The last hurrah for this Grizzly?

ROGER CARLSON

After 14 years of punishing ballcarriers, one of Newport Harbor

High’s finest products, two-time All-CIF first-team star Alan Saenz

finds himself on the horizon of perhaps his final season as the

University of Montana’s football team primes for an NCAA record 12th

straight appearance in the I-AA eliminations and its sixth

championship final in the last 11 seasons.

“I’m kind of spent with football,” said the 6-foot-1, 302-pound

Saenz as he assumes the starting role for the Grizzlies at defensive

tackle in this, his fifth year in Big Sky Conference circles.

His coaches may be hoping it’s like the proverbial flame, at its

brightest before the light goes out.

“Alan is a powerful young man and has a chance to control the line

of scrimmage,” said his coach, Bobby Hauck, through Grizzly channels.

“He’s got the ability to dominate the line of scrimmage, and for us

to be successful, he’s got to do that.”

After three years of playing in a rotation system at defensive

tackle with three others who have since departed, Saenz finds himself

as one of the major keys to Montana’s hopes. And he is clearly an

all-conference candidate.

“This could be a big year for him,” said Hauck of a standout who

has started just once (as a sophomore against Northern Arizona), yet

twice has garnered honorable mention status when the Big Sky’s

all-conference selections were announced.

“I’ve enjoyed it,” said Saenz, who started knocking down people in

youth football as a third-grader. “But if I got offered something I’d

have to really think about it. It’s one thing, the money, but I’m

kind of over with football.”

The demands of the game begin a week after the season is over with

a lifting program until the end of the school year, as well as

“winter conditioning,” with a week or two off before “spring ball”

for a month. Three weeks after the school year is finished, summer

conditioning begins as the Aug. 9 start toward 2005 approaches.

The virtual year-round extension of the game seems to have taken

its toll.

“People underestimate what you do,” explained Saenz. “Especially

in this town! A lot of people are jealous and will say, ‘You guys

have it so easy.’

“But we have a full-time, and overtime, schedule. School all day,

practice, meetings, getting home at 7 every night. We put a lot of

work into it.”

So Saenz is maintaining a mind-set which is pushing all the chips

to the center of the table with an “all-in” attitude.

He admits a certain amount of concern with the newfound status as

Mr. Big in the defensive trenches, but not for long.

“I was a little worried, I got so spoiled because we had so many

guys (at defensive tackle) the last three years,” said Saenz.

“They’re all gone now. Two of them were all-conference and one was

a legitimate pro prospect. So, yeah, there is a little pressure. “But

the coaches have complete faith in me and that’s awesome. So I’m just

pushing myself to see what I can do.”

Saenz, a 22-year-old with a business administration major, has

been in the business of pushing people around for a long time and

looks back on his decision to attend the Missoula-based campus with

no regrets.

“I remember being in the locker room (at Newport Harbor) and

getting letters from Montana and disregarding them,” said Saenz.

‘What’s Montana got to offer?,’ I thought to myself.”

The Montana coaching staff saw him as a defensive tackle and a

defensive tackle only, and his days as a linebacker were over.

“I took a chance and came up here and I’ve never regretted it,”

said Saenz. “It’s the total college experience, a good education,

meeting a lot of great people. I still have to figure some things

out, but I’ve had a lot of fun.”

Some of that fun can be found in raw figures, with 34 tackles in

his junior season, and he has appeared in 39 games over three years,

missing just one game against Weber State as a sophomore because of

injury.

Another side of it is this weekend’s floating adventure with a

tube down the Big Flatfoot where the adage, “A River Runs Through

It,” comes to mind. “It’s the same river that is in the movie,” said

Saenz of the Robert Redford flick.

Saenz, whose strength can be measured by a 560-pound squat in the

weight room, had thought of starting his college career at Orange

Coast College or following Newport Harbor standout Chris Manderino as

a walk-on at Cal.

Instead he finds himself looking forward to the upcoming season

which begins Sept. 3 at Fort Lewis before probably the most

significant venture of his college career on a national basis.

The Grizzlies are at Oregon a week later where the Ducks and their

Division I status await.

“We’ve been wanting to play a I-A school for a long time,” said

Saenz. “It should be fun. We used to play Idaho, but unfortunately

they stopped playing us because we kept beating them.”

For football fans with satellite television, the Sept. 10 game

figures to be aired on Fox-Northwest. And, for the very interested,

Saenz wears jersey No. 99.

Opening with Fort Lewis would seem to be a good start for Saenz

this fall. A year ago his career-best numbers came against Fort Lewis

with four tackles, two stops for losses and a sack.

It will be the Grizzlies’ first appearance since their I-AA

national title game in Chattanooga, Tenn., in December, with a chance

to bounce back from a 31-21 loss to James Madison.

“We have a lot of people back,” said Saenz, whose beefy hands with

the soft touch belie a wicked approach on the football field.

Despite the fact “rotating tackles,” may be a thing of the past,

Saenz maintains the Grizzlies will be solid defensively.

The key for the Grizzlies, who were 12-3 last season, may be at

quarterback where a sophomore and redshirt freshman are battling for

starting honors.

Next? The 18-hour flight to Newport Beach in 10 days or so to join

the wedding party of cousin Kiki Beecher and her intended, Aaron

Banuelos, before returning to the Big Sky for his final push in

college football.

*

Updating a previous item regarding Newport Beach’s Bill Ficker,

the skipper of the America’s Cup winner Intrepid in 1970, who teamed up with his grandson, 12-year-old Tyler Macdonald, at the recent Wall

Street Regatta at Narragansett Bay in Newport, R.I.

They finished second.

“We had a great two days of sailing with good winds,” said Ficker.

“It couldn’t have been better,” validating his contention that

“winning the race” is in fact, second to the hunt.

There was a twist to it. Ficker was not the anticipated skipper of

any boat, but the honored guest of the regatta and joined with his

grandson as part of a team effort.

“Tyler and I handled the backstraps,” said Ficker, alluding to

moves which kept the mast upright on the 12-meter boats representing

the Proskauer Rose team in the series of races, benefiting the

Shake-A-Leg program, which provides help to those with spinal cord

injuries and related nervous-system dysfunctions.

Ficker was the main speaker at the event’s banquet.

Nick Potter was the captain of the winning boat. Which boat?

Intrepid, of course.

* ROGER CARLSON is the former sports editor for the Daily Pilot.

He can be reached by e-mail at rogeranddorothea@msn.com.