‘New’ school Destiny Christian Academy replaced Capital Christian, rolls to another football win
The campus is still there, the one located off Highway 50 heading east, where the towering church casts a shadow in the late afternoon sun.
But the old school name — Capital Christian — is gone. The name and Cougars mascot have been scrubbed off the walls and pulled off the side of buildings. A new school name, a new logo and fresh paint match the ambitious views of new leadership with the assistance of some old hands.
Now occupying the grounds is Destiny Christian Academy, or DCA for short, born out of a summer church takeover. The DCA Lions, not even three months old, on Friday night played the Linden Lions, a 123-year-old school located in San Joaquin County. The “new” guys in their dark blue home uniforms prevailed 40-21 to improve to 3-0 on the field.
Amid the crunch and chaos of change, DCA before the season overlooked paperwork that needed to be submitted to the governing body CIF regarding an incoming transfer, a reserve player. That fell on the athletic director who doubles as head coach in Aaron Garcia. He broke the news to players that the oversight meant the team’s opening-night rout of Sheldon is now a forfeit loss. He owned it, but no one threw debris or mouth pieces at the man. They appreciate and value him too much.
That clerical error is part of the growing pains of a transition from a school that closed after 42 years on Mayhew Road to this. The home football crowds have been spirited. The marching band under the direction of the beloved Jim “Papa” Reber belts out the same catchy tunes as it did in previous years on campus. Reber wasn’t going anywhere as long as DCA wanted him.
And this: An entertaining football team helps set a good vibe to start an academic year. DCA looks the part in the trenches with bulk, including 300-pound guard Trenten Lewis, a 4.0-GPA student who dabbles in the school band. Dallas Munn is a strong-armed senior quarterback who has settled in after missing most of last season due to injury.
In the first half, Munn had a 7-yard touchdown run and a 27-yard scoring strike to Titus White, and he hit an in-stride Greyson Smith for a 34-yard scoring play in the fourth quarter to make it 40-7. Smith had two interceptions on defense.
Third-year starting running back Malakai Taione dazzled with burst and production, including a 50-yard touchdown romp to make it 21-0 early in the third quarter. Caleb Hill had a rushing touchdown and some big kickoff returns, and Nano Johnson had an 18-yard TD run behind superb blocking to make it 33-7 late in the third.
The junior varsity team is 3-0, a far cry from when Capital Christian could not field a JV squad because of low roster numbers.
“Our first two games were here, and the crowds were great, the energy was amazing, and it was just ... beautiful,” DCA principal Chris Orr said. “We had this vision a year ago when we knew change was coming. We’ve been planning this, hoping for this kind of start.”
DCA coached by former prep greats
Orr is a holdover from the previous regime. Same with Garcia, one of the Sacramento area’s greatest prep stars, The Bee’s 1987 Player of the Year who played professionally. A year ago, Garcia was floored when Capital Christian coach Saul Patu abruptly resigned a day before the start of fall camp, rooted in a difference of vision with school administrators. Garcia endured a 2-8 season when he could hear and sense the cheers for Capital’s struggles.
People root against DCA, too, reflective of snarky social media posts that if Capital Christian was rogue, allegedly, then so is the new school.
“We could sense it with the transfer paperwork — ‘Oh, there they go again!’” Orr said before Friday’s kickoff, sitting in a golf cart. “It was a simple mistake, a clerical error. We know our purpose. We will do things right, and the rest is just noise.”
Garcia said he was ecstatic to bring aboard Antuan Simmons as DCA’s assistant head coach and defensive coordinator. Simmons was a two-time Bee All-Metro defensive back star in the mid-1990s at Valley High who started in the secondary at USC. Garcia said he feels rejuvenated as a coach and program leader.
“I’m mostly encouraged by our stability, from the top on down, because we’re all on the same page now, and that hasn’t always been the case since I’ve been here,” Garcia said. “We have the potential to do some great things here.”
Former Kings chaplain leads DCA
DCA is under the leadership of DCA president Scott Hagan and pastor Greg Fairrington, who ran Destiny Christian church in Rocklin. Hagan is also a pastor. Hagan’s kids graduated from Capital Christian, including football stars Spencer and Kramer Hagan, so the school holds a special spot in his heart.
Hagan spent seven years as president of North Central University in Minneapolis and was ready to travel the country for speaking engagements, to do post-doctoral work at Princeton, and to tend to the 11 grandchildren with wife, Karen. He values sports, high school on up, and he cherished his time as assistant chaplain with the Sacramento Kings from 1997 to 2001.
“Life is good,” Hagan said. “I was thoroughly enjoying it, and it was utterly unexpected with Capital Christian and me. Thank goodness they reached out to me to help. It was a money issue. There was a massive shortfall at the school and it would have led to a loss of property and the closure of the school, and it was all going to come to an end, which was sad. Now we’re on the best footing, and we’re soaring.”
Said Fairrington after he led a pregame prayer big on unity: “This school would have been scraped away and replaced by condos. Now we have this.”
Capital Christian officially closed on June 30 with a final graduation commencement. The next day, the school changeover started. Every teacher had to reapply for their job, including Orr the principal and Garcia the football coach. DCA kept “about 60 to 70 percent of the staff,” Hagan said, adding, “and having great leaders like Chris Orr and Aaron Garcia and Antuan Simmons is paramount.”
Plenty root against DCA
All of those men said they want DCA to be a serious player on the high school sporting scene in addition to top-tier academics. The softball team was Sacramento’s finest last season, winning back-to-back CIF state championships. The boys basketball team is one of the area’s powerhouse programs.
But those rumblings of a rogue school, the one that played club football during the pandemic when everyone else was shut down, leading to CIF sanctions that included a two-year football playoff ban? Still there.
“There’s a lot of energy and excitement right now, but we will never sell our soul in sports,” Hagan said. “We will do it the right way. There was a lot of animosity with other schools that built up, and that won’t go away. We can be great competitors and sportsmen and handle ourselves the right way on the sideline and in games.”
Hagan said the enthusiasm from DCA has seeped down to youth feeder football programs. The feeders have 143 players, he said, nearly double of that from a year ago. DCA is pondering a legacy room at some point to honor Capital Christian’s academic and athletic past, but the focus these days is on the here and now.
“This is a very important assignment in my life, at DCA, and it took 10 minutes for the light to go on in my heart and mind,” Hagan said. “The sky’s the limit at DCA. This is going to be a well-run, first-class school that does sports right. I’m not saying we’re going to be Bishop Gorman or De La Salle, but we’ll be something special.”
This story was originally published September 6, 2024 at 10:52 PM.