Sebreros Runs to Maintain His Balance : Football: Garden Grove standout finds his time on the field helps him cope with troubled home life.

GARDEN GROVE —  Jim Sebreros’ feats on the football field are unparalleled in the 69-year history of Garden Grove High School.

As a junior last year, he was named the Garden Grove League’s most valuable player after leading the Argonauts to a 10-0 record, the best mark in the school’s 69-year history.

This season, he will establish school records for career rushing and scoring that Fred Miller set in 1966-68. He enters Friday night’s game against winless Bolsa Grande needing one touchdown to tie Willie Gardner’s single-season school record of 18 touchdowns set in 1970.

Sebreros’ coaches describe him as a natural, often comparing him to former Rancho Alamitos’ star Randy Vataha, who starred at Stanford and with the New England Patriots.

They talk of his balance and uncanny vision on the field. They point to his quickness and ability to accelerate while turning a corner. They reel off such phrases as, “God-given talent” and “his ability to do things that can’t be coached.”

Sebreros’ football career began in Junior All-American football in Garden Grove. His coach, Bob Prew, has videotape highlights of Sebreros at age 7 routinely scoring 90-yard touchdowns.

“Everything came easy to him,” Prew said. “He was way above all the other boys, whether he was swimming, playing football, basketball or baseball. He excelled at everything.

“Jimmy was amazing on a football field. He was all over the field. He did things that other kids could never do. We always thought he had eyes in the sides of his helmet. He had that inside drive to be the best.”

But Sebreros’ life away from athletics has sometimes clashed with his on-field success.

He says he has long suffered emotionally from the effects of his parents’ divorce when he was 2. He grew up without a father, often seeking a father figure in his coaches.

Prew was Sebreros’ first mentor. Prew’s son, John, and Sebreros were best friends growing up in Garden Grove and played football and baseball together. Prew said he marveled at Sebreros’ talents and was saddened by his home life.

“He didn’t have a father,” Prew said. “Sure, his dad would show up at games and brag to everybody that Jimmy was his son, but he was never around when the kid needed him.

“Jimmy wanted to be disciplined. One year, we had a situation where he was getting hard to handle on the football team, so I sat him out a game. It wasn’t taken well by his mother. The next year, she had him playing on another team. But the following year, he was back playing for me.”

Sebreros and the Prew family remained close until four years ago when Prew moved his family to Oregon.

“He writes all the time and I’ve saved all of his letters,” Prew said. “The letters start with his accomplishments, and then he talks about his problems.”

Garden Grove Coach Jeff Buenafe has been a confidante of Sebreros’ for four years. “I sort of feel like I’m his stepfather,” Buenafe says.

Buenafe said he spends an hour or two each week just talking with Sebreros, showing him that someone cares.

“I’ve become his sounding board,” Buenafe said. “He comes to me with his problems and I’ve always tried to be there for him. Sometimes, he’ll say, ‘Coach, I’ve lost it. I don’t know what to do.’ ”

Buenafe recalled the fifth week of last year’s championship season when Sebreros approached him and told him of his plans to quit the team before Garden Grove’s game against La Quinta.

Sebreros had fumbled three times against Kennedy the previous week.

“He was a little more serious this time,” Buenafe said. “He had this look on his face of panic, fear and doubt. He had gotten himself into a corner and figured there was no way out.

“I gave him a day off from practice and figured it was something we could work out. When he returned, he looked at me and said, ‘I’m ready, coach, I’m ready.’ ”

Despite objections from his assistants, Buenafe has carefully stroked Sebreros this season. He allows Sebreros to lock himself in the weight room for five minutes before each game.

“He talks to himself in the mirror for five minutes or so,” Buenafe said. “Then, he’s ready to go. Every one of my assistants has told me that I should kick him off the team. But sports is Jimmy’s whole identity. I’d never take that way from him.”

Initially, the appeal of competing in athletics for Sebreros was “just being one of the guys.”

He talked of post-game pizza parties with friends and the self-esteem he earned as he excelled in the Junior All-American games on Saturdays on West Street in Garden Grove.

“I felt like I was the best,” he said. “The best things that have happened in my life have happened on the football field. My accomplishments on the field have carried me through life.”

Off the field was another story. Of his parents’ divorce, Sebreros said he suffered emotionally, but “I just didn’t show it. Whenever things got tough, there was always a game or somebody to go watch play. It took my mind off my problems.”

But Sebreros’ problems compounded during his freshman year when he was declared academically ineligible for failing to maintain a 2.0 grade-point average in his first semester.

Sebreros’ grades had begun to slip after he suffered torn buttocks in the season opener and missed nine games. He returned for the team’s final game and led Garden Grove to a 13-12 upset over Rancho Alamitos.

Two weeks later, Sebreros was declared ineligible.

“My world fell apart when I was hurt,” he said. “I found myself slipping after I got hurt. I was running away from my problems. I moved in with my father in Cypress, thinking that everything would be all right.

“But things got worse. I was ineligible for basketball and didn’t get eligible until the last baseball game of the season. Everything backfired on me when my grades slipped. Suddenly, I didn’t have sports to fall back on.”

Sebreros said he didn’t talk to his father for three months and now only sees him occasionally after a game.

“I love my father, but I never felt the same feelings from him,” he said. “I don’t think he always lived up to the lessons he tried to teach me. He tells me he’s proud of me, but I don’t feel it from him.”

Sebreros thought he had reached a point of no return last year before the La Quinta game. He felt he had failed in living up to the expectations of his father, a former star athlete at Santa Ana High.

“Everything I’ve done in my life, my father has done it, and has probably done it better,” he said. “The night before the La Quinta game, I told Coach Buenafe I wanted to quit. I wanted to give up something I love (football) to gain something that was missing in my life . . . the love of my father.”

Sebreros said he had a change of heart after a long telephone conversation with Prew.

“He told me that my dreams were still in front of me,” Sebreros said. “He said, ‘You can’t let your dreams slip away.’ ”

Fortunately for Garden Grove, Sebreros’ self-imposed retirement was only one day. He returned and finished the season with 923 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns. He gained 117 yards and scored the winning touchdown in the Argonauts’ 17-15 victory over Rancho Alamitos to clinch the league title.

Buenafe marvels at Sebreros’ talents. He already has surpassed last season’s totals, gaining 990 yards and scoring 17 touchdowns in eight games.

“Whenever he’s running near our bench, I never look at his feet,” Buenafe said. “I look at his eyes. They’re always as big as Christmas ornaments. It appears as if he’s looking in two different directions at the same time.

“Nobody ever seems to get a clean hit on him unless it’s from behind. I’ve never seen him tagged one on one. He’ll get hit if two defenders are holding him up and then another hits him, but it’s terribly difficult to bring him down one on one.”

Buenafe believes Sebreros could have a great future as a wide receiver in college. But Sebreros, a standout infielder, also figures to attract offers from major league baseball teams in the spring.

Regardless of which road he takes, Sebreros says athletics will be his ticket to success.

“I really feel I’m going to make it,” he said. “I just don’t know how. I don’t have a timetable. But I’m going to make it.”