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Football: Salesian hires Hiatt as coach

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
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Hoping to revive a program that struggled the last two years, Salesian has hired James ‘Roddy’ Hiatt as its new football coach, Principal Samuel Robles announced.

Hiatt has more than 30 years of coaching experience and previously served as the head coach at East Los Angeles College and Exeter High. He was also defensive coordinator at Mesa State College and El Rancho, Artesia and Pius X high schools.

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David Cervantes will be the Mustangs’ new defensive coordinator and Chuck Willig will serve as the offensive coordinator.

Salesian finished 1-9 overall and 0-4 in the Santa Fe League in 2008, leading to the dismissal of Coach Chris Griego late in the season. The Mustangs lost their last seven games, including a 21-19 defeat against St. Monica that allowed the Mariners to end a 37-game losing streak that was the longest in California.

Griego concluded his three-year tenure at Salesian with an 11-18 record after going 7-4 and winning a league title in his first season.

-- Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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