Barstow Sports Blog

Zach Niusulu was a little wary of playing for a coach who never recruited him. Dirk Koetter was fired as the head football coach at Arizona State and replaced by Dennis Erickson in early 2007. Niusulu, a redshirt sophomore and Barstow native, had his fears eased once he got to talking with Erickson during spring practices. Erickson looked at his roster and noticed Niusulu was from Barstow and remembered one of his other players who once shared the 92311 zip code — T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

“He figured out T.J. was from Barstow, and that’s how we connected,” Zach said. “That was a nice little ice breaker with my head coach.”

Erickson coached T.J. and Bengals teammate Chad Johnson at Oregon State in 2000 when the Beavers finished ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25 College Football Poll.

“He told me about T.J. I told him, I remember watching T.J. play growing up, but I never really knew who he was because he wasn’t that type of receiver in high school. That kind of helped out the process of me taking in the process of my coach getting fired.”

Look later in the week for more questions and answers from Zach.

Q: What Foothill conference games are you looking forward to?
A: All conference games are important. We never overlook any conference opponent. The big four — you’ve got your Antelope Valley, your Mt. San Jacinto, Chaffey and your San Bernardino. You always know those four teams are going to come to play.

Q: What’s your coaching philosophy?
A: Primarily, I have a positive approach. I seek the positive and the good in what’s going on. It’s important and it’s necessary. That’s why I’ve got coach Woods and Johnson because they make up for where I lack. My whole positive, happy-go-lucky approach — they kind of help see the reality of the situation.

Q: Are there any coaches that you have learned from?
A: I was an assistant at the university of Utah. I worked under Elaine Elliott for three years. She was the best Xs and Os coach that I’ve ever been around. I learned a lot from her. I worked a lot of camps.I learned from my assistant coaches too. It’s not just big-name people that you learn from. I don’t have an over-weighing ego where I can’t expect input form other people. That’s a lot of my approach to the game.

Q: How did you get into coaching?
A: In college, I had a career-ending spinal cord injury. I couldn’t walk for like two years. My career-ending spinal cord injury in college led me into coaching. I just missed it so bad. You know who people go through losing a loved one? When I lost basketball as a player, there was just a total void there, and coaching made up for it. I’ve only spent one year away from it since I played in junior high.

Q: Is there anything that’s different now from when you played?
A: The game is just more athletic. The kids are more athletic. They are smarter. They are faster. When I played we had those 1980s shorts right to here. I was watching an old film the other day. The shorts were to here, and you had one or two great people on every team that could play, but that was back in the 80s. I played in the 80s. These guys are athletic. The position work — you know — big people can handle the ball and shoot 3s. Little people go post up. I mean, it is a different game.

We recently conducted a Q&A session with Greg Feasel. Feasel is a former football player at Barstow High School and Barstow Community College. He eventually made his way into the pros, playing for the Green Bay Packers, San Diego Chargers and the Denver Gold in the United States Football League from 1983-1987. He joined the Colorardo Rockies in 1996 after serving as the division director of sales and marketing for Coca-Cola Enterprises and worked his way up. He currently preparing for the World Series with the Rockies.

When you are interviewing someone with a pretty cool job with a World Series team, it’s hard to stop asking questions. We found ourselves in that very predicament but didn’t let the extra material go to waste. Here’s a few things that didn’t make the printed Q&A.

Q: What do you think about the way the Rockies have grown as a team?
A: It’s been a great. The way to win in any sport is through building and continuity. It’s all about getting the people in the organization on the same page. The key is getting good players into our system. We know the young men on our team. When we first draft them they get to know our organization as they grow. It’s been a lot of hard work.

Q: Do you prefer football or baseball?
A: First and foremost I was a football player even though I played Little League. As a player I like football. It’s the sport my body was made for.

Q: How is attendance at games during the regular season?
A: In 1995 it was the first year of Coors Field and we sold out every game. In 1996 we were sold out. After that the honeymoon phase wore off. Usually we’re just north of 30,000 now. It’s good to see it full again. They don’t usually build 50,000 person baseball stadiums. Ideal is usually 40,000 because there’s so many games a year it’s hard to fill the seats every single game.