Former Merced councilman hired to lead El Capitan football team. Can he help the Gauchos win?
El Capitan High recently named assistant coach Anthony Martinez as the Gauchos new football coach.
Martinez, a former member of the Merced City Council, takes over for Randall Bartley, who resigned at the end of the season after two years leading the program.
“Anthony has been around El Capitan since the school opened,” said El Capitan athletic director Rodd Parker. “He’s been involved in coaching both football and baseball. He was hired as a teacher the third year after we opened. He knows the program, he knows the kids. Hopefully he’s the guy that going to get the program moving in the right direction.”
The Gauchos football program has struggled since the school opened in 2013. Martinez becomes the fifth head coach for a program that has compiled a 9-66 all-time record.
El Capitan has never won more than three games in a season and is 2-32 in the last four years.
Meanwhile, the Gauchos have fielded successful teams in just about every other sport, including baseball, basketball, water polo, tennis and wrestling.
“We’ve been successful in every sport except football,” Parker said. “Honestly, I think it’s consistency. We’re on our fifth coach now. For any program to have success there’s got to be stability with coaches. That’s a big reason we looked to Anthony. He’s been at the school. He understands the inconsistencies with the football program has gone through and he wants to see it thrive.”
Martinez started coaching youth football 15 years ago. He started coaching at the high school level in 2014, coaching receivers and defensive backs at the freshmen level for the Gauchos.
He served two years as the junior varsity defensive coordinator and served the same defensive coordinator position for the varsity team the last two seasons.
Martinez says he found his passion for teaching when he first started coaching. He realized how kids immediately started to look up to him as a coach and that made him want to be a better person.
Martinez teaches English at El Capitan. He served on the Merced City Council from 2016 to 2020 and he ran for mayor in 2020.
Martinez feels he’s ready to take on the challenge of turning the Gauchos program around.
“I’ve learned a lot about how to do things from the guys before me,” Martinez said. “What I learned is that adults have to know their stuff, but they also have to be on the same page if you want the kids to buy-in. When the kids see the adults are unified they will buy-in.”
Martinez says he has taken a big leadership role in the program since the end of last season.
“I really saw before our last game against Central Valley our head coach was struggling to be there for his family and be there for the team at the same time,” Martinez said. “He had a hard time juggling the two so I took it upon myself to step up and be the emotional leader for that game.”
“Since that game, I’ve kind of called the shots and asserted myself since the end of the season as the one coach on campus who can keep track of the kids,” Martinez added.
Two issues plaguing the program have been a lack of coaches in the program and small numbers of players in the program. The Gauchos only had 25 players on their roster last season.
Martinez says he’ll put an emphasis recruiting players on campus to do his best to fill out the roster.
“I’m looking for coaches,” Martinez added. “I have confidence in the guys we have, but I’m aware we need a lot more. If anybody is interested, send me a letter.”
Martinez says he does like the group of players he has now in the program.
“Our young guys are highly motivated,” he said. “I feel very grateful for the opportunity. It’s a tremendous calling and it’s going to take a lot of hard work.”
This story was originally published January 27, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
