Merced’s Rob Sheidt (left) is shown celebrating after one of the 200 wins in his coaching career. At right is Los Angeles Crenshaw’s Robert Garrett as he was named 2018 NFL Don Shula Coach of the Year. He became the L.A. City Section all-time leader for coaching wins this season. Photos: X.com & ABC7 / Los Angeles.
A few days after we have begun with the first of our many state season honors, which was the 2024 state coaches of the year, we have updated the all-time state coaching leaders list. This is the one that has the names of just more than 140 through all the years of state history who have won 200 games or more in a career. There is no other source of coaching records like these and we have compiled them for more than 40 years.
To check out our newly updated Gold Club list of California’s all-time winningest football coaches (all with 200 wins or more) plus category for best winning percentages, CLICK HERE.
TO READ ABOUT THIS YEAR’S STATE COACHES OF THE YEAR (OVERALL, MEDIUM, SMALL), CLICK HERE.
Note: We hope you enjoy this free post on CalHiSports.com. Cal-Hi Sports All-State Football content that will be for Gold Club members include second team, third team overall and All-State Juniors, All-State Sophomores. The free posts will be first team overall and first team small schools and medium schools. If you want to check out all of our rankings content, all of our all-state content and state record updates, you can check it out for just $4.99 to cover a one-month subscription. For info, CLICK HERE.
CHECK OUT CALGAMESWANTED.COM
Created for Coaches by Coaches for California Varsity High School Head Coaches and Athletic Directors, Start building your schedule with CalGamesWanted.com.
User friendly to take the stress out of scheduling.
(All listed in alphabetical order)
Ken Batdorf (Norte Vista, Riverside)
The longtime coach of the Braves, who is known for teams that run the football and has several players on the single-season state leaders list, gets the nod for the 2024 season for moving up the most on the updated all-time state wins list. Batdorf’s team had a 9-2 record with its only regular season loss to Ramona of Riverside. It fell to Serrano of Phelan, 28-21, in the first round of the CIF Southern Section D8 playoffs. Batdorf passed 24 other coaches on the all-time list with that record and now has 226 wins at Norte Vista since his first season in 1994.
Jim Benkert (Simi Valley)
The former head coach at Westlake and Oaks Christian won his 300th game last season and the Pioneers had another great campaign in 2024 (they went 11-2 and reached the CIF Southern Section D3 championship). It’s important to note that Benkert will start out 2025 as the second winningest currently active head coach in the state at 313 wins and will need just two more to pass Bill Foltmer of Middletown as the winningest active head coach. Foltmer has retired after the 2024 season.
Norte Vista’s Ken Batdorf is shown with plaque commemorating his 200th win a couple of years ago. He passed 24 coaches on the all-time list this season with his team going 9-2. Photo: @NorteVistaHS / X.com.
Floyd Burnsed (Acalanes, Lafayette)
After becoming the oldest known head coach at age 76 to win a CIF state title when the Dons topped Birmingham of Lake Balboa for the D3-AA championship in 2023, Burnsed gained more distinction after 2024 for moving up the second most places on the updated all-time state list. Acalanes suffered heavy graduation losses, but came on strong at the end and finished 10-4 with a CIF North Coast Section title and only lost in overtime to eventual CIF D5-AA state champ Carmel. Floyd moved past 21 coaches on the all-time list with his win total going from 212 to 222.
Coley Candaele (Vista Murrieta, Murrieta)
With Vista Murrieta’s 21-0 win over Cajon of San Bernardino in the CIFSS D3 playoffs, Candaele reached 200 career wins. He completed his third season in his second stint as the Broncos head coach. In his first, which went from 2003 to 2015, Vista Murrieta began its history as a school with a mark of 132-25. Coley began his coaching career before that at Carpinteria, his alma mater.
Doug Case (Foothill, Tustin)
It’s a retirement salute to Case, who had a team at Foothill this season that went 7-6 and reached the CIFSS D5 semifinals and played very well in a 27-24 loss to eventual CIF D5 state champ Palos Verdes. PV didn’t have a close game like that in its next three games. Case, who also was a head coach at Rancho Alamitos of Garden Grove before taking over at Foothill 25 years, ended his career with 220 varsity wins.
Carl Long Jr. (Grant, Sacramento) & David Dunn
(Lincoln, San Diego) & Trent Herzog (St. Vincent de Paul)
These three all won their second CIF state titles in 2024 and therefore go on to the list of coaches with more than one (which we also track). Carl is often credited as being co-coach with Syd’Quan Thompson, but he is the one who is the “coach of record” at the school. Mater Dei has now had three different head coaches win state titles with Raul Lara joining Bruce Rollinson (three) and Frank McManus (one). All of St. John Bosco’s state titles (four) have been won by current head coach Jason Negro.
Bill Foltmer (Middletown)
Despite winning three of its last four games, the Mustangs didn’t get into the CIF North Coast Section playoffs so Foltmer’s last season of coaching before retirement wound up at 5-5. He is leaving the Lake County school with 314 wins, which is No. 2 in NCS history behind only De La Salle’s Bob Ladouceur. Foltmer’s first season at Middletown was in 1985. He began with five seasons at Princeton of the CIF Northern Section.
Robert Garrett (Crenshaw, Los Angeles)
We spent a lot of time (credit managing editor Ronnie Flores) working on getting Coach Garrett’s record updated after last season and were able to determine after this year’s team ended 6-5 that he has become the winningest football coach in CIF L.A. City Section history. With 290 wins since his first season in 1988, Garrett moved past Carson’s Gene Vollnogle, who had 289 wins in his career. Garrett’s total does not count forfeit wins or losses, and there have been more than a few in his career. “That’s a great historic accomplishment for our neighborhood, for Crenshaw and for the City Section,” Garrett told the L.A. Times. “I feel good about it.”
San Diego Lincoln’s David Dunn was one of three coaches this season that won a second CIF state title. Photo: Scott Kurtz.
Matt Logan (Centennial, Corona)
One of our all-time favorites, Logan seems to enjoy a big accomplishment every year in the last few seasons. For 2024, it would be becoming the winningest football coach in the Inland Empire area of the CIFSS. Logan, who began his career with the Huskies in 1997 and has an 82.4 win percentage, moved past Fontana’s Dick Bruich when this year’s team won its seventh game. Bruich retired with 292 in 2008 at Fontana Kaiser. Logan will start 2025 with 295 wins and should become the state’s 15th head coach to win a 300th game.
Rob Scheidt (Merced)
When the Scheidt’s team opened the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D3 playoffs with a 41-35 win vs Rio Americano of Sacramento, Scheidt earned the 200th win of his head coaching career. We recall him as a player at Dos Palos in the 1980s. He’s been the head coach at Merced (a school with a great football tradition including 1990 State Team of the Year) since the 1995 season.
Jeff Steinberg (Beaumont)
After the Cougars won their first game in Hawaii over Kamehameha of Maui, they returned to play San Jacinto and notched a 28-20 triumph. That win also was No. 200 in the head coaching career of Steinberg. His team went on to post a 9-2 record with losses only to Oak Hills of Hesperia in the regular season and San Juan Hills of SJ Capistrano in the CIFSS D2 playoffs. Steinberg has been known for the spread passing game since he first started as a head coach at Burroughs of Ridgecrest in 1998. He’s also coaches at A.B. Miller of Fontana, Santiago of Corona and Rancho Verde of Moreno Valley. He’s been at Beaumont since 2018.
Patrick Walsh (Serra, San Mateo)
He’s the first of legendary Bob Ladouceur’s players at De La Salle who has joined Lad in the 200-win club. There may be more as a lot of former DLS players have gone into coaching, including Brian Callahan (head coach of the Tennessee Titans), Justin Alumbaugh (current DLS head coach) and Tosh Lupoi (defensive coordinator at Oregon) plus others coaching at various high schools in the state. Walsh, who was our 2021 State Coach of the Year for the leadership he displayed to all other coaches in the state for helping the state and CIF establish the 2021 spring season during the COVID pandemic, had a tough year at Serra after the team reached the CIF Open Division state finals in 2021 (fall season), 2022 and 2023 due to heavy graduation losses. In the midst of the 5-6 season, however, Walsh gained his 200th win when Serra had a 47-6 win vs Bellarmine of San Jose. He’s been the head coach at Serra since 2001 and was an assistant coach before that at De La Salle where he played and was first team all-state running back in 1992.
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: @CalHiSports
