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SMC Aims To End Its Struggle In Football:

Four years ago Santa Monica College won the Western State Conference football championship. However, there hasn’t been a lot of success since then.

Following three consecutive losing seasons, the Corsairs will begin practice August 13 and their games in the 2009 season will begin a month later.

Robert Taylor has had some grand moments in his SMC coaching career. He’s one of a select few coaches who are full-time school employees and he’s filled in as athletic director at times. What he needs now is a winning season to convince potential recruits that his accomplishments aren’t merely in the past.

I attended SMC’s home opener last season, a 38-24 win over LA Valley. It was a historic game – the first one played on Corsair Field’s new Field Turf.

SMC appeared to have plenty of talent, a mixture of players from local schools and various parts of the country, which is common in community college sports.

I left the stadium that day realizing SMC had lost its first three games, all on the road, but thinking the team might have enough talent to turn things around. However, the final record was 3-7.

As losses have mounted during the last three years, attendance has declined. And the lack of imagination in the athletic department was obvious when no ceremony was held prior to the first game on the new turf.

It was a perfect opportunity for the school to call attention to its grand football history, which includes developing several NFL players. But nothing was done.

Something needs to be done and perhaps this can become a project of new athletic director Gregg Simmons.

Taylor has brought in a pair of skilled running backs, Christian Ross from Santa Monica High and Kendall Gordon from Culver City.

Ross began his Viking varsity career as a defensive back but received his opportunity on offense when others were injured. He displayed speed and enough power to attract the attention of Division 1 college scouts. Oregon was among the schools interested, but Ross needed to get his academics in order.

He can do that at SMC and also impress scouts from four-year colleges again.

While SMC tries to revive its football program, it is facing competition from West Los Angeles College for talent. West LA won only three of 30 games in a three-year period but was 5-5 last season after Marquay Miller became head coach.

West LA plays its home games on Saturday afternoons. SMC should consider doing that too in order to bring back fans, but it won’t happen this season.

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