San Bernardino Valley College is looking for a head football coach.
Pat Meech is still with the program but is giving up the head coach responsibilities. In addition to serving as an assistant coach he is on the faculty as a physical education instructor. The change in job status was approved at Thursday’s meeting of the Board of Trustees.
The timing makes a bad situation worse. The Wolverines are coming off a 0-10 season. They were the only winless team in Southern California and one of two in the state, the other being Contra Costa. Count the last five games of the 2007 season and SBVC will go into 2009 riding a 15-game losing skid.
Meech said family was the primary reason he decided to take a step back. He and wife Stephanie have two daughters ages 9 and 12.
“It is a combination of things but the biggest thing is my priority
at home. I want to spend time with my daughters and their school activities and it’s hard to do that with all the time it takes to be a head coach.”
“Obviously the timing isn’t good,” athletic director Dave Rubio
said. “I believe Pat has the best interest of the program in mind.”
Despite the change in his title Meech has been handling recruiting. He has tried to be honest with those athletes he is recruiting.
“I have told them that there is some reorganization going on but I have tried to emphasize the reasons why we’re a still good option for them,” he said.
Despite the lateness of the move Rubio is confident the school will still be able to bring in a strong candidate.
“I guess there were rumors out there because I have gotten calls from all over the country asking about the job,” Rubio said. “It’s hard to say right now how fast we can fill it but we’ll do the best we can.”
There is likely to be a lot more shuffling of the coaching staff as
well. Offensive coordinator Ric Lucore left during the offseason to take a job on staff at the University of Redlands. Defensive
coordinator Ted Clarke has also departed. Ernie Madrigal, J.T.
Thomas and Rick Pesquera remain on staff with a couple of others undecided.
The Wolverines went 13-37 in Meech’s five years with a 5-5 mark in 2006 the only season in which the team did not finish with a losing record.
Last year the Wolverines weren’t close that often. They averaged 19.3 points per game and gave up an average of 45.8 points. The only game decided by a touchdown or less was a 34-28 setback at Mt. San Jacinto. A tough nonconference schedule didn’t help.
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