A Special Day for Coach and Mayor

Attention UCLA! Are you in need of someone to inspire your football team with a pregame pep talk? We know that former Dodger manager Tom Lasorda tried and failed prior to UCLA’s recent 49-20 loss to the University of Texas.

So you might want to try Mayor Gary Kovacic, a UCLA alum and football and basketball season-ticket holder.

Kovacic delivered an inspirational pregame pep talk to the football team Friday night, and then the Apaches went out and took a .

With Arcadia's coaching staff showing class by using players from the second and third units in the second half and going with conservative play calling, the final score was a more respectable 37-21.

Kovacic’s pep talk was all part of a special day for Arcadia’s head coach. The City Council had declared Friday as “Jon Dilamante Day,” and it was quite a day for Dimalante, his coaching staff, his team and Kovacic.

First off, Kovacic joined Dimalante, who everyone calls Coach D, and Arcadia offensive and defensive lineman Gabriel Rousset for that day’s Pasadena Quarterbacks Club luncheon at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Pasadena. Coach D was there along with other coaches from the Pacific League to talk about his team, which is currently ranked No. 2 in this area by the Pasadena Star-News.

Next, it was back to Arcadia High so that Coach D could meet with his assistant coaches, and Kovacic was allowed to sit in on this meeting. He was also allowed to design one offensive play and one defensive alignment. For the record, his pass play failed on the Apaches’ first drive but was successful on their second.

Kovacic later attended the team’s Subway-sponsored pregame meal in the school cafeteria, and that’s where he delivered his pregame speech and also presented Coach D with a special City Council proclamation.

Kovacic, a 1969 graduate of Arcadia High, where he competed in tennis and soccer, told the team he knows a little about coaching and teamwork because he helps A.P. Government teacher Kevin Fox coach Arcadia High’s Constitution Team. Two years ago, that team won a national championship.

But what Kovacic focused on in his speech was the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and Todd Beamer, a passenger on United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in a remote area of Pennsylvania. Beamer, 32 at the time, had attended Fresno State, which is Coach D’s alma mater (and this reporter’s as well.)

Beamer, in a back seat on that plane, tried to place a credit-card call to his wife but got routed to an operator. Beamer told the operator that he and a couple of other passengers were going to jump the hijackers. Beamer then dropped the phone and the operator heard his last words: “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.”

Beamer and the other passengers stormed the hijackers and prevented the plane from reaching its destination in Washington, D.C., believed to be the White House.

Kovacic told the Arcadia players: “Are you guys ready? Are you guys ready to roll?”

Kovacic added that after the game he expected the players to say, “That’s how we roll.”

During the game, Kovacic was on the sidelines with the coaches and players.

“It was the first time I had been on the sidelines for any kind of football game, and it was a lot of fun,” the mayor said, “Coach D and his assistants have a great attitude. There was no yelling at players or cursing. And the players were a well-behaved, well-mannered group of young men.”

Coach D, now in his 16th season at Arcadia High, said of Kovacic: “He set a great example for our team. He inspired me and everybody else. We were blessed to have him down there on the sidelines with us. He can come back anytime.”