Halted Seasons & Honored Coaches

We’ll let you know why it is easier for schools like Valley of Sacramento and Florin of Sacramento to cancel their football seasons coming from a big school district like Elk Grove Unified. We also are going to be highlighting coaching milestone wins and coaching honors much more this season than in the past. This week, that’s a salute to Beaumont’s Jeff Steinberg (200th win), two coaches getting the home field at the schools they coached at for many years named in their honor and a section hall of fame honor coming to Aaron Judge’s former football coach.

Note: We hope you enjoy this free post on CalHiSports.com. After the preseason, all weekly and final state rankings are available only to our Gold Club members as well as our state record releated and state stat star of the week honor rolls. To check out getting a Gold Club membership to see all of those rankings plus all of our updated state record lists, totally authentic historical features, recruiting player ratings and more, CLICK HERE.

It’s hard to say if the moves last week at Valley High of Sacramento and at Florin High of Sacramento to cancel their 2024 varsity football seasons will be a preview of many more moves like it at similar schools around the state.

We’ve definitely have seen them in recent seasons and it tends to be a reflection of socio-economic and demographic changes in those communities. Let’s face it. Not everyone in some ethnic groups love football like in others. And there are those families in many communities who have an easier path to have their sons play at other schools where football is more of a top priority. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

The situations at Valley and Florin are different.

While low numbers have been reported at Valley, the alma-mater of NFL players like Super Bowl champion defensive lineman Charles Mann and NFL tight end Robert Awalt, there was a coaching situation that could not be resolved. According to a statement to local media by Elk Grove Unified School District spokesperson Lori Wallace, the school’s coach was released “due to a personnel matter resulting from an investigation.” No one else on the football coaching staff could commit to being the head coach so that situation combined with low participation numbers resulted in the season being cancelled for both the varsity and JV levels.

At Florin, it was simply a situation of not having enough players to field a team that could withstand a full 10-game regular season. The school, however, will still have a JV team this season.

If you don’t know, Elk Grove Unified is one of the biggest school districts in Northern California. That’s helpful for the players at Valley and Florin who still may want to play this season because those players can go to one of the other high schools and play with no eligibility issues. If any student from a school that has discontinued a sport or closed or a school that has cancelled its season, CIF rules say that those students can play somewhere else immediately. They do not have to change residencies. It could be difficult for someone coming on to a team that already has starters figured out, but injuries always happen and if an incoming player is obviously better than other players at a new school the coaches will put the best players on the field.

Other schools in Elk Grove Unified that could technically take players from the two schools that cancelled their seasons would be Elk Grove High, Pleasant Grove of Elk Grove, Sheldon of Sacramento, Laguna Creek of Elk Grove, Franklin of Elk Grove, Monterey Trail of Elk Grove and Cosumnes Oaks of Elk Grove. It’s bad for the bands and cheerleaders at Valley and Florin to have no football, but the options of the players are not as bad.

On Wednesday, the Sacramento Bee reported that five of the players from Valley were now at Elk Grove and that the program there welcomed them “with open arms.”

Schools similar to Valley and Florin that also are part of a large school district or high school district may find it easier as well to move on from football. It’s never an easy decision to cancel it all out, but for some examples it shouldn’t be too shocking. We expect it’s going to continue to happen.

Great Start For Beaumont & Head Coach

It’s hard to beat the beginning of a season with a win in Hawaii followed by a milestone win. That’s how it’s gone for Beaumont’s Jeff Steinberg to start the 2024 season.

The Cougars won their game in the islands over Kamehameha of Maui on August 16-17 and then returned last week to play San Jacinto and notched a 28-20 triumph. QB Jeremiah Dohu completed 24 of 35 passes for 304 yards and three TDs while RB Trashawn James-Reek had 101 yards rushing on 28 carries with one TD.

That second win also was No. 200 in the head coaching career of Steinberg. That is the magic number for the Cal-Hi Sports state records since it will put Steinberg’s name among the all-time greats of California high school football coaching that goes back more than 100 years.

“I’ve truly been blessed throughout my career to be surrounded by great coaches & passionate student athletes,” the coach commented on reaching the milestone.

Steinberg has been known for the spread passing game since he first started as a head coach at Burroughs of Ridgecrest in 1998. In just his second season there, Burros’ receiver Anthony Celestine became the first in state history to go over 2,000 yards receiving in one season. Celestine’s record lasted nine years until it was broken by Corona Centennial’s Javon McKinley.

The first of two CIF Southern Section titles that Steinberg’s teams have won also came at Burroughs, which was in 2005 in DVIII. His other CIFSS title was achieved in 2017 at Rancho Verde of Moreno Valley.

Steinberg arrived at Beaumont, which is the town in which he has lived for many years, after that 2017 season. His teams there have gone 8-5, 9-2, 3-2, 8-4, 7-4 and 8-3 since then. The other schools he has coached at have been A.B. Miller of Fontana (2006-2008) and Santiago of Corona (2009-2014). He coached at Rancho Verde for the 2015 to 2017 seasons.

TO CHECK OUT OUR ALL-TIME COACHING STATE RECORD LIST (GOLD CLUB), CLICK HERE.

Lamonica Stadium Now Has Tim Simons Field

Clovis High has played its home football games — along with Clovis East — at Lamonica Stadium on its campus for many years. It is named for former Oakland Raiders’ quarterback Daryle Lamonica, who was the first great player to come out of the school and what is now the Clovis Unified School District.

The Cougars are now also playing at Tim Simons Field inside Lamonica Stadium. The former head coach coach of the Cougars from 1976 to 2000 had the ceremony to officially name the field in his honor during last week’s game vs Central Valley Christian of Visalia that the home team won, 27-12.

Simons began coaching at Lennox High in Southern California and then Roosevelt of Fresno before taking over at Clovis in 1976. He also began the program at Clovis North of Fresno when that school opened up and had two-year head coaching stints for 2009-10 and 2014-15. Simons ended his career with a 249-94-7 record and he was the 1984 State Coach of the Year after the Cougars won the CIF Central Section top division title and finished 12-0-1.

Tim Murphy Field To Be
Officially Named This Week

Another coach who has Clovis Unified ties but who has even more to schools in Concord is Tim Murphy. The field at the school that Murphy led in 2019 to the CIF D2-AA state title, Clayton Valley of Concord, is dedicating Tim Murphy Field prior to the Ugly Eagles’ game on Friday vs Spanish Springs of Sparks, Nev.

Murphy almost retired after that 2019 season, but kept coaching through the pandemic and finally hung up his whistle for good after the 2022 season. He had been at Clayton Valley since 2010, but he also began his career at Ygnacio Valley of Concord in 1996 where he first gained notice for his teams being able to run for overwhelming yardage. In between his years at Ygnacio Valley and Clayton Valley, Murphy was head coach at Clovis East of Clovis from 2001 to 2011. His teams there played home games on the same field that last week was named for former Clovis head coach Tim Simons.

At all three of Murphy’s stops, his teams won the first CIF section titles in the school’s history. That would be the old NCS 3A title at Ygnacio Valley plus two CIF Central Section titles at Clovis East and four CIF North Coast Section crowns at Clayton Valley.

Being on the all-time coaching leaders list with a mark of 222 career wins is one aspect of Murphy’s career, but the one that sets him apart even more is the three section titles at three different schools. Harry Welch did it at Canyon of Canyon Country, St. Margaret’s of SJ Capistrano and Santa Margarita and also won CIF state titles at all three places. The only other coach on the 200-win list that won section titles at three or more schools is Randy Blankenship, recently retired from Aptos. He not only won a section title at Aptos (CIF Central Coast Section), but earlier won section titles at Nevada Union of Grass Valley (Sac-Joaquin), Clovis West (Central Section) and Fallbrook (San Diego Section).

In 2014, Murph’s team at Clayton Valley rushed for 7,055 yards in 16 games in a run to the CIF D2 state championship game (lost to Redlands East Valley). That is still No. 2 on the all-time state list. Maybe when your teams chew up that much turf on a field it should be named for you.

Aaron Judge’s Football Coach
Going Into SJS Hall of Fame

Former Linden High football coach Mark Miller likes to joke around that he always told one of the best football players he ever coached in a long career that baseball should be the sport of that player’s future. That 6-foot-6, 225-pound tight end later became New York Yankees’ slugging sensation Aaron Judge, who broke the American League home run record two years ago with 62 and is on a similar pace entering September of this season.

Miller is going to get some recognition in October. He will be inducted into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame, which will have a new class officially put in on Oct. 20 at a dinner in Sacramento. Miller not only coached Linden football for 29 years with more than 160 wins, but also coached softball for 23 seasons. He was still coaching softball when he was 75 years old.

From a historical standpoint, the highlight of Miller’s career was in 2005 when the Lions’ softball team completed a 29-0-1 record and was the D4 State Team of the Year. Making that accomplishment even greater is that Linden’s baseball team (coached by another all-timer Bob Amerman) also finished unbeaten that same season. It is the first and only time still in state history that a school has had unbeaten baseball and softball teams in the same season.

Miller was quite heavy earlier in his coaching career and in 2003 he survived suffering two heart attacks in 48 hours followed by extensive heart surgery. He changed all his routines, looked completely different and did promotional spots on TV for St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton for heart health.

We’ve gotten to know Coach Miller mostly through working with him for several years on the local Lions All-Star Football Game committee. He wears his Linden polo shirt and Linden hat pretty much all the time. He’s a Linden grad himself, just like his father and grandfather. And now he gets to watch one of his former students circle the bases on the local TV sports broadcasts almost every night.

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle.