Glendora coach Mark Pasquarella (far right) resigned Thursday after eight seasons

Glendora High School football coach Mark Pasquarella resigned on Thursday after a successful eight-year run, that included three consecutive Sierra League championships between 2007-’09.

Pasquarella said multiple things factored into his decision, including burnout, family and the opportunity to pursue a chance to become an administrator.

“I kind of think I need a break,” Pasquarella said. “I don’t know if I need a break from being a head coach, I still feel like I can still coach, but I just don’t know if I have the energy to be a head coach at this time.

“In hindsight, I probably did it about a year too late. I was thinking about doing it after last year when we had won three championships in a row. That would have been a good time to go out, but with the league change and (star quarterback) Chad Jeffries coming back for his senior year, I was sitting on it and sitting on it, and it just got to the point where it was too late to do anything.”

Glendora’s football program had been dormant prior to Pasquarella’s arrival in 2003. The Tartans had last won a league championship in 1994, but quickly became one of the area’s most consistent winners under Pasquarella, who finished with a record of 55-33 in his eight seasons.

Glendora started this past season with a 4-1 record entering Baseline League play, but an injury to Jeffries hurt the team’s chances and the Tartans ultimately finished 5-5 and missed the playoffs.

“If you think back to where Glendora was when we took over, then to us ruling the roost for a little bit, we had a good thing going,” Pasquarella said. “The best thing about it is that I think I’m leaving the program in a better condition than it was when I got it.”

Pasquarella was at Damien prior to taking over at Glendora in 2003. Before that, he was the first football coach at Ayala upon its opening in 1990 and led the Bulldogs to three CIF championship games.

Pasquarella’s first head coaching job came at Covina for just one season. Prior to that, he was an assistant at Northview and South Hills, where he coached under Jack Nemzek, who he credits with teaching him most of what he knows.

“He was pretty pivotal in my development as a coach and about preparation,” Pasquarella said. “He was the first coach I coached under and I was with him for six years.”

San Diego St.-bound Glendora QB Chad Jeffries on Pasquarella’s resignation: I was kind of shocked at first because we had the banquet and he didn’t announce anything there and I thought he was going to come back another year. He was a player’s coach. He would talk to us and try to understand us, and get in our minds and see how we felt about everything before we actually did it. He helped me a lot. All the camps I went to, like the Nike Camp and the Elite 11 camps, he told me about all of that. He always helped me out with different stuff on the field and helped me out with recruiting.