The light at the end of the tunnel

Mike Sciacca

Vince Strang was shrouded in darkness Friday as he made his way

down an unfamiliar path, his only guide a narrow ray of bright light

thatbeckoned him forward.

The 22-year-old was in uniform, traveling -- for the first time --

through the tunnel that leads to the Memorial Stadium football field

at UC Berkeley, where he was to join his Golden Bear teammates for

their first official scrimmage of the 2002 college football season.

As he neared the end of the tunnel and darkness gave way to

intense sunshine, Strang stood still and soaked it all in, staring at

the freshly painted turf while squinting into his future.

As Strang stepped onto the field, it was then that he knew he was

living his dream.

“I had chills all over my body. It was an unbelievable moment and

one that I will remember the rest of my life,” he said.

Not only did the Huntington Beach High School graduate walk on to

the Cal football team, but first-year head coach Jeff Tedford

announced late last week that Strang, a junior wide receiver, is part

of the team’s two-deep roster for Saturday’s season opener against

visiting Baylor.

“To say that I’m ecstatic is an understatement. I have worked

very, very hard to get to this point, but it’s all been so worth it,”

Strang said.

A LONG JOURNEY

His is a tale of an improbable journey that was made possible

through the guidance and encouragement of some key people, but mostly

because Strang refused to be told that he couldn’t do it.

When he arrived on campus as a freshman at Huntington Beach High,

Strang was all of 4-foot-10 and 90 pounds, soaking wet. Yet he wanted

to try his hand at Oiler football, and in that first year he played

for coach Ken Ostrowski.

“As a freshman football coach, we always get a couple of kids that

are so undersized that we, for the sake of safety, would encourage

them to try another sport other than football,” Ostrowski said.

“Vince was one of those kids. He was basically a football helmet with

feet.

“As is the usual case with these kinds of kids, two things are

always true: They will wear jersey No. 1, and they will play wide

receiver.”

Strang did both. Ostrowski said that because the Sunset League is

highly competitive, freshmen football provides a few games a year

that are for players who have little game experience or are

overmatched physically.

Strang played in that district league, and it was there that

Ostrowski said he learned that Strang was “a little different than

some of those other kids that I had coached.”

“It was the last district game of the year, and Vince looked up at

me and said, ‘Coach, throw me the ball. I will catch it,’ ” Ostrowski

recalled. “With a few seconds left on the clock, I relented to

extreme pressure from my staff to try and throw the ball to Vince.

“I instructed our quarterback to throw the safest pass known in

high school football, the dreaded quick slant. Sure enough, Vince

cuts in front of the defender and makes the catch and is smothered

after about a 10-yard gain. I am pretty sure that we lost the game,

but it was like we had won the Super Bowl. Tears of joy were

streaming down his face, and it was a tremendous way to end the

season.”

A nice ending to his first attempt at high school football, but

Strang’s story doesn’t end there.

He went on to play under four head coaches at Huntington Beach

High, which required that he prove himself all over again on the

field to each new coach.

Strang not only proved that he belonged, but he went on to become

a second team all-league wide receiver during his senior year. On

campus he was affectionately called, “Rudy” -- a reference to former

undersized but overachieving Notre Dame football player Rudy

Ruettiger, the subject of the motion picture, “Rudy.”

In fact, the back of Strang’s high school letterman’s jacket bears

his last name and underneath it, “Rudy.”

But no college expressed interest in having Strang, at 5-foot-6

and weighing 130 pounds out of high school, play football for their

school. Instead, he became a part-time student at Orange Coast

College, and Ostrowski asked Strang to help him coach the Huntington

Beach freshman football team.

“Coach O has always been very encouraging and very positive with

me in my football career,” Strang said. “I loved coaching freshman

football at my alma mater, but I was itching to play again. Coach O

encouraged me to do so and told me, basically, to play it because I

had a passion.”

Strang was a relative unknown when he tried out at Orange Coast

College yet quickly caught the eye of the Pirates coaching staff when

he ran a 4.3 in the 40-yard dash.

He went on to play for two years at OCC. He retuned punts and was

part of the receivers rotation his freshman year and as a sophomore

did the same. As the Pirates’ top receiver, Strang led the team in

receptions and receiving yardage, punt returns and return yardage,

kickoff returns and yardage, and all-purpose yardage.

But just as was the case when he finished high school, no major

division school sought Strang, who had “blossomed” to 5-foot-8 and

150 pounds, when he was done playing at OCC.

“It was frustrating, but I just kept plugging away. I knew I had

to take the initiative to get myself noticed,” he explained.

Strang went to work putting together a highlight film of his

career at OCC. He sent out tapes, postcards and letters to Arizona,

USC, San Diego State and a school where he had always wanted to play,

UCLA.

Not a word back. Not from one school. He did get feedback, he

said, from a couple of small schools that were “in the middle of

nowhere,” but held on to his dream of playing Division I.

“No offense to those schools, but I knew what I wanted, and that

was to play where I would enjoy myself, could get a great education,

and have fun in the process,” he said.

ALONG THE WAY

Two instrumental figures during Strang’s time at OCC were teammate

Brandon Hall and assistant coach Junior Tagaloa.

Hall, who played wide receiver with Strang, earned a scholarship

to play at Cal. Tagaloa played receiver for the Golden Bears in the

late 1980s and early 1990s.

Hall and Strang had become great friends while playing at OCC, and

once Hall arrived in Berkeley, he saw the situation and gave Strang

an encouraging phone call.

“Brandon told me that I could fit in at Cal and to make myself

known to the coaching staff,” Strang said. “He and Coach Tagaloa

really have been an incredible support system for me.”

Strang went to Berkeley to see Hall play in Cal’s spring game and

took the opportunity to introduce himself to the Cal coaching staff.

He left them with his highlight tape, and although coaches told

Strang they could use some speed at receiver, their player roster was

full.

Their advice: Don’t get discouraged, and keep in touch, he said.

Hall, Strang said, would on occasion head into the coaches’ office

after practice, “nudging them to keep me in mind.”

“Brandon told me to keep calling them, and I did, but every time

they’d tell me there still was nothing,” he said. “But then, with one

phone call in June, it all changed.”

A DREAM REALIZED

It was two days before the beginning of summer ball when he put in

another call to Berkeley.

This time, he was told there was an opening in camp.

“I threw some stuff into my bag and got right up there,” Strang

said. “I enrolled in summer school and roomed with Brandon. It was

strange, though: For how long I had been plugging away at this,

everything seemed to be happening so fast.”

NCAA rules stipulate that a walk-on player cannot practice with

the team. So, Strang went to work, lifting and running on his own.

He’d study Hall’s playbook at night, preparing for the start of camp

on Aug. 5.

Strang was listed at the bottom of a receivers depth chart that

included 12 players.

“I was a little discouraged but thought, ‘You know what, I’ve been

here before,’ ” he said.

Hall told him the list meant nothing, what mattered was what took

place on the practice field.

“We’re great friends, and I knew that Vince had the ability to

play at this level,” Hall said. “I told him because of his size, he

would need to sell himself. And Vince has done that quite well.”

Hall, in stark contrast to his roommate’s 5-foot-8 and 152

pounds, is listed at 6-foot-4, 240 pounds in the Cal media guide. He

will start at halfback and rotate at tight end.

“I’m thrilled that Vince is here,” Hall added. “He has worked

incredibly hard and never lost that dream.”