Football: Major Dreams Live on in Semi-Pro League
FONTANA - The California Raiders are preparing for today's championship football game in Los Angeles, but at the moment, they're having to wait to get onto the practice field.
The fields are full of youth soccer games going on this evening, so the Raiders gather to talk and wait for the game on their assigned field to end, which happens sometime after 8 p.m.
This is minor league developmental football - they don't call it semi-pro anymore - where a collection of athletes from would-be professionals to second-chancers hoping for another shot at the college game do battle every Saturday night.
Everyone has a different story, but the one thing they have in common is a love of the game. They're simply not ready to give it up yet.
Guys like Robert Fuller, who played high school ball at San Bernardino and Arroyo Valley, graduating in 2008. A 6-foot, 185-pound left-hander blessed with a lively arm and foot speed to burn, Fuller put up some lofty numbers in high school, once passing for 604 yards and eight touchdowns in a single game.
Supremely confident, Fuller committed to Utah State and was all set to continue his ride as a star quarterback. Then Utah State's coaches were fired. The new coaching staff viewed Fuller as an athlete who would make a better linebacker, a position he'd never played and at which he wound up behind Bobby Wagner, a Colony High School graduate who's now a starting linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks.
Fuller wound up at San Bernardino Valley College, where he began as the quarterback and finished as a receiver/safety.
And learned his share of lessons.
Hoping to return to a four-year college - several Division II schools wanted him - those plans changed with the impending arrival of his son, Robert.
Which has led Fuller, in his second season with the Raiders, playing in today's developmental league Western Regional championship game against the Inglewood Blackhawks at Los Angeles Dorsey High School at 3 p.m.
The Raiders are 15-0 and repeat champions in the United Football Alliance League. Inglewood is 16-0, champion of the LaBelle Community Football League (named for singer Patti LaBelle). Inglewood, ranked No. 1 in minor league football, has won 38 consecutive games. The Raiders have won 28 in a row.
It's a big game for the Raiders, in their sixth year under CEO and coach Dwaine Radden, whose own passion for football brought him to the San Bernardino-based Raiders after two decades of coaching everything from Pop Warner to high school and community college football.
Radden clearly loves to win and views today's game as a defining moment in his organization's history, pointing out that the Raiders and Blackhawks are minor league football's two winningest teams over the last six years.
But more than that, he loves the chance to have an impact in lives like Robert Fuller's.
"I think the structure we've put in place for the last six years has made all the difference, not just on the football field, but the life side," Radden said. "Because we get some guys coming in who are struggling on the other side of the spectrum. Our motto is discipline, determination and dedication.
"They know when they come out here, it's time to work. Some of these guys are coming off working eight-hour shifts and I'm out here wearing them out. My philosophy is you have to be mentally and physically fit to play football."
Radden, who said he first turned down the request to coach the then-Banning Eagles and finally said yes after the owner allowed him to move the team and change its name, runs an NFL-style training camp. His players cut film every Monday, practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays and play on Saturdays.
"We've worked hard to build our name and do the right things," Radden said. "Six years and I'm looking back and saying, `Wait a minute. I'm having fun. We're changing lives.'
"We've got 53 guys who on a Saturday night could be somewhere else, doing something else. But they're right here on the field playing football.
"God put me in a place to be able to help change lives. That's where my heart is. If it's through the game of football, I'm thankful for that."
Dwayne Cross played receiver for the Ontario Warriors indoor squad, which went 7-0 and outscored its opponents 502-154 before its domination led to the season being ended prematurely. A graduate of Lane College in Jackson, Tenn., he's in his third season with the Raiders and is hoping to use them as a springboard.
"My ultimate goal is the NFL," said Cross, wearing his Riverside North High School jersey from his 2004 senior season. "I know there are certain paths you have to take, and some paths take longer than others.
"You have to make some noise down here to really get noticed."
Fuller has been making some noise, running multiple-set offenses with a variety of receivers who have spent the season running circles around Raiders opponents.
Radden said Fuller has worked on some technical issues like footwork and emerged as a leader who has the potential to play football at a higher level.
Maurice Ross, 30, a Cajon High School graduate, is a receiver for the Raiders. He had a tryout with the Miami Dolphins and knows he's now at the end of his playing career. He's also the Raiders' receivers coach, eyeing that profession in his immediate future, and sees a lot of potential in Fuller.
"One thing about Robert is he needed some coaching," Ross said. "He's always been the type of player where coaches just give it to him because he's a superstar. He never really had a coach to work with him and make him better.
"He's become a better man and a better football player; I respect him a lot. I think with the proper guidance, he has the ability to go farther. Athletically, he's a great talent, man."
Fuller knows he's a great athlete, having been told so for many years. He acknowledges that some of the other things he'd been told - about discipline, preparation and commitment - would sometimes go in one ear and out the other.
Learning things the hard way?
"That's exactly what it is - learning the hard way," Fuller said. "In high school it was all fun and joking around, and I was never too serious. Then I got to college and realized that what everyone had told me was true. It's nobody's fault but mine.
"I had to grow up. I guess everything happens for a reason, and this is teaching me to grow up and be a man and make it on my own. Now I'm way more humble."
Fuller's son Robert is 2 years old. He'll someday be a teenager with decisions of his own to make. Will dad have any advice for him?
"Heck yeah," Fuller said. "Stay hungry and never, never diss what someone tells you. Listen to what people say - it can be the right thing. All I can is I was a teenager once. Hopefully he'll listen."
