Making officers, building character
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers WORKING IT- Former Adolfo Camarillo High School football coach David Padilla, left, created the Iron Sharpens Iron Leadership Academy to help teenage boys and girls prepare to pass the physical fitness and leadership requirements for admission to military academies. Padilla says the workout is also a way for the teens to develop the self-discipline that will help them accomplish other life goals. Thousand Oaks High School student Josh Bounds, right, runs uphill during a training session at Thousand Oaks Community Park on Saturday.

David Padilla is a man of faith and football.

The combination seems to serve him well, along with the teens he's mentored over the years.

Through the physically and mentally demanding Iron Sharpens Iron Leadership Academy, which Padilla founded, 46 local youths have been admitted into West Point and the Air Force, Naval, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine academies.

Padilla takes little of the credit.

"They're strongwilled, strongminded, driven individuals. . . . I played a small part in their success," Padilla said. "I love (being in) the background- my job is to push these kids in the light and let them shine."

Padilla said his reward comes at their graduations. He's watched as the President of the United States has handed a commission to three of his protégés.

"It was a very proud moment," said Padilla, 36.

Padilla created the leadership academy in 1996 at Adolfo Camarillo High after two boys on the freshman football team told him of their dream to become Air Force pilots. Padilla, who drove a school bus by day and coached the team by night, developed a program that would prepare the boys for the academy's stringent fitness requirement as well as showcase their leadership skills.

Along with conditioning their bodies, Padilla wanted to build moral principles, so the program stresses honor, integrity, respect for others and faith in a higher power.

As word spread among students, more boys wanted to participate. The program grew beyond Camarillo High, and soon dozens of teenage boys and girls, aspiring to the military, college or other future challenges, wanted to join.

So far, 13 have graduated or will graduate this year from military academies. In 2009, Padilla will attend graduation ceremonies at all five of the academies.

There are now 36 teenagers in Padilla's program who attend schools in Ventura County, Los Angeles and Santa Maria. Not all, however, want a military career. Some, like Dan McAuliffe, use the mental and physical discipline they learned to get into a competitive university and take on a rigorous major.

McAuliffe, 18, holds down a part-time job while taking a full load of classes at UC San Diego. A biology major and premed student, McAuliffe said Padilla's leadership academy not only taught him how to manage his time but helped build his character. "It made me a better person," the 2007 Camarillo High graduate said.

The high moral standards Padilla demands, coupled with his sincere interest in seeing the students achieve their dreams, have earned him the teens' respect, said parent Jim Tunney.

"He is an amazing role model for not only my son but all kids around here," said Tunney, whose 16yearold son Tyler is a member of the leadership academy in Thousand Oaks. "He is truly amazing at what he does for the kids."

As with any coach impressed with his charges, Padilla remembers the statistics of each one of his protégés- the day they were admitted to the academy or college and the day they graduated.

Padilla has been so absorbed with the progress of the teens that he hadn't given much thought to his own future until recently. He credits former protégé Keith Giacopuzzi with the change.

At his 2006 graduation from the Naval Academy, Giacopuzzi asked Padilla when he was going to return to college. Padilla had quit a few years earlier, frustrated with the slow pace of taking one or two night classes a semester. Money was in short supply, too, and the nighttime classes meant no overtime at work.

Giacopuzzi asked Padilla again last summer, this time promising his moral support, and

he strategy worked.

"That was a huge motivator," Padilla said.

Last month Padilla, who's single and has no children of his own, took a leave of absence from his 13-year job as a school bus driver, accepted a parttime posi

ion elsewhere and enrolled in Ventura College full time.

The man of faith needed a large dose of it to pursue his own dream of becoming a credentialed teacher. The change has meant losing the security that comes from routine and a fulltime income.

"Time to step out in faith, and risk it all and gain everything or risk it all and lose the world," Padilla said.

Giacopuzzi, a Camarillo High alumnus who's now 24 and on course to graduate from the Navy's advanced flight training school in December, said he's excited Padilla finally took that step.

"I think it's a new phase in his life, and I think it will be good for him," he said.