Earlier this month Raul Lara and his Warren High School team were leaving St. Paul following a tough 24-15 season opening loss.
And the strangest thing happened.
Lara, after a loss, was getting congratulated by parents.
"Coach, they look so much better," parents told the first year Warren head coach. "You're doing a great job."
Lara fired back, "Whoa, do you guys understand we loss? We need to win."
It was certainly a head scratcher for the former Long Beach Poly head coach considering where he'd come from. At his last stop he won -- and won lot. Lara was 142-30 in 13 years as head coach. He won five CIF Southern Section titles and is the only coach to lead a public school to a PAC-5 Division title ... three times.
Losses at his old stop were unacceptable regardless of the opponent.
The expectation was to win. All of the time.
It's safe to say the expectations at his new stop are a lot different. Lara picked up his first win with the Bears last Friday with a 20-6 defeat of Firebaugh. With the win, Warren improved to 1-2 on the season.
The win snapped a 24-game losing streak for the program dating back to the 2011 season.
To Lara it was just one win of what he hopes will be many more with Warren.
To the school, it meant so much more. The student body, the administration, as well as the players were all "ecstatic." The players even posed for a team picture on the field following the win.
Another head scratcher for Lara, who's in the process of trying to change the culture of a program accustomed to losing in recent years. The last time the Bears won more than one game in a season was 2010 -- they were 4-6. The year before, however, Warren went 10-2 in 2009 behind star tailback Jesse Callier's sensational senior season in which he rushed for 3,010 yards and 43 touchdowns.
Since 2009, the Bears are 6-36-1, including the streak of 24 consecutive losses which was snapped last Friday.
"I feel for these kids and I really wanted them to win and (have) that winning taste a little bit," Lara said. "Now we don't have to hear about this streak. Hopefully we can just focus on just trying to become a better football team and try to make noise in league and try to get to the playoffs."
