Knight Selected to Coach Football at Hueneme High

Ed Knight, the football coach at Royal High during the 1970s, has been selected as coach at Hueneme High, sources said Tuesday.

Knight’s selection is pending approval by the Oxnard Union High School District. If approved, Knight, 51, will replace George Machado, who resigned in November.

Neither Knight nor school officials will comment about filling the football vacancy until after the school board meets March 27.

“I can neither confirm nor deny (that I’ve been offered the job,)” Knight said. “I haven’t signed a contract. Absolutely nothing has been signed.”

Knight, the father of former Santa Clara High standouts Kenny and Kwinn Knight, left Royal in 1979 after seven years as the Highlanders’ coach because he wanted to spend his free time watching his sons compete athletically.

“I didn’t want to coach them,” said Knight, who runs a construction business. “I wanted to relax and watch them grow up and play.

“I’m eternally grateful that I got to see every one of their games.”

After Kwinn, his youngest son, graduated from Santa Clara in 1990, Knight returned to football last fall as an assistant coach at Walnut High.

Knight, who has 13 years of head-coaching experience, said he applied for positions at Hueneme, Saugus and South Pasadena because he wanted to be a head coach again and wanted to work closer to home.

Before becoming coach at Royal, Knight also was a head coach at Lake Elsinore and Baldwin Park high schools.