ORANGE – Chuck Petersen didn’t hold anything back when asked to describe his college experience.
Orange Lutheran High’s football coach, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1985, wasn’t shy throwing out words like “pain” and “agony” to illustrate his freshman and sophomore years on campus.
As he’ll tell you, those were some of the most trying times of his life.
“I wanted to leave the first week I was there,” Petersen said. “They wouldn’t let me. If somebody would’ve let me, I would’ve left. I was not in any way, shape or form ready for what occurred.”
Since Petersen’s son, Brady, had lived a majority of his life on a military base and knew firsthand exactly how hard life at a service academy could be, no one really expected him to follow suit.
The Lancers’ senior safety had other options in terms of places to play next season.
He could have stayed local and tried to earn playing time at Azusa Pacific. He could have moved back to Texas to attend Houston Baptist.
But like his dad, Brady Petersen decided he, too, would attend a service academy.
At National Signing Day on Feb.5, Petersen signed to play football at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
“Academics is obviously one area Navy excels at,” Petersen said. “But the other thing is the winning tradition they’ve established over the past 10 years.”
Because Chuck Petersen coached at the Air Force Academy from 1990 to 2006, the Petersen family lived on the campus, which is near Colorado Springs, Colo.
Brady Petersen spent the first 11 years of his life on a military base and saw the strict lives and schedules the cadets maintained.
He said his mom used the threat of academy life when he misbehaved as a little kid.
“I was always like, ‘No, no way!’ But as I got older, I always kind of envisioned myself there because you know it’s a great opportunity and you know a lot of great things come along with it,” he said.
Petersen grew up on the practice field alongside his dad. He enjoyed watching the drills, hanging out with the players and traveling to road games with the team.
Because the service academies play one another every season, Petersen has been to West Point and Annapolis. He, of course, was a die-hard Falcons fan at the time and had a “strong dislike” for the Army and Navy football teams.
As heated as those games got on the field, Chuck Petersen made sure his son understood the importance of meetings between the service academies.
“Because the rivalry between all three is so competitive, you basically live 365 days a year for those two games,” Petersen explained. “I don’t know if there’s anything quite like it, though. You’re playing for something much bigger than yourself in those situations. You’re playing for all those who have come before you. You’re playing for those who are overseas protecting the freedom. We have to play a dumb game.”
After 17 years on staff at Air Force, Petersen and his family moved south in 2007 when he became an assistant coach at the University of North Texas.
In 2012, the family moved to California when Petersen accepted Orange Lutheran’s head coaching position.
“Texas to California was a harder transition,” Brady Petersen said of the move. “I was already in high school, had a lot of friends, was playing football down there and didn’t really know what California was like.”
Both Petersens debuted for the Lancers in the 2012 season. Although the team finished 6-4 and just missed the playoffs, Brady Petersen did receive his first recruiting letter at the end of his junior campaign.
It was from Army.
Coincidentally, Navy happened to be the next school to reach out to the former Air Force fan and resident. The two service academies he grew up rooting against became his only two Division I offers.
Fortunately, he had a former service academy coach living in the same household.
“Over the years I had recruited hundreds of kids to an academy,” Chuck Petersen said. “I can sell all the good things about them. But I wanted (Brady) to see it for himself. I wanted him to go not because I wanted him to do that, or because it’s what his mother wanted him to do.”
Brady Petersen wound up choosing Navy and will attend the Naval Academy’s prep school in Rhode Island the first year.
“As a dad, I’m just really proud,” Chuck Petersen said. “I’ve seen him grow into the man that he is. The place that he’s going to is created for leaders.”
With more than 20 years’ experience with the Air Force Academy, the coach is preparing his son mentally for what lies ahead.
“You come off of a high of being recruited, then the reality sinks in of what you’re really going to do,” he said.
“You just have to have faith that you’ve seen a lot of others go before you, faith that you can handle it. Because at some point, there’s that light bulb that clicks in everybody that says, ‘Wow. Now I get it.’”
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
