Hilmar High football coaching legend speaks on retirement after 2025 season
When Frank Marques began to think about stepping away from being the head football coach at Hilmar High School, he made himself two promises: He would call his own shot and he would leave still loving the game.
After taking over in 2003 and winning over 190 games, Marques has decided this season will be his last. He always will be a football guy and likely always will see the game from a coach’s perspective. But when it’s time, you know it.
Don’t misunderstand — this year is still the focus. Wins are key, and with league play underway, the push for the playoffs is heating up. With a two-quarterback system, playmakers at skill positions and one of the best offensive lines in the Trans-Valley League, the toughest small-school league in California, the chance at section and state titles is very much on the veteran coach’s checklist.
“I’m super excited about this year,” said Marques, who has guided Hilmar to a 4-2 overall start through the first half of the season. “I love football, I love our team, but it’s just time. You kind of know that the clock is coming to an end and I wanted to leave before I didn’t love it anymore and it wasn’t fun.”
Marques has a slew of qualified candidates to replace him, and when the time is right, he said the process will be taken care of by administration. He plans to be hands-off on the hiring process, but when a new coach is crowned, he said, he always will be just a phone call away.
“I’ve seen people stick around too long,” he explained. “And I feel like the young coaches are ready to take over the reins, so it’s just time for me to step aside and let somebody else carry this torch forward.”
Marques entered the 2025 season, his 23rd as the head coach, with a 192-70 record that includes six TVL titles, 10 trips to the Sac-Joaquin Section championship, four titles and a 2018 Division 6-AA state championship.
“I’m excited for the next step for Hilmar football,” he said.
A career full of accolades
The success started for Marques before he was a varsity head coach.
As an assistant coach alongside legendary head man Jerry Van Lengen, Marques helped direct a run of four straight seasons without a loss. The Yellowjackets’ 46-game win streak from 1986-1990 was at the time second to just De La Salle of Concord as the longest win streak in California. It is still among the 10 longest in California history, according to CalHi Sports.
He was thinking like a head coach even in his early days on the sidelines. He didn’t have a choice; coach Van Lengen kept him on his toes. Marques remembers being on the sideline of a championship game as a lower-level assistant coach and Van Lengen asked him to make a call.
“I’m just a freshman assistant and he turns to me and says, ‘What are you seeing? Do you have any ideas?’” Marques recalled. “I thought, wow, here he is in the middle of this heated contest asking me what I thought and actually listening to what I’m saying. I learned a lot from that, and that is how I treat my assistants. Everyone’s opinion is valuable. If they say something, I’ve got to listen.”
Most coaches aren’t willing to look back at their careers during the season, opting to focus on their upcoming Friday opponent, but Marques engaged. And with 22 years of head coaching memories that include league, section and state titles, he said his most memorable seasons are the ones that came with question marks.
Marques had only two losing seasons, but that doesn’t mean everything was easy. While things looked good from the outside, there were times when it felt everything would implode. In 2008 and 2011, the Yellowjackets avenged midseason league losses to win section titles. In the 2008 season, a 23-7 loss to Central Catholic could have derailed the season, but the team responded with back-to-back 40-point efforts, getting back on track. When they met the Raiders in the title game, they won 17-6. In 2011, Escalon shut out Hilmar, 10-0. But just four games later, Marques coached his team to a section title in a 20-17 win over those same Cougars. Both of those were 10-plus win seasons.
In 2017 Hilmar finished the regular season 5-5 and was the last team to qualify for the playoffs. A down year, right? Wrong. Hilmar beat Modesto Christian in the Division VI section title game and fell to Strathmore 53-52 in double overtime in the Northern California Regional Bowl Game.
He always worked his way up
The 1981 Hilmar High grad started coaching at his alma mater just two years later, as a freshman assistant coach in 1983. He served as freshman head coach, junior varsity head coach and an offensive coordinator during his early coaching career. In 1996 and 1997, he coached at Merced College before returning to coach at Hilmar.
“Other than that two-year stint at Merced College, I’ve been at Hilmar since ‘83,” he said.
Before he started coaching, he had a different career path. He started working in a Coffee Break Service warehouse and by the time he left, he was managing the company.
When he decided he wanted to be a head coach, he knew he would have to be on campus, so in his 30s, he went back to school, completed his degree and became a teacher and head football coach.
His time as a warehouse worker helped him become a better manager, just as his time as a freshman assistant helped him. “I never jumped into anything,” he said. “I always started at the bottom and I liked that because you learn all aspects of the job. You get to see it.”
Whether it be an assistant coach or a high school girl on the sidelines relaying plays to guys on the field, everyone has had a voice when Marques is on the sideline.
But when he leaves the Hilmar sideline, he wants the new head’s voice to be the one ringing the loudest. That is why when he steps away from the program, it will be for good.
“Whoever takes over, it needs to be their program,” he said. “They can’t have me looking over their shoulder. It has to be their program, it has to be their identity.”
Marques is a lifelong Hilmar football fan and will be at games, watching from the stands.
When you’ve been in the game as long as he has, it is only natural to have an expansive contact list. He sayid while he won’t be a head coach, he has no problem possibly reconnecting with Merced College or his friend Rusty Stivers at MJC to be a “get back” coach or help coach a position.
“I’ll be involved in football, I think, until the day I can’t walk upright,” he said.
But rest assured, while he wants to be on a sideline somewhere, he won’t coach at any other local high school program.
“I will never be on a coaching staff that plays against Hilmar. That I cannot do,” he said.
This story was originally published October 3, 2025 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Hilmar High football coaching legend speaks on retirement after 2025 season."
