recruiting players from the L.A. inner cities. Just
this year, for example, Manual Arts High School’s football
team walked to the USC spring game. “There is a perception
that UCLA is “˜out there,’ that it is a suburban
school,” Johnson said. “I know a lot of people use that
against us, that it is not curtailed for people from the inner
city, and that is not the case.” For Long Beach Poly graduate
and sophomore tight end Marcedes Lewis, however, location was
precisely the appeal of UCLA. “Coming from Long Beach, it is
a pretty rough area, and Westwood is considered the
bourgeois,” Lewis said. “My friends say they
don’t want to feel out of place. They say USC would be the
better place because it is in South Central. I came to UCLA to get
out of the hood, to make a better life for myself. Location was
everything.” Dorrell refuses to believe that geography
determines community. “The advantage you have is what you do
within the community,” he said. “Anything that is
positive like this, that can be a positive reflection for someone
that is growing up, whether it is helping one particular kid or 10
more kids, it is worth doing.” That attitude is why Dorrell
will never have to worry about getting kicked out of Crenshaw
again.