UPON FURTHER REVIEW: CRESPI CREAM COACH THOMAS, OTHER ALUMNI ELITE, TRY TO LIFT CELTS BACK TO PROMINENCE.

There is a picture on the desk of first-year Crespi High of Encino football coach Troy Thomas. In it, a 17-year-old wearing a Celts uniform and a brown-and-gold bandanna is standing on the Crespi sideline.

It's the face that immediately captures your attention. The determined look projects a sense of purpose and direction, belying an uncertain teen- ager not yet sure where life's roads would lead.

``Mostly I was just thinking about playing football at that time,'' said Thomas, gesturing toward the 1987 photo of himself. ``I'm sure I thought I was a lot better than I really was.''

Fifteen years later, Thomas presides over a reclamation project. The objective is to restore dignity to a once-proud program that's fallen on hard times.

Thomas, a safety on the greatest team in Crespi history, has brought with him some of his best friends to help navigate the rough terrain ahead.

The most illustrious Celt of them all - record-breaking running back Russell White - is at Thomas' side as an assistant, as are former Celts Lance Thomas (Troy's brother), Joe McLaughlin and Dan Hunt.

The lower-level teams are sprinkled with Crespi alums Ryan Block, Bob Beaman, Blake Tibbetts, Mike Gonzaga and Matt Cerniglia.

Together they've brought discipline and confidence to a program in desperate need of both. And if Week 1 is any indication, the victories soon will follow. The Celts opened the Thomas era with a 40-6 victory against Bosco Tech of Rosemead. On Friday, the Celts lost to Chatsworth.

``It's like night and day around here,'' said Crespi basketball coach Dick Dornan, a 1986 graduate. ``What they've done in the six months they've been here is amazing. You can feel it just walking around campus.''

When Thomas left Crespi in 1987, the Celts were the top team around, having just won the Big Five Championship - the only school in the region to win the biggest division championship - behind coach Bill Redell, a handful of undersized overachievers and White, a sensational sophomore running back. During the next two years, the Celts and White reached the Big Five semifinals and quarterfinals.

``There was high energy around here during that time,'' Crespi athletic director Jeff Thornton said.

Distant memories remain from those years. That and Thomas' promise that one way or another, Crespi will pick itself up again.

``I truly believe we can get back what we once had,'' Thomas said.

Redell left in 1988, but Tim Lins kept Crespi rolling despite being a tiny school (enrollment 500) playing against the giants of the the Del Rey League, perhaps the toughest in California.

Under Lins, who stayed 10 years, Crespi annually played a fierce schedule against bigger schools such as Bishop Amat of La Puente, Loyola of Los Angeles, Mater Dei of Santa Ana, Eisenhower of Rialto and Long Beach Jordan.

``The slogan was to be the best you must play the best,'' Dornan said.

The high point for Lins came in 1993, when the Celts nearly upset Eisenhower, the No. 1 team in the country at the time, in the Division I semifinals, losing 7-3 behind a determined defense coordinated by Thomas.

Lins stayed through the 1998 season, and the demise soon followed, set forth by a number of players transferring or quitting football altogether after Ron Gueringer took over.

The slide culminated last year with an 0-10 record following a 1-9 mark the season before. At one point, the Celts lost 16 consecutive games.

``That was difficult to deal with, really difficult,'' said senior safety Danny Witt, who played two years under Gueringer. ``And it hurt to be a part of it.''

Many factors contributed to the plunge, not the least of which was a lack of talent. Over the years, most of the top football players in the region stopped looking at Crespi as a place to play, turning instead to schools such as Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, Westlake and Alemany of Mission Hills.

Thomas, who played at Moorpark College and Cal State Northridge, and made assistant coaching stops at Crespi, the University of Hawaii, Westlake and Fresno State, watched the Celts' recent fall from a distance.

``It was embarrassing and it hurt,'' Thomas said. ``When I was here we'd walk around at passing-league tournaments and at parties and we would get respect. This year I was at a passing-league tournament walking around wearing our Crespi stuff and I heard people say stuff like `Are you guys going to lose another game?' For guys who were here when this was the best program around, that makes you mad.''

The first thing Thomas did when he took over was solicit the help of some of his Crespi friends, including White, who starred at Cal after leaving Crespi.

White, whose NFL career never took off, had just moved back to the Valley from the Bay Area when Thomas called, and he jumped at the chance to return.

``It was time to come back and be close to my family,'' said White, a probation officer. ``And when Troy called to ask if I was interested in coming back to Crespi, but this time as a coach, I was like, let's do it.''

White has brought credibility and energy.

``When he's here, our offense is different, and when he's not, you can see the difference,'' Thomas said. ``He's just a very positive guy and he knows how to challenge those guys and say the right things to get them to go. Some coaches just have that and he's one of them.''

Another key hire was former USC and Oak Park High wide receiver Erik Affholter as offensive coordinator. Thomas had met Affholter when he coached at Westlake in 1998.

The mostly young, energetic staff put its stamp on the program from the outset.

``We knew things would be different the very first day,'' Witt said. ``It was obvious that things were going to be different under coach Thomas, and that was a great feeling. I grew up watching Crespi football and to see how far it had fallen was tough. But things are going to be better from now on.''

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Photo:

New Crespi coach Troy Thomas and his assistants appear to have given new life to the program. From left: Ryan Block, Bob Beaman, Lance Thomas, Blake Tibbetts, Troy Thomas, Russell White and Joe McLaughlin.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer