UPPER LAKE >> Call it “Marine Corps mentality.” But a few (very young) men will resurrect football at Upper Lake High School this season. Not an easy chore when considering how deeply it was buried beneath the weight of the 2013 and 2014 seasons during which the Cougars had no wins.
The new season will embrace a new type of football and an unfamiliar set of names in a new 10-team league for Upper Lake. The football will be played under eight-man governance and begins with the Cougars visiting Rincon Valley Christian High School in Santa Rosa on Sept. 5 After that the Cougars will be pitted against such opponents as Anderson Valley, Potter Valley, Round Valley, Point Arena and Laytonville. Upper Lake’s schedule also includes more familiar names in these parts, such as Calistoga, Mendocino and Tomales.
Upper Lake’s shift to eight-man football from the more conventional 11-man game is being guided by second-year head coach Frank Gudmundson, who had the redoubtable experience of coaching the Cougars last season when they scored a grand total of 19 points in 10 games.
Like a trade-in car that has outlived its usefulness, the Cougars are trading in their rattletrap 11-man football for a sleek sports car. The game is still football, but the scores are most decidedly basketball, usually in the 50-60 range.
Gudmundson served with the U.S. Marine Corps during Operation Desert Shield and then Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s, including an appearance on the cover of Newsweek magazine. His Marine mentality is a by-product of those times.
Outwardly, Gudmundson and his sculpted physique shout Marine, but you would never guess from his youthful appearance that he’s 46 years old. The former Upper Lake High School football star and graduate is the father and foster parent of three 20-plus-year-old women and a fourth who is not yet 20.
What says the most about the man, however, is how he qualified for a military football team back in 1987.
“There were 108 guys trying out for a 45-man team,” said Gudmundson, who was a defensive standout at Upper Lake before joining the Marines. “I was the 45th guy to make the team.”
It was no mean feat. The military team had some stud players, including a former quarterback at Mississippi State.
Gudmundson does not take issue with those who might question his head varsity coach qualifications. If he had his way he might go back to head coaching junior varsity teams for it is in the early years he feels he can be most effective with high school players.
“I’ve coached at Upper Lake since 1991,” he says. “I started out as a JV coach and I liked working with freshmen and sophomores because it’s where you can set the tone for the rest of their high school. But a couple of years ago we had a head coach who just walked right out of the program. That kind of put us in a bind, so I was forced to go to the varsity.”
Being the only eight-man football coach in Lake County is a lonely position. But Gudmundson has not been sitting on his hands worrying about that.
Along with members of his five-coach staff, he has made it a point to watch eight-man games in advance of his new role.
“We started watching eight-man football just to get an idea of what plays they’ll be running, not to emulate what they’re doing,” said Gudmundson. “And I brought in a new offensive coordinator — Vincent Moran — a former Upper Lake football player who played on a team that won a (league) championship here in the ’90s. After graduating he played for a semi-pro team in the Fort Bragg area called the Loggers.”
Gudmundson is also bringing back former Upper Lake star Joey Valdez who played on a team that beat Middletown in 2011.
As yet another preparatory step in introducing a new type of football to Lake County, Gudmundson plans to put in some time with the only coach who — past or present — has experience in the eight-man game. That would be Stan Weiper, whose name became familiar through his coaching 11-man football at Kelseyville and then Lower Lake.
Weiper went from Lake County to Ione, Oregon (population 320) where he owns a ranch and coaches an eight-man team.
“I haven’t reached back to meet Stan yet,” Gudmundson said. “That’s one of my goals.”
For his part, Weiper says he would be happy to show the new kid on the eight-man block the ropes.
“I think it was a great idea,” Weiper asserted when asked about Upper Lake’s conversion to eight-man football. “It’s a fun game. Dealing with the option, for example. In 11-man football you kind of know what the assignment is. But that doesn’t work in eight-man football. You gotta know down and distance and if you tackle somebody you’d better tackle well because if you miss they’re gone.
Weiper will no doubt counsel Gudmundson on the onside kick. Most of the schools in Oregon eight-man football almost exclusively use the onside kick.
“You get a touchdown and then onside kick and you’ve got it again. That’s how you can mount up the points real quick, man,” Weiper said.
“We might win a playoff game this year,” the glib Weiper added. “We lost to the eventual state champ last year, 60-6.
“When the score is 20-7 in eight-man football you can’t really feel fairly comfortable. We scored 45 points in a quarter. Twice. One of my backs last year went for 400 yards (rushing). You try to keep a very solid offense.”
With less than 40 days before their opener, there are still issues that Upper Lake needs to address. For instance, the size of the playing field. Some schools have 80-yard-long fields while others have maintained the 100-yard standard. It does make a difference, said Weiper.
“If you use a regular field there there is so much (unguarded) space out there that you have to kind of rethink your mental process on offense,” he explained. “You get into situations that as a coach you can’t do too much about.”
As a former “jarhead,” will Gudmundson exercise Marine Corps in-your-face, spit-shine shoe discipline?
“Absolutely,” he answered. “The one thing I give them is Marine Corps mentality. It’s gotten to the point where they (players) can feel my presence. The great thing about football is that you can train these guys so they know somebody is watching them.”
Get close to the sidelines during a Gudmundson-coached game and you’ll see and hear what separates them from the pack. As an example, you might see someone in an Upper Lake uniform holding a 25-pound weight in each hand. That’s USMC discipline at work. After a practice you might see several players voting on another player’s eligibility to suit up. That’s Gudmundson democracy at work. Finally, you might see Gudmundson driving several players home from practice. That’s Gudmundson’s heart at work.
Gadmundson will chalk it up as a successful season if the same number of Cougars complete the season as started it. He takes pride in the fact that there were no serious injuries on a 14-player Upper Lake roster last season.
“It’s a whole different ballgame when it’s eight man,” says Weiper.
In more ways than one.
