James DeSanto, Gerardo Gonzalez and David Oropeza have never won a football game at St. Joseph, and it’s likely they never will.
Calling them losers, though, makes as much sense as saying the Bears are overachieving or the Blackhawks matter.
The three seniors may not have won, but they haven’t lost their pride or their determination to keep working, even if the scoreboard never smiles on them.
That doesn’t mean they don’t want to win or don’t believe their team finally will do it Friday night at Marist in their high school football finale. If they lose, they will walk off the field 0-9 for the season, 0-18 for their two-year varsity careers and unable to help break a losing streak that would then be 45 games, fifth-longest in state history.
Gonzalez and Oropeza haven’t tasted a high school football victory at any level. DeSanto did when he was on the freshman team at Nazareth Academy and the opponent was — who else? — St. Joseph.
They almost got one last year, when St. Joseph lost 26-20 to CICS Longwood; but in their 16 other varsity games the last two seasons, the closest the Chargers have come to victory was a 27-point loss to St. Patrick.
It doesn’t help that St. Joseph plays in the tough East Suburban Catholic Conference against the likes of 12-time state champion Joliet Catholic, which stomped the Chargers 63-7 last week. Still, DeSanto, Gonzalez and Oropeza never considered giving up football.
“You play for the sport, not wins and losses, just for the love of football,” said DeSanto, a quarterback.
That’s the way it has had to be at St. Joseph, which has been as sorrowful in football as its basketball program has been splendid. The school that has given us Isiah Thomas, “Hoop Dreams” and the 1999 Class AA state title, all under legendary coach Gene Pingatore, never has had a winning football season in 41 years of trying.
In the 1990s it won just 21 games. So far this decade, the number is six, with the last one coming in the final game of the 2002 season.
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A constantly changing cast of head coaches hasn’t helped matters. Mark Zavagnin is St. Joseph’s third one in the last three years.
“There has never been a consistent system that has been ingrained in these kids,” said Zavagnin, who won the 1978 Class 5A state title as a St. Rita linebacker and played at Notre Dame. “It’s difficult never really to know what the offense and defense you’ll run this year are.
“Continuity is where it all starts.”
You can see that on the current roster, which has just 15 seniors — nine of them starters — and eight juniors. That forced Zavagnin to play his two dozen sophomores on the varsity, where eight of them start.
The problem, though, isn’t just numbers. A recent freshman team had 41 players, but only eight had played organized football.
Zavagnin hopes to attract more talented freshmen and recruit his own hallways. Besides having to battle his program’s dismal past, he has to overcome St. Joseph’s athletic image as a basketball school.
“I think basketball has kind of overshadowed the football program,” DeSanto said. “Kids see football losing, and if they want to play football they go to a different school.
“If they want to play basketball, they go here.”
Pingatore has tried to aid football. Several of his players also play for Zavagnin, and Pingatore attends games.
“There’s room in this building, this community, to be successful in football,” Zavagnin said.
The three seniors believe it can happen, especially under Zavagnin, who they say hasn’t flinched after losses the way other coaches did.
“It’s just an attitude he brings every day,” said Oropeza, a 5-4, 130-pound receiver/safety.
“He’s positive, no matter what,” added Gonzalez, a 5-9, 155-pound nose guard.
Zavagnin feels likewise about the three, praising their work habits and refusal to complain despite the constant losing. He says he is committed to turning around St. Joseph football and will try to assemble the kind of roster and coaching staff needed to get that job done.
Success, though, ultimately will depend on the commitment the players and their parents make, especially when it comes to the off-season program and the absolute necessity for the athletes to get stronger and faster.
“People ask, ‘When do you think we’ll win?’ ” Zavagnin said. “I honestly don’t have the answer.
“It will be up to our kids. There is a point where people have to understand the time commitment to be successful is far, far greater than I think any kid or parent here would imagine.
“That’s something I need to ingrain here because until that happens we’ll always be looking at these small gains, these small moral victories, but that will not win you a game.”
For DeSanto, Gonzalez and Oropeza, maybe nothing will, but they will walk off the field Friday with the self-respect that comes from being winners despite all the losing.
“When we go on to get jobs and stuff, because nothing came easily here, we’ll work harder, stick with it instead of quitting,” DeSanto said.
Still, don’t believe for a nanosecond a loss to Marist won’t feel like a root canal.
“We’ve just put so much effort into football,” Gonzalez said. “We have practiced so much.
“It would really be disappointing.”
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*Read on Temkin’s blog,
“Upon Further Review,” at chicagosports.com/temkin