Final Fling at Football

Leave it to a couple of punters to kick some life into Southern California’s moribund football scene.

The Rams have moved to St. Louis.

The Raiders have returned to Oakland.

But Scott Aronson and Darren McMahon hope the Simi Valley Swarm, a minor-league team preparing for its inaugural season, can in some small way help fill the void created by the departure of the Southland’s professional teams.

“The NFL we are not,” Aronson said. “But we’re the next best thing.”

On this evening, 40 or so Swarm players are practicing at Chatsworth High. Players are not paid but have come to rekindle competitive fires and foster hopes of reaching the promised land of a professional camp.

Included is Aronson, 27, a former punter for Pierce College who shares ownership of the Swarm with his wife, Karlisa, and McMahon, a former punter at Cal State Northridge and Chatsworth and Granada Hills high schools.

A veteran of several minor-league teams, Aronson says he learned from the mistakes made by former employers and hopes by providing a more organized setting, he can make it easier for aspiring players to attract the interest of professional leagues.

The Swarm begins a 12-game schedule in the Pacific Football League on Saturday with a preseason game against the Washington Posse in Vancouver, Wash. The Swarm will play six home games at Simi Valley High, starting Aug. 23 against the Fresno Bandits, defending Minor League Super Bowl champions.

“Some of these guys have been on NFL fields,” said Aronson, who was in the Rams’ camp in 1994 but will postpone his NFL dream to punt for the Swarm this season. “A lot of them have the potential to be on [Canadian Football League] fields and in the World League and arena football. I’m real excited about the prospect of what’s going to happen.”

McMahon, 26, says most of the players were recruited through college contacts.

“There are a lot of diamonds in the rough out there,” McMahon said. “When you find one guy, he has to know someone else. The next thing you know, you’ve got a team.”

The coaching staff, headed by former Chaminade High assistant Aaron Spaulding, has settled on a 55-player roster that includes former USC and Chaminade running back Tim Lavin, former Portland State and Calabasas quarterback Darren Del’Andrae and former Fresno State and Simi Valley receiver Lawrence Nelson.

Other names won’t be as familiar to local fans, but the players’ stories are no less compelling.

Kicker Jay Kirchoff, who makes the longest drive to practice from north San Diego County, has the most NFL experience, having played in exhibition games with the Minnesota Vikings and Miami Dolphins.

Guard Tim Siaki, at 32 the oldest member of the Swarm, is reportedly the only deaf player in the 16-team PFL.

Here are four others who have taken different paths to play for the Swarm:

THE WRITER

John Nitsch, a self-employed cabinet maker and aspiring writer, thinks he has a novel in him.

What he didn’t expect to find, until a few months ago, is that he still has some football left in him.

Nitsch, 26, figured he had hung up his shoulder pads for good after his senior season at Royal High in 1988. But a chance meeting with Karlisa Aronson in the spring of last year set the wheels in motion for his comeback.

Karlisa, noticing Nitsch’s 6-foot-4 and 265-pound frame while she was in a copying store, told him about the Swarm and how they were looking for players. Nitsch initially decided against playing but changed his mind after talking with Scott Aronson the day before tryouts started in June.

“That whole night was the longest I’ve had in a long time,” Nitsch said. “It was tough to get out there, but it was worth it.”

An offensive lineman in high school, Nitsch is getting a chance to fulfill a dream by playing defense with the Swarm. He is practicing on both sides of the line.

After worrying that he wouldn’t be able to cut it, Nitsch was gratified to find he measured up with his new teammates.

“I’ve exceeded my expectations by a hundred-fold,” he said. “I’m just ecstatic. I can’t wait [to play].”

Nitsch said he has been forced to move his life around in order to play with the Swarm. He has two semesters left before earning a degree in English at Cal State Northridge and acknowledges that money will be tight while he juggles work, school and football.

“I’ll be working less and doing the student-loan route,” he said. “As long as I can pay the rent and keep the lights on, I’ll be OK.”

Because of the demands on his time, Nitsch has delayed his writing project. But he recently showed that he has a knack for picking the right words to describe a situation.

Asked to write his favorite quotation for a team questionnaire, Nitsch perfectly summed up his commitment to the Swarm:

“Like the tortoise, whose stride in life is slow but steady, one only moves forward when they stick their neck out.”

THE BRICKLAYER

It’s a wonder John Skidmore can keep his eyes open, let alone practice football in the evening. He has been up since 3 a.m.

Skidmore, 23, rose that early to allow for the drive from his Oxnard home to his job in Santa Ana, where the union bricklayer is helping build a junior high school. Work starts at 5:30.

Meet quite possibly the hardest-working man in football.

On practice days, Skidmore stops off at Chatsworth High to work out with the Swarm before continuing home. He has been doing this for a month, but no one is sure how.

“There’s just something about smelling the grass and having [players] around you,” he explained. “It gives you a high. It keeps you going for a couple of hours.”

What keeps Skidmore going is the chance of playing at the “next level.” Although this is the fourth consecutive year the defensive back has played for a minor-league team, he clings to the dream of making a pro roster.

“I’ve got to work, but at the same time I want to still play ball,” he said. “This is the only way I can do both. . . . I’m still young enough. You just have to keep training and working hard.”

Skidmore played football at Oxnard High but never took his game to the college level. He played two seasons for the minor-league Ventura County Cardinals before switching to the Santa Clarita-based California Dolphins last season. When the Dolphins moved to Lake Elsinore, Skidmore found the Swarm.

Asked how the Swarm differs from his previous teams, he said, “Well, there’s people at practice. There’s people on the sideline waiting to get in, too. These other teams I played with, you’re going both ways with about three or four people on the sideline. If you get hurt, that’s it. We got a whole first- and second- and possibly third-string. And all of them have talent.

“I think we’re going to have a lot of fun this season, hopefully beating up on some people.”

Skidmore, though, won’t be feeling as beat up for future Swarm practices. The company he is working for has put him up in a hotel in Santa Ana. Now he can sleep in until 5.

THE PROMOTER

A year of promoting dances and parties at fashionable Southland nightclubs didn’t get the taste of football out of Cleo Collins’ mouth.

After sitting out last season, he is making a final stab at catching the eye of a pro team. He hopes the Swarm is his ticket to the big time.

“I’m going to give it one last shot,” he said. “Hopefully I’ll make it. If not, I’m through. This is it.”

Collins’ make-or-break season comes after the cornerback played for Compton High, Long Beach City College and the University of Buffalo. At 25, he feels a good season with the Swarm can take him to more prestigious places.

“I wanted to play on a team that was really serious,” said Collins, who drives an hour from his home in Paramount to practice. “I had heard a lot of horror stories about semipro ball, but they’re really doing things right here. They’re taking care of us.”

THE GIANT

In a sea of helmets and shoulder pads, Corley Brooks sticks out like the Empire State Building.

At 6-6 and 375 pounds, he is easily the biggest member of the Swarm. And, from all indications, he may have a better-than-average chance of playing on national television some day.

Brooks hopes to follow in the footsteps of his nephew, Barrett Brooks, a tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles. At 6-4 and 310 pounds, Barrett distinguished himself by having a fine college career at Kansas State and becoming the Eagles’ second-round draft pick in 1995. So far, however, Corley’s career has been mired in false promise. Corley played only one season at Eastern Arizona, a junior college, before returning home to St. Louis and playing the past two years on a minor-league team.

Now Brooks, 26, is taking dead aim at pro football with the help of a trainer who noticed him a scouting combine in March. Brooks said he also has an agent.

“I intend to be out here for six months, cut my weight down and get some film,” he said. “Hopefully I’ll be signed by February.”

Before that can happen, Brooks concedes he must get lighter and quicker. In workouts with the Swarm, he runs well behind the other linemen, his large legs moving slowly in short, choppy strides.

“I have to get down to 320, 325,” he said.

Since moving to Upland about a month ago, Brooks said he has dropped 15 pounds.

“Believe me, I’m going to get there,” he said.

The promised land beckons.

For information on the Simi Valley Swarm, call 1-888-467-9276.