Days after mother’s death, East Bay football coach leads team to win
ALAMEDA — Keith Minor spoke glowingly of his mother, Lula W. Minor, on Saturday.
“She lived a good long life,” the Encinal football coach said. “Three kids. Was very successful. She and my father did a great job raising us.
“She loved athletics and what it did for young men. She was one of my biggest fans.”
Lula died on Tuesday after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer 10 days earlier. She was 84.
Friday night, with the Encinal football team rallying around her son, the Jets won their biggest game of the season.
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They held San Leandro on a two-point conversion with 1:51 left for a 13-12 victory that moved Encinal into sole possession of first place in the West Alameda County Conference Foothill Division with one game left.
“It was a physical game, man,” Minor said. “Neither team was backing down from one another. Two proud programs who really, really, really played their tails off last night.”
Still, it was not easy for the coach who has led Encinal to eight victories in nine games this season.
“It was hard for me because it was the first time I coached a football game without my mom being here,” Minor said.
Encinal entered the game with six shutouts on the season, and its defense made an early impact Friday.
On San Leandro’s second series, Vincent Nunley returned an interception 60 yards for a touchdown.
“My defensive coordinator, Nick Safir, has done an outstanding job this year,” Minor said. “We were pretty good last year, but his preparation, his passion, his knowledge has really, really blossomed in this defense.”
Encinal took a 13-6 lead on its first series of the third quarter when David Romero-Reinholz threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Teddy Oliver.
The Jets then turned to their defense to protect the lead.
San Leandro cut the deficit to one point with a 50-yard pass on third-and-45 — “no lie,” Minor said — and then chose to go for two.
“We stopped them with a goal-line stand,” Minor added.
Encinal is in position to win the league with a victory next Friday at Bishop O’Dowd.
If the Dragons win, there will likely be a three-way tie for the championship between Encinal, O’Dowd and San Leandro.
“We don’t want to share this league title with anybody,” Minor said. “We have to go and handle our business against Bishop O’Dowd, which is always tough. They’re much better than their record indicates. They had a juggernaut of a schedule and they have all those ex-NFL player kids who are out there playing.
“You know they know how to play. They love to play. They scraped by us last year. We know we have a lot of hard work we’ve got to do this week to get ready for the Dragons.”
Just as they had a lot of heavy lifting to do Friday against San Leandro.
“Everyone said it was a great game,” Minor said. “It was not a fun game to coach. It was a very nerve-racking game. It was well played. It wasn’t one of those games that was mean-spirited that you see sometimes. It was a great, fun game between two proud programs that really got at it. It was very emotional.”
And given all that Minor went through during the week, it was quite memorable.