Small Colleges : Finn Football Isn’t Foreign to This Coach

It is not a typical way for a football coach to spend his summer vacation.

Motts Thomas, who has coached the Pomona-Pitzer colleges the last seven years, has spent his last four summers coaching football in Finland as well.

Thomas, 42, coaches the Helsinki Giants of Finland’s National Division--the highest of three football leagues in the country--and has a rather impressive record.

The team finished its season in August with a 10-1 record, its only setback a 3-0 loss to the Munkka Colts in the Maple Leaf Classic--the Finnish version of the Super Bowl at Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. In fact, Thomas has lost only five games since he became coach of the Giants and the team has qualified to compete in the European championships.

For Thomas, it is the perfect way to spend a summer.

“It’s kind of like a busman’s holiday,” he said. “I like traveling and I like that country. My Finnish has even gotten a lot better.

“In terms of coaching, it’s refreshing too. It gives me a chance to try new plays and recharge the batteries. You’re doing what you want to do.”

The coach said that he learned of the Finnish league about five years ago.

“I got in touch with some people from the league and they came to visit me and it just took off from there,” he said.

He even takes some former American players with him to compete for the Giants. Among the eight Americans he took this year were players from Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Whittier, Redlands, La Verne and Pomona-Pitzer.

“The kids have been ambassadors for their colleges and the U.S.,” Thomas said. “The thing I like about it is, it allows us to expose a lot of minority kids to Europe. We’ve managed to get a lot of kids over there who wouldn’t normally have a chance to play.”

Thomas said a leading snack-food company in Finland sponsors the team and pays all expenses for him, his family and the players. That includes round-trip air fare, food, housing and a car.

Thomas said the level of play in the National Division is probably on a par with many National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division I programs in the United States and that Americans are usually surprised by the popularity of the sport in Finland.

“It has grown by leaps and bounds there and I give clinics all over the country,” Thomas said. “It’s soccer, ice hockey and football there. The Finns are wild about sports.”

Besides the National Division, which has 10 teams, Thomas said Finland also has first and second divisions of 12 teams each. Whittier’s Hugh Mendez coaches the Hanko team of the first division.

Typically, Thomas said, the Finnish teams have about 42 to 46 players and two to four are American.

“You carry as many (Americans) as you can afford,” he said.

Because the Finns are trying to develop their own players, Thomas said, teams can have only one American on the field at a time and no Americans can play quarterback.

But there are no restrictions against having American coaches.

“The national sports federation has been good to me and I’ve been trying to do well by them,” Thomas said. “It’s been a perfect match.”

He hopes his success in Finland will finally rub off on his football program at Pomona-Pitzer, which was 0-8 last year.

“Over there, we went into the Super Bowl undefeated and we’re hoping that in this situation here (at Pomona) we can turn the corner with the program,” he said.

Tina Mochizuki will be in a familiar position when she coaches the women’s tennis team at Cal State Los Angeles this season.

It will be her third term. She previously coached the Golden Eagles in 1975 and 1982.

She starred for Cal State L.A. in the 1970s, reaching the national finals in her junior year, 1973, and qualifying for the national tournament in each of her four seasons.

In 1983, after her second coaching stint at the school, Mochizuki pursued a professional tennis career and was ranked as high as 89th in 1986. Last year she was also selected to the school’s athletic hall of fame.

Mochizuki replaces Tom Yamaguchi, who resigned after six seasons at the school. The Golden Eagles finished 9-11 and were ranked No. 9 in the NCAA Division II last season but are expected rank higher this time with the return of All-American Edna Olivarez--a redshirt last season.

Southland college division football teams have had a less than auspicious start.

The only area team that won last week was UC Santa Barbara, which defeated Humboldt State, 24-17.

Cal State Northridge, an NCAA Division II team that has dropped its first two games to Division I opponents, was impressive in a 27-20 loss to Cal State Fullerton.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was Azusa Pacific’s 24-6 loss to the University of San Diego. After a 7-1 record last season, Azusa was ranked No. 22 in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics Division II preseason poll.

College Division Notes

Nine women’s volleyball teams will compete in the Cal State San Bernardino-Soroptimist tournament Saturday in San Bernardino. Besides the host, teams competing include Cal Baptist, Redlands, Whittier, Mount St. Mary’s and The Master’s. . . . The Westmont men’s soccer team, which has won three consecutive Golden State Athletic Conference titles and 18 of its 19 conference games since 1986, has been chosen as the favorite again in a poll of coaches. Among the top returning players for Westmont is goaltender Dave Buehring, who shut out every team in the conference last season.

John Christie, an assistant men’s and women’s swimming coach at William and Mary College in Virginia last year, has been named men’s and women’s swim coach at Cal State San Bernardino. Christie, 32, was also an assistant at Kansas for four seasons.