Oceanside Football Coach Scaffidi Resigns

Roy Scaffidi has resigned as Oceanside High School football coach after a stormy season in which he had an altercation with a rival coaching staff, lost his defensive coordinator because of “philosophical differences”--after the first game--and lost his star quarterback due to academic problems.

Scaffidi, 45, notified school officials of his resignation Tuesday, and it was accepted by Athletic Director Pat Kimbrel. Scaffidi has not resigned from his social studies teaching duties, although he said he will begin pursuing a coaching/teaching job at another school.

“I’ve worked as hard as I possibly can to build the program I wanted to create as a head coach,” Scaffidi said. “We’ve enjoyed some success, and I’m proud of that. But I feel I’ve probably gone as far as I can go at Oceanside, and I would like the opportunity to take a challenge at another place.”

In light of the controversial season, Scaffidi said after the Pirates’ 45-7 loss to Rancho Buena Vista in the San Diego Section playoffs this month that he thought he might be fired.

Kimbrel said there was no pressure on Scaffidi to resign, but he also said he did not try to persuade him to stay.

“I think both the administration and Coach Scaffidi thought (the decision) was in their best interests,” Kimbrel said.

Scaffidi’s problems started when defensive coordinator John Carroll resigned after Oceanside’s 24-0 season-opening victory over Vista. They worsened with Scaffidi’s efforts to have quarterback Jerry Garrett reinstated when Garrett was declared ineligible for failing to pass the required number of units (20) in the semester. Garrett’s father hired an attorney in an attempt to reinstate his son, and Scaffidi supported his efforts. That did not sit well with the Oceanside administration.

“An awful lot of people misunderstood my support of Jerry,” Scaffidi said. “They saw me as a coach who wanted to win football games at all costs. I think that was a mistake on the part of those people’s perceptions.”

But Scaffidi said the most regrettable incident was after the Carlsbad game Oct. 7. Oceanside won, 34-14, but Scaffidi thought some of the Carlsbad players were intentionally trying to injure Garrett. After the game, Scaffidi challenged Bruce Tillman, Carlsbad’s defensive coordinator, and Coach Rick Brown, and a heated argument took place.

Scaffidi spent that weekend thinking about the incident and said, “I decided to take steps to try to correct what I thought was an inappropriate response on my part at the time. I did what I felt I had to do to make the situation right.”