UPON FURTHER REVIEW: KEARIN'S RETURN SPEAKS VOLUMES.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE 

When Jeff Kearin first got the call he was terrified, even though he had over a month to figure out what to say.

At the time, he had reason to be. A 30-minute speech at an alumni breakfast would make anyone nervous. So would being scheduled in between well-respected real-estate developer Nelson Rising and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

But Kearin had another concern.

His Loyola High football team was about to miss the playoffs for the first time in 25 years. Kearin had developed thick skin in his time as head football coach at Cal State Northridge and as an assistant under Larry Smith and John Robinson at USC, but he'd never had to face a room like this: 70 proud alumni all wondering what this first-year coach had done to their program.

It was hard enough following a legend like Steve Grady, who won 269 games in his 29 years at the school. Now, Kearin was going to have to explain himself to a room full of boosters.

It would have been horrible.

Good thing it never came to that.

Kearin was still nervous for his speech on Wednesday, but only because he was following Rising and keeping the podium warm for Villaraigosa.

In the time since the speech was scheduled, Kearin has gone from goat to glory at Loyola, his alma mater.

The Cubs (9-4) needed to win a coin flip to make the Southern Section Div. I playoffs, but they ran with their opportunity, upsetting perennial power Lakewood, top-seeded Edison of Huntington Beach and fourth-seeded Mater Dei of Santa Ana on an improbable run to the Div. I title game tonight at 7:30 against Esperanza of Anaheim at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

``No one is as surprised as we are,'' Kearin joked. ``We were in a new system and the learning curve was pretty steep. I wasn't sure we'd be able to conquer that. ... But about game seven or eight, our offense started to figure it out and our defense really improved by leaps and bounds and I thought, 'We might have a shot at this.'

``Once we won the coin flip to get in the playoffs, it was anybody's bet on any given Friday.''

Kearin had changed the offense from a run-first, pass-if-you-have-to package, to a spread offense. He'd changed the defense from a ``fifty defense'' to a 4-3. At first the transition was rough, but by playoff time, the Cubs were peaking.

In the first round, Loyola drew Lakewood, the team that ended its season last year. But the Cubs caught a break by getting a home game because Lakewood had used an illegal ball last year and its punishment was to play on the road in the playoffs. Loyola pulled it out 20-16 when quarterback Henry Burge found Taylor Joseph on a 35-yard touchdown pass with 57 seconds to play.

That win kept a Thanksgiving tradition going.

``Every year we have a practice on Thanksgiving morning, before the second round of playoffs, where all the alumni come out and get a chance to watch the Cubs play football,'' said senior running back Chad Peppars. ``Our moms bring stuff, cookies, coffee. It's a great tradition.''

In the next round, the day after Thanksgiving, Loyola upset top-seeded Edison of Huntington Beach, 26-22. They faced a familiar foe in the quarterfinals, Serra League co- champion Mater Dei of Santa Ana.

Mater Dei beat Loyola 19-16 in the regular season, but that was before Loyola's defense had really begun to click. This time, Loyola pitched a shutout, 14-0.

At practice this week, Kearin seemed relaxed. He laughed with his assistant coaches, coached up his players during defensive drills and tried to figure out what to say at the alumni breakfast on Wednesday.

``Jeff's always been a great guy. When I heard he got the job, I was excited,'' said assistant coach Gifford Irvine, who was also on Grady's staff last year. ``After our first meeting I knew that regardless of what happened, we're going to have a lot of fun.''

This is what Kearin envisioned when he left a state-championship program at Brophy Prep in Arizona this spring to return to Loyola.

``There's few better situations in high school you could be in,'' he said. ``Just the kids here, the Jesuit philosophy of the school, the support you get.''

The question is, how long will this be enough for him? After all, this is a guy who was the head coach of a Division I college program at age 38. He only left the college game because Northridge dropped football after the 2001 season.

``The bottom line is, Northridge absolutely broke my heart,'' he said. ``That was the job of a lifetime for me. I was home, I was a head coach and I was making money. I really thought we could've done something special there.''

If a top college job was offered, Kearin said he would listen, but it wouldn't be an easy decision.

``I miss college, I miss the kids, the travel, the level of competition, but what I don't miss is how it always seems like they're going to fire you or drop your program. It really depersonalizes the whole thing and makes it like a business,'' he said.

``In some ways the joy of coaching is almost greater at the high school level because it's kind of back to basics. At the college level, there's so many more distractions.''

That would have sounded crazy to Kearin 10 years ago. He had caught the coaching bug from Grady, his mentor, even though he'd already gone to the trouble of earning a law degree from Whittier College. But Grady convinced him to put off becoming a lawyer and follow his passion for coaching.

He wanted to coach in college, then maybe the NFL. He was on the right path for a while, but got derailed after CSUN eliminated its program.

At first it seemed like the end of the world. But if this season at Loyola has taught him anything, its that things aren't always what they seem at first.

``I'd been looking for a college job for so long and not gotten it and been crushed over and over,'' Kearin said. ``Now I go into the high school thing and I find that I'm as satisfied, if not more, than I ever was in college.

``You have so much more impact on a kids' life when he's 16, 17 years old than when he gets to college.''

That's exactly what he told that group of alumni on Wednesday morning. The speech was a hit.

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First-year Loyola High football coach Jeff Kearin has guided his alma mater to the CIF Div. I championship game against Esperanza.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer