Richards Resigns as Football Coach at Sylmar High

Tom Richards, who has coached football for 29 years, including the past eight at Sylmar High, has announced his resignation. No replacement has been named.

Richards, 51, said he will finish the school year as a teacher at Sylmar, then seek a transfer to a City Section school closer to his Thousand Oaks home. Richards, who suffered a back injury and missed a game for the first time in his coaching career last season, said his enthusiasm has waned.

“I found myself struggling to go to practice and we were all disappointed that our season didn’t turn out as well as we hoped. And the 80-mile round trip every day didn’t help either,” he said Wednesday.

Sylmar was 5-4 last year and failed to make the playoffs. Richards was 31-40-6 at Sylmar and led the team to the championship game in the City Section 2-A playoffs in 1983. He is the only coach in school history to win a playoff game.

Richards hasn’t ruled out a return to coaching.