Football: High school coaches hope Rams, Chargers can make impact in L.A.

High school football coaches in Southern California are both optimistic but also a little skeptical about whether having the Rams and Chargers in Los Angeles will impact their programs in a positive manner.

Charles Mincy, the football coach at Dorsey and a former head coach at Inglewood, the city where the new stadium is being built to house the Rams and Chargers, said he’s taking a wait and see approach.

“It’s all based on how they handle it,” he said. “It’s based if they really reach out in the community and make an effort to do it. There’s a lot of high school programs that can use help. The inner city programs are suffering.”

The Rams have already made an effort after being gone for 22 years. With the help of former Dorsey and UCLA football player Johnathan Franklin in the Rams’ community outreach office, the Rams donated footballs, mouthpieces, jerseys, polos and soft shell helmets to 67 high school football teams in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In May, the Rams surprised Reseda Cleveland football players with new gear after theirs was stolen.

Narbonne Coach Manuel Douglas is flying to Florida for the Pro Bowl as the Rams’ candidate for national coach of the year.

“I have to give the Rams credit,” Douglas said. “They’ve acknowledged they’re part of the L.A. community and have jumped in with both feet.”

But Mincy makes some very powerful observations.

“They’ve got two pro teams in Inglewood and their two high school teams (Inglewood and Morningside) have a combined five wins,” he said. “We’re in the Coliseum League. Manual Arts is across the street from the Coliseum. Is there some benefit having the Rams right there for four years? We’ll see.”

Douglas said his assistant coach, Brandan Manumaleuna, played for the Rams and Chargers and knows that both have had extensive community outreach programs. Douglas would like to see the pro teams doing coaching clinics so that coaches can learn from the players and NFL coaches.

“In my lifetime as a coach, there’s never been an NFL team here,” Douglas said. “We’ve learned the most by going to and visiting colleges and seeing how they run their programs. We haven’t had that access in the pros. It would be neat if both did that.”

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