Guess who Mission Viejo head football coach Bob Johnson just passed on the state’s all-time career coaching wins list?
That would be Dick Bruich, mostly of Fontana, whose son, Kurt, will be the head coach at Redlands East Valley on Friday trying to get a huge upset of Johnson’s team at Mission Viejo.
According to the totals in our files, Mission’s 5-0 record so far in 2013 puts Johnson’s career record at 293-73-1 for his years at El Toro (1979-1990) and Mission Viejo (1999-2013). He’s moved past four coaches on the all-time state list just since the start of this season and now trails only five.
The four that Johnson has passed are Lou Farrar from Charter Oak of Covina, who is still coaching but his team this season so far is 0-4, the late Gene Vollnogle of Carson, the late Leo Robinson of Woodlake and then Bruich, who retired in 2008 after nine seasons at Kaiser of Fontana with 292 career wins.
The five still in front of Johnson are Bob Ladouceur of Concord De La Salle (399), Marijon Ancich from St. Paul of Santa Fe Springs (360), Herb Meyer from El Camino of Oceanside (338) and John Barnes of Los Alamitos (305).
Another coach making big jumps up the coaching wins list is Mike Janda from Bellarmine of San Jose. Janda has a reported 243 career wins since 1984. He has passed one coach on the list so far this season, but with a win Friday against Serra of San Mateo in the Northern California Game of the Week he’d probably break a five-way tie.
Also currently shown with 243 career wins are retirees Dwayne DeSpain from Los Altos of Hacienda Heights, Ed Burke from Torrey Pines of San Diego, and Jeff Engilman from Sylmar and Arleta along with Paul Knox from Dorsey of Los Angeles. Knox is still coaching at Dorsey, but his 2-2 team is an underdog Friday against Venice.
