Ponciano Is Selected Big Sky Coach of Year

Ron Ponciano, who guided Cal State Northridge to within one victory of the Big Sky Conference football championship, on Wednesday was selected the conference’s coach of the year.

“That’s quite a big honor,” Ponciano said. “But I didn’t get it by myself. One guy gets the credit, but it’s really all the players and the [assistant] coaches who busted their butts all year.”

Ponciano, 39, turned the Matadors into Big Sky contenders in his first season as head coach. Northridge finished 7-4 overall and tied with Montana State for second place in the Big Sky with a 5-3 record, one game behind Montana.

The Matadors lost the season finale at last-place Idaho State, 32-29, missing a chance for a first-place tie with Montana and the Big Sky’s bid to the Division I-AA playoffs.

It was only the seventh time Northridge won seven or more games in a season since it started playing football in 1962. The Matadors were ranked No. 16 in both polls on Oct. 10, their highest I-AA ranking ever. They finished 28th in one poll and 29th in the other.

Ponciano, Northridge’s defensive coordinator in 1995-96, becomes the fourth coach in Big Sky history to receive the recognition in his first year with a team. The others were Sark Arslanian (Weber State, 1965), Tom Parac (Montana State, 1968), Dennis Erickson (Idaho, 1982) and Mick Dennehy (Montana, 1996).

The only other Northridge coach-of-the-year recipients were Tom Keele in 1983 and Bob Burt in 1990, both in the Division II Western Football Conference.