Football: New City coaches look to make their marks
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Nine first-year varsity head coaches were introduced Saturday morning to kick off the annual City Section football coaches’ meeting at L.A. Southwest College.
Paul Holt is taking over the helm at Washington after two years as the Generals’ offensive coordinator. In that span the team compiled a 9-12 record.
Familiarity with the Marine League should help new Gardena Coach Ed Lalau. He was the head coach at Banning from 1998-2002. The Panthers, meanwhile, were 2-8 and finished last in the intensely competitive Marine League last year.
John Zunino, the head track coach at Belmont, takes the reigns from Bob Levy, under whom he served as a varsity assistant in 2008, when the Sentinels went 5-5.
Former Taft defensive coordinator Jason Camp is looking forward to turning around a Chancellors team that posted a 10-11 record in two seasons under previous coach Rick Hayashida.
University’s Dennis Tolbert will be back on the sideline for the first time since coaching the defensive line at Pasadena City College in 2005-06. The Wildcats were 0-5 in the Western League and 1-9 overall last year with E.C. Robinson.
Being the junior varsity head coach and varsity offensive coordinator was valuable experience for Wilson ‘Beno’ Bryant, who attempts to revitalize a Romans squad coming off a fifth-place finish in the Southern League under Hardy Williams.
Last year, Billy Parra was Granada Hills’ frosh-soph head coach and varsity offensive coordinator under Straun Joseph. The Highlanders wound up 1-9 and finished in the West Valley League basement.
The top priority for Greg Pierce at Eagle Rock is bringing stability to a program that has undergone three coaching changes in three years. His first stint at a City school comes after two years as a varsity coordinator at Crescenta Valley.
Frank Galvan is the head coach of first-year varsity program Roybal, which joins the Southern League. He was the head coach at Pasadena High in the late 1990s.
-- Steve Galluzzo