Porterville took road less traveled

When defensive coordinator Carl Scudder arrived at Porterville High three years ago, he took over a band of junior varsity misfits that had just completed a 1-9 season in their freshman year and were winless in the previous season.

“They didn’t have a great experience in their freshman year for whatever reason,” said Scudder, who was brought over shortly after varsity coach Rick Stewart was hired. “Going 1-9 is not a lot of fun.”

Having high hopes of a memorable experience playing high school football was quickly soured.

“It was basically just running in practice,” punter Jet Shelton said. “The freshman year started good, but it fell apart. We lost our love for football. We and the coaching staff didn’t take it as serious.”

Linebacker Casey Erikson said the daily routines became as monotonous as a replay of “Groundhog’s Day.”

“We just went to school, went to practice, went home,” he said. “We were like, ‘When’s this season gonna be over?’”

But when Scudder and Stewart arrived, offensive lineman Russell Thornhill noticed the changes taking place.

“We were excited to come to practice,” Thornhill said. “If we messed up, (Scudder would) say, ‘Calm down, we’ll get it,’ not just ‘Go run a lap.’”

That’s not to say the coaches took things easier on them. Stewart and Scudder required everyone to spend time in the weight room before hitting the practice field for hours at a time.

Slot back Jordan McIntire still couldn’t see the ends justifying the means, however.

“The coaches kept saying, ‘Oh, it’s gonna pay off, it’ll pay off,’” he said, “and we were like, ‘Yeah, right; yeah, right.’”

For some Panthers, the sacrifices went beyond simple hard work and dedication.

Diego Paniagua and Jake Vanwinkle made daily trips from Richgrove and Balch Park, respectively.

Paniagua hitched rides with teammates as far as they would take him. Once, he couldn’t find a ride and pedaled his bike to practice.

“It took awhile,” he said. “I always wanted to play and sometimes it was a sacrifice for my parents to take me.”

Vanwinkle usually rode with quarterback Richie Coppenbarger into town and crashed at teammates’ houses on some nights.

Anthony Heath makes his trip from Springville, but he bounced around juvenile hall and boot camps in Pasadena and Madera before settling down on football and high school.

Scudder hoped to change the gloomy atmosphere and Stewart instilled a new sense of camaraderie on the field.

“They had always looked at football as kind of stressful, that it had to be a perfect or certain way,” Scudder said. “When Rick and I took over, I helped them learn how to have fun... just the whole building of Panther brotherhood and learning to enjoy being around each other.”

Scudder was aware of the previous seasons’ records and the Panthers’ reputations for getting into occasional fights on the field. He didn’t see that.

“It didn’t matter to me; they were such a great group of kids and they seemed to gel really quickly together,” he said. “We won a few games along the way... and it became enjoyable.”

Few things act as more of a tonic than winning, which this particular core of Panthers gradually became accustomed to.

In their junior season, they went 6-5 and returned to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. This year, of course, they finished 10-4.

“That’s when football started becoming fun for us,” Vanwinkle said. “We started learning how to play.”

More importantly, they learned to play as a team.

“Even if you aren’t the All-Star, you’re still giving everything you have,” Erikson said. “If everybody chips in, we’ll be successful. Everybody just started believing in themselves.”

Erikson said the number of seniors that began as freshman dwindled from about 50 to just 17 in the final season, citing drugs and dropping out.

Others quit the team because it was simply too hard, which Thornhill can attest from Stewart’s rigorous demands.

“Everybody hated the coach at one time; we all have,” Thornhill said. “But everything came together and it’s been perfect.”

Though the Panthers lost in the end, wide receiver Tyler Moody has learned a valuable lesson.

“People say, ‘Work hard and you’ll get it’ and it’s just a phrase,” he said. “But now that I think about it, I’ve never worked harder for anything in my life. Hard work does pay off.

“Our four years of football is a perfect story,” he added. “It’s going from the worst team in Porterville to the best. They could make a movie about us and sell millions.”

Tight end Tre Davis waxed nostalgiac about his final year as a Panther, but knew the inevitable was unavoidable.

“I’ve been on this team forever and it seems like yesterday I was playing youth football on the fairgrounds with my buddies,” Davis said. “It still had to end at some point. Just like life has to come to an end, no matter how good it was. It’s one of the funnest times of your life.”