A 20-year Tradition Of Success For Central Bucks West Football

For as long as there's been Central Bucks West football, there's been the pregame ritual.

In the 1960s, when marching bands were recording their music, the West locker room would be aglow with the motivational sounds of "On Wisconsin" and the Notre Dame fight song. Today, Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" and Kool and the Gang's "Celebration" are hot. Hey, it's the '80s.

The West players dress. When they are through, the music stops. They sit, silently, in front of their lockers. A few minutes pass. Then, the team captains eye each other and begin the rumble. They tap their cleats on the cold, cement floor, first softly, then louder. Within a few seconds, their teammates follow, in sync, until it sounds like one loud tap.

And then in walks God.

"You never know what he's going to say," West senior Randy Cuthbert said of coach Mike Pettine.

"Sometimes, he'll get really revved up, and other times he'll be as calm as can be. But I'll tell you, when we're ready to go on that field, our stomachs are all quivery and we have tingles up our spine."

By then, the opposition is pretty much overmatched.

Over the last two decades, Central Bucks West has manufactured a standard of football excellence that has consistently placed it as one of the top high school football programs not only in the state, but in the nation.

Consider that:

* Over the last 16 seasons, the Bucks have won 151 of 169 games (with one tie), a 90 percent success rate.

* The Bucks have rattled off 32 straight wins over the last three seasons (the state record is 51 by Monesson in the mid-1950s). They are expected to go 11-0 again this year. Another good season in 1988 could move them into the top 10 nationally for consecutive wins.

* Last year, in a supposed rebuilding year, C.B. West went 11-0 and was ranked No. 8 in the country by USA Today's high school football poll. In the two years previous, the Bucks were ranked in the top 25 nationally by the same publication. In addition, the team was featured in a segment on ESPN's Scholastic Sports America show.

* Five times in the last 10 years, West has been rated the winner of a mythical state title by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

* In the last 20 years, 41 players from West have gone on to Division I

college football programs, and several have gone on to the pros. One graduate, quarterback Jim Jensen, currently plays a key role with the Miami Dolphins.

* In 20 years as West's head coach, Pettine has won 85 percent of his games, racking up a 177-30-2 record.