BOWMAN CAN'T STAY AWAY; AFTER YEAR OFF, HE'S NOW CANYON HIGH ASSISTANT.

Byline: Patrick Hipes Daily News Staff Writer

Jack Bowman has spent the last year away from coaching high school football - the place he's always wanted to be - and quite frankly he's been sick about it.

The former Saugus High football coach remembers the game and remembers the players he coached. For a time they were all images burned into his brain, Xs and Os dancing in his head with no particular chalkboard to put them on, no team captain to relay them to the others.

In 1996, six years after rescuing and restructuring the Centurions' program into a perennial playoff team, Jack Bowman walked away. He departed under a canopy of disgruntled parents and with a bitter, acrid taste in his mouth.

Now, after a sometimes agonizing 10 months of scratching an itch that wasn't there, he's returned to Santa Clarita football at Canyon High, where he has become the Cowboys' defensive coordinator, back where he belongs and a better man for being away.

``It was a year off and it was very pleasant,'' said the 51-year old Valencia resident. ``But I'll tell you, by the fifth or sixth week (last year) I was missing it.

``In that time, I learned a lot about myself and the things I needed to do better, and about the things I needed to change.''

Saugus was supposed to be the place where he polished those attributes. A long-time football assistant at two Orange County high schools, he moved to Saugus in 1991 to resurrect a struggling Centurions program in a football-hungry town.

Immediately, he got results.

In the first five years, his teams reached the playoffs all but once. Relying on superb organizational skills and enthusiasm, Bowman built a winning tradition borne of hard work and a love for the game.

``He was a fresh face here,'' remembered Ron Hilton, then a Bowman assistant and now Saugus head coach. ``He was really positive with the kids and the kids responded to it. He knows the game and he's a very good teacher of the game.''

By 1996, it showed. Expectations were high after knocking off top-ranked Peninsula in the '95 postseason. Saugus returned a bevy of starters and all speculation pointed to a Year of the Centurion.

Instead, the '96 team never jelled. Saugus ended the season 5-5, far from what could have been. As the loses accumulated, the complaints began. Though they made the playoffs, and again beat No. 1 Peninsula in the opening round - Saugus is the only team to beat the Dolphins in three years - parents went to the administration to voice their displeasure over Bowman and the job he did.

``The parents that year were pretty upset,'' said Hilton, who had front-row seats for the fireworks. ``A lot of things were said. It goes with the territory in this job, no matter what sport it is.''

The criticism was too much for Bowman, who was coaching for the game and those who played it, not for the pressure. After an end-of-the-season discussion with administration, he stepped down from the program and focused on his teaching.

Football-free, he spent 1997 in various ways. There was Scottish dancing with his wife, closing the deal on a new house in Valencia. He also helped scout football teams for old buddies at Huntington Beach Marina High, where he formerly coached.

``To tell you the truth, I got to watch a lot more football,'' he said. ``I learned a lot more about it, and I'm probably a better coach for it now.''

His appetite whetted, Bowman began looking for a coaching job - an assistant's position, please, where he could teach his players without red tape or critical boosters. He met a Canyon assistant at a San Diego football clinic, who mentioned the run-in to Cowboys coach Larry Mohr.

``I talked to him right away,'' Mohr said. ``He said he really didn't want to leave the Santa Clarita Valley.''

So, after the two hit it off, Mohr made sure he didn't. Bowman was offered a teaching position at Canyon and the assistant football coaching job, and he accepted both.

After a month of summer practices, the two coaches have realized similar philosophies. Mohr gives Bowman free reign with the defense - the Cowboys will run a new 4-3 base system this season - and he relishes the opportunity to have a former head coach at his side.

``A guy like that you don't want to keep stagnant,'' Mohr said. ``We're extremely happy and fortunate to have his wide variety and knowledge. I hope we've rejuvenated him.''

Bowman insisted they have. The stress of a head-coaching job in his past, he looks to the future with joy, if not with a bit of backwards nostalgia.

``It's not too strange anymore,'' Bowman said of his second coming. ``Every once in a while I say Centurion rather than Cowboy, but that's about it.

``I'm having a good time. It's good to be coaching again.''

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PHOTO (Color) Former Saugus head coach Jack Bowman, refreshed after a year away from football, is the defensive coordinator at Canyon.

Tina Gerson/Daily News