SANTA CRUZ COUNTY — In November of last year, Joe Gregorio stepped away from the Pajaro Valley High football program after six years as the head coach.
Then-offensive coordinator Kevin Cordova was quickly tabbed as his replacement. A physical education teacher at the school for several years and thoroughly engrained in “PV Nation,” Cordova seemed like the perfect fit to continue Gregorio’s work.
Cordova, a St. John Bosco alumnus, drummed up plenty of excitement among the football players, student body, teachers and alumni with the remodeling of the weight room and other additions to the program.
But Cordova and the Grizzlies have not been able to find the same excitement on the sidelines.
As of Friday, Cordova has yet to name an offensive or defensive coordinator. And with the fall sports season starting on Aug. 4, chances are Cordova won’t have either during his first year as the Grizzlies’ head coach.
It won’t be because he is having a tough time choosing from a slew of candidates but because his options are slim.
Last season, Pajaro Valley was blessed with a pair of coordinators that not only knew the game but also had the time to devote to the kids because they worked on campus. Cordova ran the offense and Casey Neligh worked as the defensive coordinator. But Neligh resigned from his position as a one-on-one special education teacher at the end of the school year and the spot on the coaching staff has been vacant since.
“It’s not ideal but it is what it is for the moment,” Cordova said.
The lack of assistants forced Pajaro Valley Athletic Director Joe Manfre to step in as the head coach of the junior varsity team this season. It’s not the first time he’s had to fill in. Two years ago, he ran the freshman team when no one else would.
“Last year I tried to step away for a while but that’s not happening this year,” Manfre said.
The Grizzlies aren’t the only ones having this issue.
Several athletic programs have had trouble finding varsity assistant coaches this summer.
Monte Vista Christian is still in search of assistants for the cross country, football and volleyball programs.
New St. Francis High head football coach John Ausman is in a similar situation, too, although not to the same extent.
And even at Aptos High, which has won three Central Coast Section championships and been one of the powerhouses of the section over the last five years, head football coach Randy Blankenship has had trouble putting together a staff.
Currently, Blankenship has a five-man varsity coaching staff behind him. It’s the smallest group of coaches that he’s had in his 40-plus years on the sidelines and most of his staff can only spare a day or two a week.
“We’re in the same boat right now,” Blankenship said. “There’s a reason that I’m the offensive and defensive coordinator. It’s not because I’m a control freak. It’s because we have coaches that just can’t make the time commitment needed.”
That, Gregorio said, is the biggest problem. During his six years as Pajaro Valley’s head coach he had several potential coaches that would have loved to be out on the field with the kids but could not find the time in the day because of work. Gregorio said having both Neligh and Cordova as teacher-coaches was a “game-changer.” He also said that’s not common now.
“I remember when I was in school four or five of my coaches were on-campus coaches,” Gregorio said. “Administrators, these days, aren’t hiring teacher-coaches. I know it’s tough to find them but with the time that coaches spend with the kids after school, it’s almost essential that they hire people who can do both.”
Blankenship said the administration at Aptos has followed the trend. He has yet to see a teacher-football coach, whom he can develop into his successor, hired since he started coaching the Mariners in 2011. Most of his assistants are retired teacher-coaches who volunteer their time.
“If you want to keep the good times rolling here,” Blankenship said, “that’s essential.”
Only a handful of high school athletic programs in the area have had success creating a staff of off-campus coaches.
Rob Cornett teaches health and coaches the cross country and track and field programs at Watsonville. None of his assistant coaches — Eric Suprenant, David Knight, Tony Roman, Linda Placencia or Christian Hernandez — are on-campus coaches.
Cornett said he’s one of the lucky head coaches that have assistants who can donate their time throughout the year without the need to earn money. Cornett’s quintet all understand they might never see a dime in coaching despite the hours they pour into the kids and are OK with that.
“You’ve got to do it for the love of the game and not the money,” Cornett said. “It’s hard because it’s pricey around here but that’s the deal.”
Other coaches and programs are not as lucky.
Several teams lose out on young off-campus assistant coaches because their evenings are usually spent at a part-time job earning money to get through school or pay the rent. And with both college tuition and the cost of living, especially in Santa Cruz County, skyrocketing, the trend seems like it will only continue. Several of the area’s coaches agreed that the lack of pay for the amount of time devoted and increased scrutiny put on coaches in the era of internet, Twitter and instant gratification has caused several to flee the business, shortening the number of young moldable assistant coaches.
“The young coaches that have a ton of enthusiasm and time, that have that passion, those guys are hard to find and they’re even harder to keep,” said Ausman, who teaches full-time at St. Francis. “Especially when you can’t give them anything in return. We can’t give them anything worth their time. It’s a tough situation.”
Yet, even head coaches don’t even have much of an incentive to stick around with minimal monetary motivation.
Blankenship, who has coached in football-crazed communities like Central California and Texas, said he’s never been paid more than $3,500 for a season.
“And that’s only for the fall,” Blankenship said. “The coaches and myself that showed up for the summer? We got zero for those hours. My wife says, ‘are you stupid or what?’”
So it’s no surprise that several head coaching positions are still open in the area.
Monte Vista Christian is searching for head coaches in boy’s soccer, swimming, cheer and track and field; Watsonville has yet to find a girl’s tennis coach even though the season starts in just a month away; the head coaching position for Pajaro Valley’s wrestling team has been a revolving door; and Aptos is trying to fill a coaching vacancy in cheer.
Blankenship said people getting into high school coaching for the money are in the wrong business. He was just 21 years old when he realized that he wanted to coach football. The sidelines and kids called to him. Not the money.
“There’s not a lot of people getting in it for the long haul,” Blankenship said. “I think a lot of them like the Friday night lights but to get that you have to put in the hours in the summer when no one is watching. It’s a grind. It’s tough. It’s not for everyone. You don’t see many lifers anymore. You don’t see what I call the ‘warhorses.’ The Ron Myers, the Jamie Townsends of the world are going away.”
