Former Los Altos and Northview coach Jim Arellanes takes over at Marshall Fundamental …

Former Los Altos and Northview coach Jim Arellanes is the new varsity football head coach at Marshall Fundamental in Pasadena, athletic director Phil Calafat confirmed Tuesday.

Arellanes didn’t coach last season after spending most of the offseason as an assistant to James Heggins at Baldwin Park before leaving the team because of the brilliance of admin at BP, not hiring him into a full-time job.

He has previously had head coaching stints at Los Altos and Northview and assistant coach runs at Rosemead and El Rancho.

“We want to bring stability to the program and become more successful, year to year,” Calafat said. “It would be nice if things turned around completely, but that’s probably not realistic with the nature of high school sports and Marshall itself.

“Our philosophy is that a successful year is not just a won-loss record. It’s ‘Did the players perform to the best of their abilities?’ Did they improve? Wins are very good and a high goal, but it’s not the No. 1 thing.”

Marshall, which plays in the rugged Alpha League, was 1-9 last season under James Zall, who lasted one season. The Alpha League is now part of the Mid-Valley Division and is headlined by Paraclete and Sierra Canyon.

Aram’s take: Well, Arellanes certainly has his work cut out. Tough league in a tough division. Marshall is pretty unique. It’s not a private school, but it has no residential boundaries to guarantee students. It’s grades 6-12 and operates on a lottery system of students who want to go there. Marshall has better test scores than any other Pasadena Unified school. So whatever athletes are part of the batch of students is basically what Arellanes gets to work with.