Bowman Busy as New Saugus Football Coach

Jack Bowman viewed the videotape Thursday and began to grasp the enormity of the task he had just assumed.

It has not been easy being the Saugus High football coach.

Saugus hired Bowman to replace Dick Flaherty, who resigned last fall after compiling an 11-28-1 record in four seasons with the Centurions.

Bowman, on spring vacation from his job as a social studies teacher at Westminster High in Orange County, already has plunged into his new assignment and started by reviewing last year’s season.

Staring back at him from his television set was the footage of last year’s Hart-Saugus game, a 49-7 Hart rout.

“I knew this was going to be a difficult task, and watching Hart on the videotape it’s getting a lot more formidable,” Bowman said Thursday.

Saugus, which must compete in the Santa Clarita Valley with powers Hart and Canyon, stumbled to a 2-8 record last fall, including a 1-4 mark in Golden League play.

Hart and Canyon have played in seven Southern Section championship games since 1983. The Cowboys, who have not lost to Saugus since 1980, whipped the Centurions last year, 28-3.

In the past six seasons, Saugus has won only 12 games.

“When you go up against great coaches and great programs like they have at Hart and Canyon, you’d better be prepared because you’re not just going to get beat, you’re going to get humiliated,” Bowman said.

“But I think it’s going to be an interesting job. They’ve got some real good kids at Saugus and I’m encouraged.”

Bowman, 44, brings solid credentials to the job. He posted a 24-21-1 record in four seasons as a co-head coach at Westminster, his alma mater, and was named Orange County coach of the year in 1985, his first year as a head coach.

Bowman, a 1970 graduate of UC Riverside, has coached for 18 years at Westminster but spent the past two seasons as defensive coordinator at Marina High while still teaching at Westminster. He will join the Saugus faculty in the fall as a social studies teacher and plans to move to the Santa Clarita Valley as soon as possible.

“It’s going to be tough during spring practice,” he said about his commute from Orange County. “But I want to get acquainted with the school and the players and then put together a staff. What makes for success . . . is the people around you.”