Football: Long Beach Poly gets reality TV treatment
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Beginning Thursday night at 9 o’clock on Current TV, the Long Beach Poly football program will receive national exposure when the series, ‘4th and Forever,’ debuts. A camera crew followed the Jackrabbits from beginning to end last season, and Coach Raul Lara receives prominent play as he tries to get his players to perform on and off the field.
With no end in sight for the NFL lockout, this series will provide some entertaining football for early summer. The first episode introduces some of the Poly players that will be under scrutiny, including the quarterbacks.
There are eight 30-minute episodes scheduled, led off by a one-hour debut show.
Lara said the experience has been a positive one.
‘We wanted to show people we are about our kids and trying to help them whether they are star kids or not,’ he said.
Lara has been doing some publicity tours for the series, though spring practice has just begun. He has hired several new assistant coaches at receiver and for the offensive line.
As for the 2011 team, he said, ‘On paper, we look pretty good. Until we do it on Friday night, we don’t know.’
-- Eric Sondheimer