There's no place like Canoga Park High for Andy Beal

CANOGA PARK, Calif. — There's a giant sign – approximately 20 feet high and 100 feet wide – that hangs from the Canoga Park (Calif.) cafeteria and faces the school's football field.

The large green-and-white block letters read H-U-N-T-E-R-S to honor the school's mascot, which was unleashed during the school's 1915 opening and to prey upon the local Southern California rival animals, the San Fernando Tigers, Van Nuys Wolves and North Hollywood Huskies.

The sign itself has lived unscathed since 1975 when the artist and student – unbeknownst to faculty or students – boldly painted and planted it one night during his senior year. He did it to express his robust school spirit and bring attention to a football field without lights.

That artist/student/rabble rouser returns to the scene of the crime today to serve as Grand Marshal for the school's homecoming celebration, which includes a 7:15 p.m. football game against Kennedy (Granada Hills).

He is none other than MaxPreps Founder and President Andy Beal, who last spring was honored as a distinguished alumnus and worked on campus as Principal for the Day. It was the first time Beal had stepped back onto campus in almost 35 years.

"I loved every minute of it," said Beal, a 1976 graduate. "Other than a part of campus that had been rebuilt, the rest of the school was virtually unchanged. The steps where I went to class, the lunch area where we hung out, the gymnasium. … other than paint, it hadn't changed a bit. It brought back a lot of memories. To get to experience it again (tonight) is awesome."

The moxie and passion he showed for his school that 1974 night has carried over into his entrepreneurial life devoted to high school. Beal is also head basketball coach at Ponderosa (Shingle Springs), very near where he now resides in Northern California.

The giant bold letters reflect Beal's constant large vision, one that he turned a cozy Sacramento-area roster Internet spot into a wildly popular media site that features more than 25,000 schools nationwide, 15 sports and last month recorded a record 91.5 million page views.

MaxPreps.com was purchased by CBS Corporation in April 2007.

All that enthusiasm, success and fearlessness is what led Canoga Park Student Government Advisor and Social Studies Teacher Rich Tibbetts to reach out to Beal. Actually, he asks his students to find successful Canoga Park alums and Carolina Najarro, a 2011 graduate and current Cal State Northridge freshman, hunted down Beal in true Canoga Park High spirit.

"We're looking for people who have achieved a measure of success – people we can point to and tell our kids that they walked the same halls as you did and went on to great things and pursued their dreams," Tibbetts said. "Andy completely fits the bill there and what is so great is that he's been so enthusiastic. So gracious. We're so lucky to call him our own."

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DREAMER AND DOER

Randy Uzoma, Canoga Park's star football player, felt lucky to meet the gutty dude who made the famed sign.

Evidently, the story around campus of how a student somehow snuck to the top of the cafeteria to pull off the caper is legendary.

"I always wanted to know the person who did it," said Uzoma, who is one of the state's top senior receivers. He's taking a recruiting trip to Oregon on Saturday. "That's very cool."

The 6-foot-1, 195-pound standout said it's even cooler what Beal has done with his life and given back.

During his Principal's day, Beal was asked if he'd like to stay for an evening awards ceremony. He not only hung around, but started an annual $2,500 MaxPreps Citizen Athlete Scholarship award.

That night, he handed out the first one to then senior Michael Almodovar.

"It's important to meet people – especially who went to our school – who went on to do great things because I want to do great things," said Uzoma, who after a possible NFL career would like to become a plastic surgeon. "The website he built is amazing. All the scores and stats are up there from all over the country. How could someone even think something like that was possible?"

Beal was always a dreamer and a doer and a lover of sports and coaching.

His father Frank Beal was an assistant football coach at rival Granada Hills and often planted young Andy in the stands with the stat girls to keep him occupied. Perhaps that's where started his infatuation for numbers.

His hero as a middle school football ball boy was Dana Potter, who is now the quarterbacks coach at Oaks Christian (Westlake Village). Beal later scoffed at a Granada Hills football slinger named John Elway.

"I was convinced this kid at Canoga Park was better," Beal said. "My dad, who told me then Elway would someday be in the NFL, said ‘Son, you have no idea what you're talking about.' He was obviously right."

At Canoga Park, Beal was a yell leader during the football season, hoop standout in the winter and always a student counsel advocate.

Beyond putting up huge signs late at night, Beal was the student coordinator for an adult organization called Stadium Activation, which got the ball rolling for lights.

"We always had to play away games because we were the only local high school without lights," Beal said. "We raised those lights from a standing start and about a year after I graduated we finally got them standing. I was there that night. I must admit, I was proud of that."

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BURSTING WITH PRIDE

His proudest moments were on the basketball court, where the 6-foot-5 forward/center averaged about 10 points and 10 rebounds per game.

There was no MaxPreps in those days to confirm those numbers, but judging how he still competes with sons Ryan, Russell and Rhett, he surely wasn't exaggerating.

Rhett, a 6-3 guard who will be a fourth-year starter at Point Loma Nazarene, is shooting better than 50 percent from the field in his career and is one of the conference's most versatile players.

Andy coached all of his sons at Ponderosa, like his father, as an assistant. He took over the head coaching duties last season when all had graduated. It was his first experience watching Ryan start as a sophomore that actually led him to the MaxPreps train.

"I'd always loved high school basketball and we had spent years building up to this one moment," Andy said. "I remember his name being announced as a starter and I was bursting with pride. I couldn't wait for the next day to see his name in the box score in the Sacramento Bee."

His son's name was spelled "Beach," not "Beal" in the paper. 

"I remember thinking ‘Ah man,'" Andy said. "But as I think back now, that's what provided the motivation to get this all started."

After purchasing Sports Huddle in Feb., 2002, Beal developed SacPreps.com the following August, and the year after that branded MaxPreps.com and went statewide.

In 2004, Beal branched out to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and by the start of the 2005-06 season, MaxPreps went completely national. Less than two seasons later, CBS purchased MaxPreps.com.

"It's a great and inspirational story," Tibbetts said. "Andy's path told our students to aim high, that all things are possible."

But his presence on campus also told them don't ever forget where you come from.

Beal said he never did, that Canoga Park High School always tugs at his heart. He was touched and honored to be sought out.

The school has had numerous famous celebrities like Oscar winner for makeup Barney Burman (Star Trek), actors Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad") and Kurtwood Smith ("70s Show") and Alan Edwards, creator of the Farrah hair style for Farrah Fawcett. Actor Kevin Spacey also attended Canoga Park.

Beal didn't hang much with the celebrity types, but he always embraced the diversity and energy and hope during that stage of life.  

"I still very much romanticize about high school life," he said. "I feel so fortunate to be a part of it still. Being back here makes me feel so fortunate for what I get to do everyday at MaxPreps.

"High school is really a microcosm of our culture. In one location, everything takes place and all of it is designed to allow you to express yourself, whether it's through athletics or art or the classroom or wherever."

Or even the top of a cafeteria building.