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Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009

Shawn Jansen: Finding new coach won't be easy

Three years ago, Golden Valley opened a national search in hopes of landing a big-time football coach.

It didn't happen.

There was really only one out-of-state candidate from Texas and he ended up taking over at Clovis.

Ultimately, former Golden Valley principal Ralf Swenson found his new coach in Hilmar of all places.

Well, now it's Craig Chavez's turn to find a coach.

The current Golden Valley principal decided the football program needed to head in a new direction with his firing of Jon Betschart last week.

I don't expect Chavez to scour the country in search of his new coach.

Chavez says he hopes to have a coach hired for the start of spring workouts.

Finding a replacement may not be easy.

The biggest obstacle facing Chavez if he brings in an outside coach is going to be finding a teaching job to give the coach.

There just aren't that many jobs to hand out.

Most established coaches are going to want to bring a couple assistants with them. Where are those jobs going to come from?

It's odd when you think of the three names that are being floated out there as possible replacements.

One of them is Dennis Stubbs, who quit the job three years ago. The other two -- Jake Messina and Chopper Mello -- turned the job down after Stubbs quit.

It's just a hunch, but I don't think Stubbs is going back to GV.

At least not now. The timing doesn't seem right.

There are some that think he wants to stay in Division I and that the drive every day to Los Banos is getting old.

When I talk to Stubbs, he sounds excited about playing against Central Catholic in the Western Athletic Conference.

He still uses the terms "we" and "us" when he talks about Los Banos next year.

He doesn't sound like a coach who is ready to make another move.

Messina's made it no secret he wants to be a head coach. The former Merced defensive coordinator was a finalist for the Elk Grove job last year.

"I think Jake would do a good job," Merced coach Rob Scheidt said. "We won a lot of games with Jake here."

For Mello to take over the football program it would mean pulling double duty as the head football and wrestling coach.

A tough task and one I'm not sure Mello wants to take on.

Since Mello already works at Golden Valley, he would solve the problem of having to find a job for the new coach.

It should be interesting, because I don't expect it be a long-drawn-out process.

Reason No. 137 while I will never be a high school head football coach.

I was scratching my head when Stubbs decided not to use his timeouts at the end of regulation in last week's playoff game between Los Banos and Modesto .

With the score tied at 20-20, Modesto's Andre Barry intercepted an Erik Martin pass and returned it to Los Banos' 4-yard line to set up first-and-goal with 1 minute and 58 seconds left on the clock.

After a holding penalty moved the ball back to the 14-yard line, Modesto ran back-to-back running plays.

My thinking was use the timeouts to preserve time on the clock and give your offensive an opportunity to answer if Modesto takes the lead.

Silly me.

"I wanted them to have a sense of urgency," Stubbs said. "I wanted them to feel rushed with their play-calling. If I call timeouts, that gives them time to pick their play and the players aren't in a rush.

"I felt our best chance to win was to go to overtime. I told myself he wasn't going to make the kick and just went with it."

Stubbs' strategy worked as two false start penalties forced Modesto to settle for a 28-yard field goal attempt.

As we know now, the kick missed and Los Banos won in overtime.

A win over Taft this week would give Dos Palos coach Mike Sparks his 200th career win.

Sparks' résumé is eye-popping.

Since taking over the program in 1988, Sparks has compiled a 199-65 record in his 22 years.

Dos Palos has won 17 North Sequoia League titles, six Valley Championships and two mythical state titles under Sparks.

Shawn Jansen is a Sun-Star sports reporter. He can be reached at 385-2462 or via e-mail at sjansen@mercedsun-star.com.