Los Altos names Dale Ziola head football coach

By Steve Ramirez
Staff Writer

Dale Ziola, an assistant at Los Altos High School last season and previously at Montebello, is the Conquerors’ new football coach.

He succeeds Jim Arellanes, who last month was let go after one season at the Hacienda Heights school.

Ziola, the fourth coach at Los Altos since Conqueror legend Dwayne DeSpain retired following the 1996 season, is a former player at Whittier College.

His coaching tenure began at Montebello, where he was an assistant from 2004-09 before moving over to Los Altos last season, where he coached running backs.

Ziola was also a finalist when Arellanes, who came over from Northview, was hired prior to last season.

The Conquerors’ program has been on a downward spiral the past few years, winning just four games since 2007.

Former area player of the year Felipe Aguilar, who followed Greg Gano prior to the 2008 season, went 1-9 and 3-7 before resigning. Arellanes followed, and went 0-10 this past fall.

Aram’s take: This one caught me surprise, as Los Altos obviously moved very quickly to replace Arellanes. Did LA fly the position? Did it conduct interviews? How did LA make a hire so quickly while Wilson is still deep in the process of finding its new coach, which is a vacancy that came about earlier than Los Altos’ did. Anyway, don’t know much about Coach Ziola. I will find out more …