What's in Fox's Game Plan? It's Elementary

By ROBYN NORWOOD

Nov. 18, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Mr. Fox is very tall.

Mr. Fox plays football.

And if you need a little help with spelling, Mr. Fox is your man.

“What else makes a ‘K’ sound?” he asked Wednesday morning, kneeling beside a first-grader in Miss Goco’s class at Thomas Edison Elementary in Glendale.

Maybe to the rest of Los Angeles, John Fox is the quarterback who will lead USC against UCLA Saturday at the Coliseum as the Trojans try to break UCLA’s eight-year winning streak.

To Miss Goco’s first-graders, he is a student-teacher who holds their attention completely.

“On the count of one, I want us in a big giant circle,” Fox told the children a little before 11 a.m. “Three . . . two . . . leave a space for me . . . one.”

Then Fox stepped into the huddle and asked them all to sit cross-legged on the floor.

“Excellent, excellent,” he said.

USC’s season rests on his shoulders, but Fox--a fifth-year senior who began this season as the third-string quarterback and has played everything from quarterback to tight end to linebacker in his career--isn’t counting on the NFL. He isn’t planning on teaching high school and coaching, either.

No, for Fox, elementary school is where it’s at.

“I just think it’s the influence part,” he said. “That’s where you can make the most difference. Especially because a lot of boys--and girls--don’t have good father figures, people they can talk to.”

At 6 feet 4 and 220 pounds, when Fox steps into a roomful of 6-year-olds and 7-year-olds and takes a seat in one of those tiny molded chairs, all eyes are on him.

“The minute he walked in and introduced himself, ‘Wow, you’ve got big muscles,’ was one of the first things out of their mouths,” said Margarita Goco, who supervises Fox and another student-teacher several mornings a week.

Fox understands his size has an effect on the youngsters.

“So many of their teachers are women, and usually aren’t as tall. You get a guy 6-4 come in, it tends to be like, oh my gosh,” he said. “Right away when I start to talk to them, that nervousness they have just goes out the window. Their world revolves around them, and if you enter that in a good way, they’ll latch on to you.”

The class has latched onto Fox with very little awareness of his life outside Room 31.

“I heard he was a football player, but I wasn’t aware of him before,” Goco said. “I didn’t know his name. That’s just me. I don’t follow it. A lot of other teachers said, ‘You have John Fox as a student-teacher? He’s the quarterback for USC.’ ”

Until Wednesday, the children not only didn’t know anything about this USC-UCLA business, they didn’t know Fox played football.

“You told us you play soccer!” one boy said.

“He’s got great rapport with the kids,” Goco said. “He’s very positive, very energetic. He’s a really good student-teacher.”

One of Wednesday’s lessons involved an imaginary trip around the world, and Fox walked around the circle with a small suitcase.

“What kinds of things do we pack in our suitcases?” he asked.

“Paper to write on?” one student asked.

“Clothes!” another said.

Holding an inflatable globe, Fox turned the lesson into a game: Catch the globe when it’s tossed your way, and you get to tell the class who or what you’ll take with you on your trip.

“My sister and cousin,” a girl said.

“Mom or Dad,” another said.

“Excellent--or else you could get lost,” Fox said, tossing the ball like a soft little swing pass to an open receiver.

“Nice catch!” he said. “What else are some important things?

“A book? That’s very important.”

Once, Fox momentarily fumbled the ball.

“Oops,” he said, and the children giggled.

“Who hasn’t caught the ball yet?” he asked, surprising someone else with a shovel pass.

“Money? Excellent.”

With that, it was time for the students to write their own lists.

“OK, count of three,” Fox said. “Papers in front of you. Pencils ready. Three, two, one, go. Start writing.”

Before the morning was over, the discussion had ranged to the names of the four oceans--”Indian Ocean, excellent,” he said--and the seven continents.

Fox, relaxed and in control, seems to have found his calling, and it’s far from a high school football field.

“When you’re teaching, it all pays the same. So why not go where your personality can impact the kids the best?” he said. “Upper-elementary, fourth through sixth [grades] is where I think I can do the best job.

“That’s what’s important. I want to go home every day enjoying what I do. The money’s not there, it’s obvious, but you know, the education was free here [at USC] for me.

“I’d probably eventually like to go higher and maybe start to teach teachers, make more of a difference that way. But I do want to start out being a teacher.”

With his role on USC’s team bigger than he expected this season after the injury to Carson Palmer and the decision to replace Mike Van Raaphorst at quarterback, Fox has a very full schedule.

Due at Edison Elementary several days a week at 7:15 a.m., he leaves around noon to make USC’s afternoon meetings and practices from around 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

At USC, his job is Xs and O’s.

At Edison, his world is the ABCs taped around the wall, from Aa Alligator to Zz Zebra. Below that, a list of goals for students is printed out: “I am respectful. I am responsible. I am a team player. I always try my best.”

Funny, some people at USC would say that sounds a lot like Mr. Fox.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE RIVALRY

USC vs. UCLA

Saturday, Coliseum

12:30 p.m.,

Channel 7

ISLAND FEVER

June Jones has led Hawaii out from the gloom of the longest losing streak in the nation to a 7-3 record and a bowl berth. Page 6

NFL CAN WAIT

Barring a change of heart, junior defensive end Kenyon Coleman says he plans to return to UCLA next season. Page 6

USC vs. UCLA: The 1970s