Burroughs Coach Seeks Acceptance After Winning Job

Robert dos Remedios is 27. He has no previous head coaching experience, and Friday he spent his first day as the new Burroughs High football coach using a baseball metaphor to describe his situation.

“I hope it doesn’t mean I have a strike against me,” Dos Remedios said.

He’s young. He’s enthusiastic. He’s confident.

But he was also the underdog in a five-man derby to replace Gary Bernardi as Burroughs coach, until he was recommended by Principal Tim Buchanan and approved by a 5-0 vote of the Burbank Unified School District trustees Thursday.

Dos Remedios was chosen over St. Genevieve Coach Richard Fong, former San Fernando High Coach Tom Hernandez, Burbank assistant Tom Vessela and Burroughs assistant Pat Blackburn. Blackburn was recommended by Bernardi, who is now an assistant at UCLA.

Dos Remedios was Buchanan’s choice, but he wasn’t the people’s choice. A 13-member search committee had voted, 7-6, for Blackburn over Dos Remedios, an assistant at Glendale College the past five seasons. Many Burroughs players also backed Blackburn, saying they had established a bond with him.

“I’m fighting that now,” said Dos Remedios, who played at rival Burbank High. “I’m going to be fighting it for a while. It’ll be an uphill battle. It’s almost like Pat Blackburn got fired.

“I can totally understand where the players were coming from. When I was a junior at Burbank, my coach, Marty Garrison, was fired. We had that bond, and we were unhappy about it. But (Burroughs players) don’t know what lies ahead. They don’t know me and what I’m capable of doing.”

Dos Remedios will retain two assistants--Keith Knoop and Todd Dellutri--from Bernardi’s staff, which turned around Burroughs’ record from 0-10 in 1992 to 5-6 and a playoff berth in 1993. And 12 years after his former coach was fired, Dos Remedios has offered Garrison a post as an assistant.

“My first thing is get these kids to believe in me and my staff,” he said. “Nobody loves to win more than me. And we’re not going to cut any corners.”