A Phoenix Rises from the Ashes

By Tim Tremblay

We live in a divided country. The left and the right are further apart than ever. It takes courage to discuss politics these days. You never know what to expect. So often the arguments that ensue don’t make any logical sense. Emotions run high. Things that a few years ago were considered “common sense” no longer are. It’s important that we do our best as a country and as individuals to eliminate this toxic divisiveness.

Sports have always been a place where politics could be left out. Democrats and Republicans used to agree to support their teams together. Sports have always been a “sacred place” where a difference of opinion is welcomed.

Junior High, High School, and college athletic teams are a part of Americana. “Friday Night Lights” with athletes, school bands, cheerleaders, and the fans all contribute to make sports an important part of our American culture.

Great life lessons are taught through athletics: working together for a common goal, preparation, “Paying the Price,” loyalty, working out in the off season, helping your teammates, never giving up… and so much more. A job applicant with a background in athletics has a leg up verses the competition.

Bishop Diego High Cardinal football is an example of one such story. This is a history lesson about perseverance. Bishop, like the Phoenix, rose from the ashes of defeat to become the only high school team in the county to win a California State Championship and at the end of the 2024 season was ranked the number one high school football team in Santa Barbara County.

Bishop Diego High School began in 1940 as Santa Barbara Catholic High School. In 1959, the school moved to a new campus and took the name of Bishop Garcia Diego y Moreno, the first bishop of California.

The late 1980s were not kind to Bishop football. The Cardinal football team went 0-30 over three football seasons. There is a classic saying made famous by John F. Kennedy; “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat… defeat is an orphan.” That saying was personified by the Bishop student body at that time. Nobody wanted to come out for a losing football team. It was suggested in a Santa Barbara News-Press article that Bishop should drop to the “Eight Man Football Division” where they might be more competitive. The story was taped to the wall in the weight room to motivate the guys. It got so bad one day when only eleven players showed up for spring practice, students came by the practice field and laughed and pointed at the football team.

That was all about to change.

Two Great Coaches; Many Great Teams

Norris Fletcher was in Santa Barbara in 1989 because his wife, Barbara, was at Cottage Hospital for cancer treatment. He resigned as assistant coach at East Texas State University to be with her throughout her ordeal. He needed to get a job and saw that Bishop was running an ad in the News-Press for a head football coach. After looking into it, Norris decided to accept the challenge, stay in Santa Barbara, and become the head football coach at Bishop Diego High School. Norris immediately began convincing athletes at the school to come out for the team. He went to the pitcher of the baseball team and assured him if he could throw a baseball well, he could do the same thing with a football. Bishop now had a new quarterback. By 1993, Bishop was ranked #1 in Division 9. Norris was the head coach for eight seasons. He led the Cardinals to two Tri-Valley League Championships and advanced to the CIF playoffs five straight times. He took the team to the CIF championship in 1992 and was inducted into the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Hall of Fame and the Bishop Diego Athletic Hall of Fame.

In 1999, Tom Crawford left his job as a litigator and accepted an offer to become Bishop Diego’s football coach and athletic director. Crawford was about to take Bishop football to “a whole ‘nother level.” In 2006 he led the Cardinals to the CIF semifinal game. Bishop played in the CIF championship game in 2007, losing an overtime thriller to Santa Clara. In 2017, the Cardinals won the school’s first CIF Championship and advanced from there during the following weeks to become the only Santa Barbara County school to win both a regional and state title. Bishop defeated Shasta High in California’s 3AA State Championship finale to complete a 15-1 season. Coach Crawford led Bishop to the CIF playoffs 14 years in a row, competing against much larger schools. In fact, Bishop is the smallest school in the state of California playing 11-man football. The school has 290 students with a teacher-student ratio of 12-1. Tom Crawford is one win away from the Santa Barbara County record of Santa Barbara High’s legendary Coach Clarence Schutte’s 171 victories!

A Record of Accomplishment

Bishop Diego’s decades of football success represent so much more than victories. Many lives have been positively changed over the years because of the leadership of, especially, Coach Fletcher and Coach Crawford. Student athletes must incorporate discipline, hard work, teamwork, fair play, and so much more. There’s a quote attributed to Earl Warren, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States: “I always turn to the sports section first. The sports page records people’s accomplishments: the front page has nothing but man’s failures.”

Let us all support our teams together, no matter what side of the aisle we are on. This could be a great example as to how the political parties should treat each other.

Remember, we are all members of team U.S.A!

Take a look at COLAB’s latest video, “The Great Fee Heist”