At the intersection of Yolanda and Victory avenues sits a rundown field with just as much dirt as green grass peeking out from above the soil.
“We never have time to fix the patches,” said Dayvon Ross, football coach for the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies. “There’s more dirt than grass for sure.”
The sandlot-like multipurpose field for SOCES, a public magnet school in the San Fernando Valley, is home to its football team. The school, however, is more known for performance arts than sports.
Just four years after the football program temporarily shuttered, SOCES is 8-0 and sits atop the 8-man City Section standings — a turnaround from the 4-6 record it tallied last year in its return. With the City Section playoffs on the horizon, the roster is 22 players strong, requiring each Knight who takes the field to suit up on offense and defense.
“It’s hard work,” said King Burns, a senior quarterback and safety who had 120 yards and three touchdowns rushing while passing for 102 yards and two scores in a win over East Valley on Friday night. “We learn our positions and it pays off on the field. We are ready to go out there at all times.”
One of the 22 at the root of the Knights’ undefeated campaign is junior Daniel Truong, a 5-foot-6 running back and linebacker who tallied a prolific 1,058 yards, 14 touchdowns and 42 tackles through seven games. He sat out the season finale against East Valley as he recovers from a back injury in hopes of playing in the postseason. He ran for more than 1,300 yards last season, his first playing football.
Now at 16, his rise as one of the state’s best 8-man running backs has offered him not only opportunities to play in front of college programs, but also the freedom to grow socially.
“I was a kid hanging out by myself and just doing nothing,” said Truong, who recently competed at UCLA and USC football camps against 11-man opponents. “It feels amazing because I got to get close to other people. Now, they’re my brothers. I hang out with them every day.”
Ross, a former NFL hopeful who once competed for roster spots on the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Commanders, said most of his players had zero experience before joining the team. Truong, second in the state in rushing yards among 8-man teams, according to MaxPreps, is no different.
The Knights’ second-year coach added that Truong has learned the ins and outs of football by going beyond practice to improve. Ross said Truong even texts him on weekends after games, sharing videos of his performance in drills and asking for advice on how to improve.
“I knew that he was going to be something special — from his will to work,” Ross said. “The kid never gets tired. He never complains.”
Ross chuckled while showing a picture of Truong in a Hawaiian T-shirt and bragged moments later about his running back crushing his record deadlift in the weight room. Ross directs practice with high expectations but keeps the energy lighthearted with kids of all ages roaming the practice grounds after school.
Football never was something Ross imagined he would coach. But now, two years into leading this team, he’s all in. Ross put $20,000 into the program for new equipment and uniforms and even explored paying for a new field.
“When I interviewed here and saw these guys, they wanted a program so bad,” he said. “The kids bought in. Last year, we went 4-6, and I kind of had a bitter taste in my mouth. “I’m like, ‘Ah, man, maybe I shouldn’t be doing this.’ But then, in the offseason, these kids were committed every day, coming to practice sore.”
He added that he sees his students’ potential as limitless — and hopes it will translate to college football Saturdays in the future. The players’ buy-in convinced Ross that SOCES was a job worth competing and staying for.
With more fans — and students — coming to games, Truong said the encouragement places winning at the forefront of the team now more than before the season.
“It’s been awesome that people are coming out to support us,” he said. “It means a lot. It helps us want to win.”