HSU Football Exposed

HSU Football

Exposed

The university's failed efforts to keep the program alive

By Walter OSPREY Hackett | 24

At Dawn Redwood Bowl on Sept. 29.

Photo by Walter Hackett

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Photo by Walter Hackett

Redwood Blitz Demetrick Watts (#5) blitzes through the line during a game against Western Oregon at Redwood Bowl on Oct. 20.

Floodlights shine on Redwood Bowl

during the second quarter of the Lumberjack homecoming football game. At the Lumberjack 30-yard line, the jersey of Humboldt State University middle linebacker Demetrick Watts is untucked in the front, revealing his chiseled core. Blood drips from an exposed gash, easily three inches long, on his right forearm. His green and black cleats anchor him to the turf directly across from his rival, the Simon Fraser quarterback. The center for Simon Fraser snaps the ball and Watts blitzes forward. He splits a diminishing gap between two large Simon Fraser linemen and slams the quarterback to the ground for a sack. Watts bounces off the ground, parades a few steps toward the home sideline and flexes his powerful arm muscles in a pose that electrifies the crowd.

“My goal is to make it to the league,” Watts says. “Everything happens for a reason.”

Division II football is dying in California. Humboldt State University’s program, which was created in

1924, is the latest to fall. According to HSU Athletics, Cal State East Bay, San Francisco State, Sonoma State and Chico State all eliminated their DII football programs in the mid-90s. After this season, Azusa Pacific, a private school, will be the only DII team left in the state. President Lisa Rossbacher announced in a July press release that the HSU program would be axed.

“Sadly, and despite a tremendous fund drive effort, we found that football cannot be sustained through student fees and community giving,” Rossbacher wrote. "At the same time, the university cannot continue to subsidize budget deficits in athletics without threatening our academic programs.”

Watts doesn’t know what’s next but like the 75 other players on HSU’s football team, he’s played the game since he was a little kid and doesn’t want to stop now. At two years old, he remembers watching Raiders games with his father. His dad played nose tackle for Sonoma State.

“My pops played football, and I was always going to

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be a football player,” Watts says. It wasn’t long before he was playing. Around the age of five, the older Watts encouraged him to establish workout regimens where he would compete with his older brother, four years his senior. Occasionally, Watts would outperform his older brother in push up competitions.

“At first I liked them,” Watts says. “But then I thought, do we have to do these every day?”

Watts grew up in the Inland Empire: Ontario, Rialto, and San Bernardino. Worried the boys would fall in with the wrong crowd, his father moved them to Riverside.

“San Bernardino isn’t very nice,” Watts says. “There were a lot of gangs. A lot of the people I played little league football with ended up in gangs. It taught me a lot. I wasn’t focused on that type of stuff.”

Watts is a man of faith. During the Jacks first game against Western Oregon this season, he’s returning to the sideline after mounting a defensive stop. He prys off his helmet revealing a white bandana with the word “blessed” printed on the front in large black letters. A few bible verses are visible in smaller print: Psalms 27:1, Romans 5:3-4. The bandana is a tribute to his father and to God. When Watts was a 14-year-old high school freshman, his father died from a blood clot in his leg. He was 40 years old and spent a month in the hospital under intensive care before the end.

“God finally called him home,” Watts says.

Touchdown

Demetrick Watts celebrates a Lumberjack score during the Simon Fraser game on Oct. 6.

Photo by Walter Hackett

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Afterward, Watts says he thought about quitting football but came to realize what his dad would've wanted.

“My pops, he made me believe,” Watts says. “If I don’t give everything I have, I’m letting my pops and God down. Football made me fearless.”

After the death, he moved in with his “granny” Barbara Newman whom he credits for being a stabilizing force in his life.

“That’s my rock,” Watts says. “I love her with all my heart. She’s my everything.”

His grandmother Barbara Newman says she noticed football was different for her grandson after his dad died.

“Sometimes I wonder why he was taken away, and then I see the man Demetrick has become,” Newman said. “Oh my god, football, it's life. It's everything. Losing his dad gave him more of a drive. Even though his dad is not here, I think he would give his heart in saying ‘dad, you're not here, but I'm able to be successful and it's all because of you.’”

Last year, following the 2017 football season in front of a crowd of players, coaches and boosters, President Rossbacher announced that HSU would continue its football program thanks to financial support from alumni and boosters who committed half a million dollars each year for the next five years.

“This is a good day for our football team, and a good day for Humboldt State,” Rossbacher said. "I’m so thankful for those who have stepped up to provide the financial resources to continue all our sports.”

Wearing a green Lumberjack hat and jacket, longtime booster and HSU alumnus Jim Redd is making his way along the Lumberjack’s sideline in the third quarter of the homecoming game against Simon Fraser. He stops periodically to embrace players with an affectionate hug, a firm

Green and Gold Lumberjack sideline during their game against Western Oregon on Oct. 20.

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Photo by Walter Hackett

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handshake, and a hearty pat on the shoulder pads. Redd led the fund drive to save the program.

“It was unbelievable the way that everybody stepped up to raise that money,” Redd says.

A month after Rossbacher’s announcement that the program would be preserved, head football coach Rob Smith resigned after being with the program for ten years. In a press conference at Baywood Golf and Country Club, Smith inferred that the university was underhandedly trying to destroy HSU football by bringing in Duncan Robins as the interim athletic director.

“The third day on the job for the new athletic director, I met with him and he told me that he was brought in to drop the football program or scale it down to a non-competitive level,” Smith announced at the conference.

Following Smith’s resignation Cory White, who served as the offensive line coach since 2015, was hired as the program’s interim head coach. After a month on the job, he resigned to take an assistant coaching position at the University of San Diego. Damaro Wheeler, who was the Jacks defensive backs and special teams coach, was next to fill the position. In May, HSU announced that it was halting its search to find a new coach and instead would stick with Wheeler through the 2018 season.

Redd is sipping on his third cup of coffee in a maroon-cushioned booth at Kristina’s restaurant in Eureka.

“They weren’t offering the candidates for the head coach a choice of assistants or a contract,” Redd says. “The hiring process was a joke.”

It turned out that HSU football was saved, but only temporarily. Eight months after her initial announcement, Rossbacher said in a summer press conference that the team’s fund drive collected $329,000, and was $171,000 short of the half million dollars needed to keep the football program running for another year.

“I believe the fund drive demonstrates that this decision did not come quickly or lightly, as we considered many factors and evaluated various alternatives,” Rossbacher wrote in a memo. “Ultimately, we had to halt the growing budget deficits in athletics.”

Redd says that after Smith resigned, raising money to save the program became more challenging.

“It felt like the university was working against us,” Redd says. “People saw what was happening and pledges were backing out.”

Redd is co-chair of the local advocacy group Save HSU Athletics, which made headlines for starting a petition to remove Robins. Redd blames Robins for botching the head coach hiring process and causing potential donors to lose faith in the program.

“I don’t know if he was directed by the president, but he killed our drive,” Redd says. “The admin are turning their backs on student athletes.”

Redd asserts that the university failed to report an accurate sum of funds that he helped to raise and says that far more than $329,000 was donated.

“We had one pledge from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference for $80,000 but they didn’t report it,” Redd says. “It was received before Lisa made the announcement.”

Even if the $80,000 was included in the final tally, the drive would be short $91,000 of the goal. Still, Redd believes that the university left the large pledge out of the report in order to lay blame on booster and community shortcomings.

“We’re not at $329,000, we’re at $410,000,” Redd says. “It sounds better for them to say we only had $329,000, so the community didn’t do their part, and $410,000 is a lot closer.”

Duncan Robins’ office in the kinesiology building is one of the loftiest perches on campus. The second floor room is spacious, neat and orderly with a large window that overlooks Redwood Bowl. Robins says

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Gridiron Tradition Program cover from HSU/Santa

Clara University matchup in 1936.

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that the university did collect the $80,000 pledge but it could not be collected until July which was after the fund drive deadline of June 30.

“Unfortunately, this was still short of the $500K needed, and many months later than had originally been agreed to by the boosters and the president,” Robins says.

According to Robins, investing in football has been tough for public universities since 2007 with state budget issues.

“I wouldn’t say it was inevitable that our program was going to die off, but what made it extremely difficult was the increase in costs and drop in enrollment at the same time,” he says. “The athletics department is operating in its fourth year with a fiscal deficit.”

Robins defends Rossbacher and says the university gave its best effort to help the community fund drive by extending the deadline for the final tally and decision day.

“The president was gracious enough to keep rolling the deadline back,” Robins says. “I made sure I was given an opportunity to save football. I wouldn’t have taken the job otherwise. President Rossbacher was sincere on matching funds raised.”

Robins leans on his desk with his elbow and rests his chin on his hand. He says the university is doing what it can to help student athletes find other programs after this season.

“We’ve asked coaches to create game tapes for the players with eligibility left,” Robins says. “I’d imagine we’ll be having a play day with scouts.”

Former HSU football player Mike Cox is sitting alone 18 rows up on the home-side grandstands of Redwood Bowl, watching his son Connor practice with the Jacks on a September afternoon. He interlocks his fingers behind his head and leans back. Cox was inducted in the HSU football Hall of Fame in 2010 for his time as an offensive lineman in 1974 and ‘75 and says his family has been a part of Lumberjack athletics for three generations. His son

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Photo by Walter Hackett

Red Zone Stop Brett McMurray bites his lip at Redwood Bowl against Central Washington on Oct. 27.

Endless Pursuit Demetrick Watts chases the

Western Oregon quarterback Ty Currie at Redwood Bowl on Oct. 20.

Photo by Walter Hackett

Connor is a senior captain linebacker who lines up shoulder to shoulder with Watts as anchors on the defense.

“I played football here, my dad played football here, my son plays football here and my daughter played basketball here,” the elder Cox says.

Cox says that he is disappointed by the university’s efforts to save the program, particularly when it came to filling the head coaching position.

“I don’t want anything to do with the university after this experience,” Cox says. “I don’t even want to buy a raffle ticket.”

Fans and friends crowd around Watts on the field at homecoming following the team’s first win of the season. Watts has his arms wrapped around two of

his teammates. They are laughing and posing for pictures. After losing their first four matchups, it finally feels like the team and the Lumberjack faithful have something to celebrate.

“It feels good,” Watts says. “I keep telling the guys not to give up.”

Two days after the team’s win against Simon Fraser, Watts, a redshirt sophomore, was recognized by the Great Northwest Athletic Conference as the Defensive Player of the Week. Watts posted an Instagram story that people can expect to see a lot more football accolades in the future.

“This is just the beginning,” Watts wrote.

Watts is splayed out face down on the floor of the Rec Center with his feet against a wall, where

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Silent Assassin Demetrick Watts surveys Redwood

Bowl field during the homecoming game against Simon Fraser on Oct. 6.

he works. He stops stretching when a teammate approaches and asks for help.

“Part of my job at the gym is asking players how they’re feeling, giving advice on workouts,” he says. “I started doing push ups when I was five. Guys look up to me for how I look and want to look like me.”

Strength and conditioning coach Andrew Petersen is moving slowly around the gym. He stops in front of Watts and asks him to prepare a space for a women's volleyball team workout. Petersen, who has a grizzled grey beard and is built like a tank, emits a calm, commanding leadership. The coach has known Watts since he came into the football program as a redshirt freshman.

“The way I watched him engage with kids and 65 year olds, we gotta hire this kid,” Petersen says.

At a 6:30 a.m. practice, Petersen strides through the low fog looming above the 50 yard line at Redwood Bowl. Natural light sifts through the conifer wood that lies on the Bowl’s east side. Petersen is leading a stretching warm up session in front of the assembled football team. It’s a repetition he orchestrates at the beginning of every practice. Petersen has run the strength and conditioning program at the university since 1991. He says that despite the program ending, players are focused on winning this season.

“These kids are resilient,” Petersen says.

The day after the university announced it was ending the program, Petersen sent a text message to the team: “Come to the weightroom ready to work. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us, or take it easy on us this season. This is football.,

the toughest most brutally honest team sport you can play. Let’s continue our preparation for the amazing opportunity facing us in 2018. How do you want to be remembered? You guys might be expendable to the rest of the university, but you are not to me.”

“Coach Petersen, he bleeds this,” Watts says. “He’s crushed by this.”

Watts is reflecting on Petersen’s text message as he walks to class on a mid- September morning. In the heavy days after the announcement, Watts says that Petersen’s message was exactly what the team needed to hear.

“He lifted us up,” Watts says.

Watts is in the grandstands in Forbes gym. He's quietly watching one of his roommates play basketball in his intramural league. Middle linebackers in football often have reputations of being the loudest, meanest and dirtiest players on the pitch. Watts is the opposite of those things.

“I’m a silent assassin,” Watts says. “I let my play do the talking for me.”

Coming off the heels of a 21-37 loss at Azusa Pacific, Brett McMurray, the Jacks linebacker coach, is sprinting from sideline to sideline during another 6:30 morning practice. His squad of linebackers, including Watts, is running behind him. The pom pom on top of McMurray’s green Lumberjack beanie is bounding wildly with each stride.

“Complacency will kill this program!” he yells back to his guys.

McMurray played linebacker for the Jacks in 2012 and 2013.

Photo by Walter Hackett

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Photo by Walter Hackett

Brothers Victorious Teammates Ereon Nash, Demetrick Watts and Adam Herrera celebrate their win against Simon Fraser on Oct. 6.

“I have a lot of love for this place,” McMurray says as he returns to his office under Forbes gym. “It’s a place I’ve called home.”

Outside McMurray’s office a name plate hangs next to the door on the wall but it is blank. McMurray joined the coaching staff in February, at the height of uncertainty for HSU football.

“My job is to make sure the guys have the best experience we can give them,” McMurray says. “We can’t allow external factors to dictate our season. Any time you're in a situation where people don't believe in you, it's a great opportunity to prove them wrong. This is a valuable life lesson."

McMurray reclines in his office chair and proudly says that his linebackers are the most talented position group on the team.

“Watts has a drive to be great,” he says. “He’s a D1

caliber athlete. He’s going to have a bright career. He’s been through a lot in life and you can tell in the way he approaches everything. He has all conference potential and with his continued efforts I hope he gets to experience that. It is not typical for sophomores to be playing at his level.”

After the season, McMurray says he’s going to do his best to help his players transfer to other programs.

“I’m going to help my guys find a home,” he says. “When you build relationships, you don’t want to leave guys high and dry.

Watts and I share some pizza at Paul’s Live from New York Pizza in Arcata. He bows his head and closes his eyes before starting into his dinner.

“Gotta say my blessings,” he says. “I believe in God. He is the reason why I have this talent.”

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In a game two days earlier, the team lost to Western Oregon and Watts hyperextended his right knee. The injury caused him to miss out on potential tackles, which he needs to become the conference leader in tackles. With a few games left in the season, the Jacks sophomore is averaging eight tackles a game; the league leader is a senior averaging one more. Watts promises his knee will be healthy for the next game.

“I’m currently second in the conference in tackles,” Watts says. “I’ll be good for Saturday.”

Watts finishes up his second slice of four-meat special while squinting up at Monday Night Football on the TV. Then he tidies up the table. His coaches want him to put on more weight and pressure him to eat more. The linebacker is 5’11, which is considered small for his position. He says that his high school coach taught him a trick to make him appear taller for scouts.

“My coach told me to stuff socks in my shoes,” Watts says.

"He's not so disappointed about the program ending that he's giving up on his dream."

There’s a good chance that Watts will be at a different school in only a few months. Under the NCAA’s basic transfer requirements, players must spend an academic year in residence at the school of which they are transferring before they can compete at their new school. According to HSU Athletics, players this season will get a full release waiver, which means that athletes can play for another program the very next season.

At the end of November, coaches haven’t yet discussed Watts’ options when the season ends, but it’s something he’s considered.

“Things will happen fast afterward,” Watts says.

He plans to be in another program for spring so that he’ll be settled before the next season kicks off in the fall. He’s confident that he can play Division I ball at another program, maybe Sacramento State. He ideally wants to play for the University of San Diego, following the footsteps of Coach White.

“That’d be the perfect school,” Watts says.

Watts’ grandmother says uncertainty of the future won’t stop her grandson. She says the challenges he has faced this season are more hurdles that he will overcome.

“He’s not so disappointed about the program ending that he’s giving up on his dreams,” Newman says. “He doesn’t know where he’s going to go. My prayers are that the coaches give him direction on where he should go.”

Watts has been in contact with White about the possibility of joining him in San Diego. His only concern is that his grades aren’t good enough.

“My grades are decent,” Watts says. “It’s hard to focus on school when my heart and soul are in football.”

“If he’s going to be a football player, I want him to focus on academics so he’ll have the knowledge to manage himself and be a more educated citizen,” his grandmother says. “He hasn’t run after the girls. He surrounds himself with the right people. He’s made good choices so far. He says, ‘I gotta do what I gotta do to be that football star for my granny.’”

Watts is in the locker room at Redwood Bowl getting a haircut from his teammate Jose “Pepe” Morales during the last week of the season. He yawns and says he just crushed a two hour workout at the gym. He goes the hardest in the weight room when he’s stressed. The Lumberjacks finished their last year with a record of two wins and eight losses.

“I’m tired of losing,” Watts says. “I’ve made lifelong friends here and I don’t regret anything, but I’m ready to move on to the next chapter.”

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94 Years of

First intercollegiate game played against Southern Oregon.

117 Humboldt County businesses agree to underwrite the cost of the season’s football schedule. Each business agreed to pay any deficit to the extent of $5 each if the expenses of the 1929 football schedule exceeds the income made from the program.

1924

Humboldt State establishes a paid athletic equipment manager position at 35 cents an hour.

First team created at Humboldt State Teachers College. For the first years the team played local high school teams.

Student body vote held to determine whether football should be abolished for two years due to isolation and a belief that football was costing too much. Students voted 116 to 74 to continue the program without taking a break.

First winning season ever recorded for Humboldt State football team.

Team dropped from school athletics during the World War II era as a number of players entered the service, leaving an already small male student population practically depleted.

First game played at recently built Redwood Bowl stadium against the Stanford “B” team.

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HSU Football

by Walter Hackett

With a declining attendance, an injury-riddled roster, and student support of the team at a low point the Board of Athletics cancel the last game of the season.

Rob Smith hired as HSU head football coach.

HSU Football program wins its first GNAC conference title.

2018

Lisa Rossbacher hired as HSU President.

January 23 - Rob Smith resigns as HSU head football coach.

January 29 - Cory White names as HSU interim football head coach.

HSU Football program wins its second GNAC conference title under head coach Rob Smith.

2017

June 1 - Duncan Robins hired as interim athletic director.

February 14 - Cory White resigns and takes an assistant coaching position at University of San Diego.

February 14 - Damaro Wheeler accepts HSU interim football head coach position.

April 9 - HSU releases its 2018-19 budget that reduces $9 million in spending over the next two years.

December 5 - President Rossbacher announces that HSU will continue its football program through a fund drive led by HSU boosters.

May 4 - Duncan Robins announces halt to the search to fill the head coach position. Wheeler stays as coach for the 2018 season.

July 17 - President Rossbacher announces that HSU football with be discontinued after the 2018 season due to shortfalls in the fund drive.

Conference Championships

Year

Conference

Overall Record

1946 1952 1956 1960 1961 1963 1968 1994

1995 2011

2015

FWC

NCAC

GNAC

5 - 3 - 1 7 - 1 9 - 2 11 - 1 8 - 2 6- 1 -2 10 - 1 8 - 2

8 - 1 - 1 9 - 1

10 - 2

Total number of Titles:

11

October 1 - President Rossbacher announces her retirement will take place at the end of the academic year.

November 10 - Last HSU football game against Simon Fraser from Burnaby, British Columbia.

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