Santa Cruz groomed to be a head coach

09-03-2006

By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions

The sun had set far into horizon of the Pacific Ocean – in this case west of the Hawaiian Islands on a late August night in 1993.

Victor Santa Cruz, then a linebacker at Hawaii by way of Rancho Buena Vista High, had finished the second football practice of two-a-days, showered and completed an interview as he ate dinner in a campus dorm dining hall. The hour was late, but he had one more item on his check list for the day.

He knew Morse High was practicing on Hawaii’s campus for a game in the Shawn Akina Classic at Aloha Stadium. Santa Cruz stopped by to meet Morse coach John Shacklett, a long-time San Diego high school football coach he respected from RBV’s rivalry days with Morse.

If ever a football player groomed himself to be a head coach, it was Santa Cruz.

At RBV, he loved playing for former Longhorns coach Craig Bell and defensive coordinator Tom Haman – now RBV’s head coach. At El Camino, Santa Cruz learned the coaching profession as an assistant for five years on the staff of former Wildcats coach Herb Meyer, a North County sports icon.

Now, in the 2006 season, Santa Cruz finds himself in the role of a first-year head coach at Azusa Pacific University. His Cougars, ranked No. 11 among NAIA schools, dropped their opener, 27-0, against the University of San Diego, ranked No. 1 among Division I-AA mid-major teams, in a San Diego homecoming for him.

Although Santa Cruz is only 33-years-old, it’s still fair to wonder what took him so long. Maybe if he hadn’t worked in marketing and sales right out of college, he might have become a head coach sooner.

“My heart was always in coaching, but I thought coming out of college you needed to make money to be a success,” Santa Cruz said. “I fell into that trap of what success is.”

Thankfully for Santa Cruz, his wife, Jamie, suggested he take up coaching.

“She saw how miserable I was meandering through life,” Santa Cruz said. “I learned you shouldn’t let money define success and stop you from doing what makes you happy. I’m not solving world peace – I’m teaching football – but hopefully I’m making a difference in the lives of the players I coach.”

Santa Cruz spent the past two seasons as Azusa Pacific’s defensive coordinator after spending the previous three seasons serving as offensive coordinator. Santa Cruz’s 2004 defense is considered the best in school history. Azusa led the NAIA with 55 sacks and allowed only 9.6 points in a game. In three NAIA playoff games, the Cougars gave up only 17 points but were eliminated in the semifinals.

So when Pete Shinnock left Azusa Pacific to start a football program at North Carolina-Pembrook, Santa Cruz was promoted to head coach on Dec. 14.

“Everyone was excited when he was named the coach,” said Azusa starting running back Alex Peltier, a junior from Oceanside who played high school football at Santa Fe Christian. “Even though I play offense and he was coaching defense, he was a coach you could always feel on the field. He’s passionate and wants the program to be the best experience it can be for his players.”

That’s the way it was for Santa Cruz as a player and an assistant coach.

At RBV, Santa Cruz played Longhorns teams that won a pair of CIF San Diego Section titles, the 2A in 1988 and 3A in 1989.

“I still draw from a lot of my experiences playing for Coach Bell and Coach Haman,” Santa Cruz said. “Under Coach Haman, I learned you can discipline your players and still have a great relationship with them. I still call Coach Haman and lot and value his opinions.”

At Hawaii, Santa Cruz played on a Warriors team that won the 1992 Western Athletic Conference title and defeated Illinois in the Holiday Bowl.

At El Camino, Santa Cruz said he learned from Meyer how a head coach treats his assistants. That may come as a surprise to some referees, sportswriters and assistant coaches Meyer has felt the need to sternly correct, but Santa Cruz laughs when he says that’s part of who Meyer was as a coach.

“He’s a demanding guy, but if you were on his staff you knew he had your back,” Santa Cruz said. “I learned how to balance being a leader and being demanding with a set of standards. He was a father figure. It was OK to be disciplined by him because you knew he cared about you.”

It’s true the Azusa Pacific coach travels to USD with a Los Angeles-area identity for his debut as a head coach, but San Diego and North County football shaped the former RBV linebacker.

Tom Shanahan can be contacted at 619-699-2334 or toms@sdhoc.com.