Kazmierczak to Coach Football at Oxnard

Given the option to hire an unemployed football coach with experience, Oxnard High instead chose someone who had a job but no head coaching experience: Neil Kazmierczak.

Oxnard on Friday hired Kazmierczak to replace retired Jack Davis. Kazmierczak, 28, an assistant at Marshall for three seasons, had been named head coach at Marshall last December.

He resigned his post at Marshall after deciding a move to Oxnard would enhance his career. Passed over for the job was Stan Quina, a three-year head coach at Simi Valley who led the Pioneers to 7-4 and 7-5 seasons in 1991 and ’92 but was fired last week because he would not guarantee his return in the fall.

Quina does not have a teaching credential but has interviewed with several schools in hopes of being hired as a full-time intern who could simultaneously coach and earn a credential by student teaching. Simi Valley would not offer such a position.

Neither would Oxnard.

“We narrowed the field (of 18 applicants) down to three,” said Oxnard Athletic Director Tony Diaz, who acknowledged that Quina was one of the three but would not name the third finalist. “There was an educational need to meet, and that was foremost--and Neil met the criteria better than the other two.”

Kazmierczak was selected by a committee that included parents, boosters, administrators, the Oxnard school district superintendent, faculty department chairmen and Diaz.

Kazmierczak became more attractive, said Diaz, when a teaching position opened in the social studies department. Kazmierczak is a social studies teacher.

“You hope someone can fill a position,” Diaz said. “We were told he is a very good football coach, but also an outstanding teacher.”

Kazmierczak didn’t accept the position right away, instead scheduling a second trip to visit the campus and its football facilities. Four days later, he accepted.

“I was kind of sad I had to tell my players here at Marshall I was leaving,” Kazmierczak said. “They were upset. Some of the kids that I see in class every day didn’t quite understand it.

“I’d like to move out of the L.A. area; I’d like to move out of (the Los Angeles Unified School District).”

Kazmierczak (6-foot-5, 210 pounds) played linebacker at Michigan State until a shoulder injury sidelined him after his junior year. He built a reputation for coaching tough defense at Marshall. But Kazmierczak said he was drawn to Oxnard because it reminded him of his alma mater, Ann Arbor (Mich.) Pioneer High.

“Their facilities, and the talent of the players will give me a better opportunity to achieve my goals to build a major high school football program,” he said. “The school I went to is very similar to Oxnard. They won three state championships in 10 years.”

As for Quina, 37, he is zero for five in his search for a new job that would package a coaching position with a full-time internship. In each of his failed attempts, Quina said, school officials “hinted” the reason was that he lacked a teaching credential.

“I guess if I don’t get a coaching job,” said Quina, “I’ll be back in sales.”