Death of his father prompts Chino Hills head football coach to resign

As soon as his father died unexpectedly in October, Chino Hills coach Derek Bub knew he didn’t want his own children to feel like they missed out on time with their father. Bub finished out his fifth season as head football coach at Chino Hills High School, but resigned from the position Tuesday night in order to spend more time with his family.

“When my father passed away, I realized that I just needed to be a dad to my kids,” Bub said. “I take every Christmas break to think about whether I’m going to continue to coach. I was extremely close with my father and anytime something like this happens, it makes you see things differently.”

Bub will remain Chino Hills’ athletic director at least through the end of the school year. He desires an administrative position, but didn’t profess to know where or when that may happen.

“Who knows where I’ll end up,” he said. “I could even be back coaching in a year. I’d be lying to you to say that I won’t be shaking on the sideline on Friday nights this year. I just think this is the right decision right now.”

Chino Hills will fly its head football coaching job in the Chino Valley Unified School District. Bub said he expects to have a decision on a new coach by the end of January. There isn’t likely to be a shortage of applicants for one of the premier jobs in the Inland Valley. One of the likely candidates is Chino Hills offensive coordinator Matt Bechtel, who was the head coach at Colony for two seasons prior to joining the staff at Chino Hills, where he is also a teacher this school year.

“I think (Bechtel) is a heck of a football coach and I think he’d make a heck of a candidate,” Bub said of Bechtel. “But I’m sure we’re going to get a lot of good applicants and there’s four schools in the district, so there’s a lot of football coaches out there.”

Chino Hills won Sierra League championships its first three seasons under Bub, who compiled an overall record of 43-16-1 in his five seasons, all of which ended in playoff appearances. The Huskies’ best season under Bub was 2010, when they won an outright league title and played eventual CIF-SS Inland Division champion Corona Centennial its closest game of the playoffs in a thrilling semifinal.

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