Crenshaw High School football was once one of the top programs in Los Angeles. But the football team has fallen on hard times, and the challenge of rebuilding it has become an ongoing battle. LA Times prep sports reporter Luca Evans wrote about the many obstacles to overcome to help restore this once proud tradition. Evans joined Kelvin Washington on “LA Times Today.”

Crenshaw used to be a powerhouse team in LA. Evans detailed how Crenshaw’s beloved coach crafted past success stories. 

“Ever since coach Robert Garrett took over in the late 1980s, they’ve been consistently one of the top programs… In 2009 and 2010 [they] won back-to-back titles and three between 2009 and 2013. That was really that prime heyday when the name Crenshaw became one of the biggest names in Southern California prep football,” Evans said.

Now, Crenshaw coaches have a hard time filling the team’s roster. Coaches have started recruiting players from PE class or other school sports teams. 

“One Crenshaw coach told me that, on a good day, he’s lucky if 16 players show up at a practice. Obviously, you’ve got 11 on the field, so that’s a bit of a problem going into a scrimmage... Not the best situation to be in as a football coach. In that heyday, they had 40 to 50 players on that roster. It’s a very exponential and rapid decline that’s mirrored the decline in the overall enrollment at the school over the past decade,” Evans explained.

One reason that Crenshaw’s enrollment has declined is that middle schools in the area that used to feed into Crenshaw have transitioned into K-12 programs. 

“Particularly in football, and I’m sure this problem extends to overall enrollment as well, but the perception of Crenshaw and the area. Kids are transferring out. Especially in football, a lot of private schools, charter schools are trying to siphon talent at the youth level out of Crenshaw. These kids who would have normally gone straight to playing football and starring at Crenshaw are now being taken out of the area by private charter schools [who are] recruiting them at the youth level,” he said.

Evans talked about the impact of coach Garrett had on his community and his players.

“His trademark sunglasses and shorts have never changed over these decades that he’s been in Crenshaw. Many feel he’s kind of embodied the essence of what Crenshaw is: resilience and surviving... He coaches kids to succeed in life and not just football. And a lot of times that means discipline. And in these changing times, he’s stuck to his guns. He’s going to take whoever comes into his program and is not going to chase kids who transfer out,” Evans said.

Watch the full interview above. 

Watch “LA Times Today” at 7 and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.