D - 2 THE STATE •lOI H M L Thurs.. Feb. 1,1979

Gil Sauceda

Texas-style football at Eastern?

By BOB GROSS Staff Writer Gil Sauceda can't wait to begin fall football practice at Lansing Eastern High. Gil who? WHEN HE was introduced as the school's new head coach Wednesday by principal Don Johnson, everybody sort of looked at each other. Here was a man 46 years old with no previous head coaching experience who has been out of athletics the past six years, serving as the assistant princi-pal at Pattengill Junior High. But Johnson quickly put things in order. 4'You may wonder why I picked Gil," he said. "And I'm gonna tell you why. He's probably as qualified as any candidate we had because he's well-or-ganized, he's an excellent admininstra-tor, teacher and coach. And, he's a winner who knows our system, the kids, the parents and is very respected in the community. I think that's enough." SAUCEDA, WHO spent most of his life in Texas where he attended Pan American University and played foot-ball and basketball, came to Lansing eight years ago. He coached Eastern's jayvee team to an 8-0 record in 1972. "They told me that year when we were to play East Lansing that not to figure on beating them because East-ern never had before and I thought that was rather strange," he said. "But we went out and won the game. I don't think any player should ever have that kind of attitude and I won't have it as the new head coach." Sauceda says he's going to bring a new offense to Eastern, much like the Dallas Cowboys. "I PLAN to use a multiple offense," he said. "I've always liked wide-open ball and that's Texas style. I won't make any promises but I think fans will like it." Sauceda will develop his own coach-ing staff although it's expected some of the present coaches will remain. "I'll have to sit down and look at the situation before making any deci-sions," he said. "I know the kids who are coming back and what they can do and there are no set positions. Every-body who comes out will have an equal opportunity for a starting posi-tion. Competing for a spot is very healthy. One of the first things I'm going to do when I talk with the play-ers is for them to respect me and have respect for themselves. If they don't, I won't have them around." HE SAID the major difference in football here and in Texas was the number of games teams were allowed to play." "We start down there in the spring and go three to four weeks of train-ing," he said. "And, if a team is good enough and makes it all the way through the playoffs, it could play 15 games whereas in Michigan it's 12 games." Sauceda added that once the season ends in Texas, players just don't SAUCEDA SAID he welcomed the big challenge as the new coach more than any other job he had. "The thing about the job is getting out of the office and back into the classroom and I'll have to adjust, but I'm really looking forward to it. I love a challenge and by gosh, if Bud Wilkin-son can come out of retirement from coaching, so can I. And, he's 20 years older than me." Sauceda takes over for Gary Rob-erts who had a double role-football and athletic director.