ONE OF A KIND

ALHAMBRA - A former player once thanked Alhambra High School football coach Gil Ruedaflores for - of all things - being hard on him during brutal summer workouts.
"He had just come back from Desert Storm, and he said if it wasn't for all the `Hell Weeks' we put him through, he would have never made it," Ruedaflores said. "When players come back and tell you something like that, it makes it all worthwhile."
Lou Torres, Alhambra's athletic director and a close friend of Ruedaflores, remembers the time a distraught former player walked up to Ruedaflores during a fund-raiser. The man said his business was failing and his mother had just passed away.
"Coach took him aside and had a real heart-to-heart with him," Torres recalled. "I'll never forget it. Before the kid walked way, he turned to Gil and said, `Thanks, and I thank God every day that you came into my life.' "
There are many such stories about Ruedaflores, who's entering his 19th year as head coach at Alhambra and 42nd year in coaching. Yet Ruedaflores says a career that started as a freshman coach at St. John Bosco in 1964 probably will end after this season - if he can stand the pain that long.
In 2004, Ruedaflores had emergency appendectomy surgery during the summer and was forced to miss the first five games of the season. He has had two surgeries since, most recently in June - both stemming from his initial surgery.
Thus he reluctantly is contemplating retirement, most likely following the season.
"In all the years I've known him, last year was the first time I saw him sit down on the field," Torres said. "This is a man who loves to coach with fire and refuses to change. I worry that he's putting his health at risk, but that's how much he cares about this program."
As much as he would hate to leave his job, Ruedaflores admitted it's becoming difficult to maintain the pace.
"I like to think I'm a tough guy, but physically being out here is really demanding," the 60-year-old coach said. "It's getting tougher to weather the storm.
"I'm going to have to sit down and take a knee from time to time, and I hate to do that. Even as a coach, you don't want to show your weaknesses. You have to show your strength."
For those who know Ruedaflores, his strength often has been in words and in the genuine way he treats his players and coaches, as if they were family.
"Last year he struggled, and we thought it would be his final year, but Gil wants to make sure he leaves the program in good hands," Torres said. "I can't become the head coach because I'm the athletic director, and you can't do both.
"Gil would like someone who's part of the program to replace him, and so would I. He's always taught us about loyalty, values and work ethic. That's what every player who has played for him has taken with them, and that includes guys who became sheriffs and doctors, who came from Boyle Heights and turned their life around. Gil doesn't just talk, he listens, and he cares."
There are no CIF championship banners . In fact, when the Moors won the Almont
League title in 2002, it was Ruedaflores' only league title and the school's first league championship since 1964.
"It was sure great to get that monkey off our back," Ruedaflores said of winning the school's first league title in 38 years. "We had other good years, going to the (CIF) semifinals in 1994. But I'm just as proud of the teams that over-achieved. Some (teams) might not have had as much success, but they had success where I come from."
There also is a milestone on the horizon. With 97 career victories, Ruedaflores stands a good chance of reaching the century mark by mid-season.
"That's for my current and former players and coaches to celebrate," said Ruedaflores, who has a career record of 97-86. "I've never counted victories, but I imagine it will be pretty nice to reach 100 wins.
"But in my coaching life span at Alhambra, I don't put a lot of priority in that. It's nice to accomplish, but I'm more proud to hear what these kids have done long after they've graduated."
And there's probably no better example than Torres, who has been with Ruedaflores nearly every step of the way.
"That man took a little kid from East Los Angeles and inspired him to be something," Torres said.
In 1974, Ruedaflores landed his first head coaching job at Salesian High School, where one of his players was Torres.
Ruedaflores always liked Torres, and after Torres graduated from high school, Ruedaflores sought him out in a Sears parking lot, where he was working.
"He asked me, `You gonna fold boxes all your life?' " Torres recalled. "He asked me to be one of his assistants (at Salesian), and he steered me to college."
Ruedaflores later coached at L.A. Harbor, East L.A. and Glendale colleges. At Glendale in 1983, Ruedaflores was defensive coordinator and helped bring Torres on as an assistant. Torres already had graduated from college and was in the process of finishing his Masters degree at Cal State L.A.
Six years later, when Ruedaflores became head coach at Alhambra in 1989, he brought Torres on as an assistant. He insisted he wouldn't take the job unless Torres was given a full-time teaching position, which was granted.
It wasn't until 1996 that Torres became the school's athletic director and Ruedaflores' boss.
"In 30-plus years of coaching, I've never been a head coach," Torres joked. "And I wouldn't change it, because Gil Ruedaflores is, and always will be, Alhambra football."