“Glendora’s going to be happy they hired Todd,” said Bonita coach Eric Podley, who coached Quinsey in high school and later hired Quinsey as an assistant when he was at Northview. “He was probably one of the best players that ever played for me, and helped us win a league title. He was a student of the game then and a student of the game now. He possesses the kind of qualities you think a coach should have. He was an over-achiever in high school. He wasn’t as athletic as others but he overcame that by being clever, and he was probably as competitive as a player I’ve ever had. He hated to lose and always looked for that edge you needed to win a ballgame.”
By Fred J. Robledo, Staff Writer
Story: Todd Quinsey, who coached the Northview High School football team to an 18-15 overall record in three years as its head coach from 2003-05, was named Glendora High School’s next football coach on Tuesday, replacing Mark Pasquarella, who resigned earlier this year after eight years in charge. Pasquarella revived Glendora’s football program when he took over and won three consecutive Sierra League titles from 2007-09, compiling a 55-33 overall record during his tenure. (To continue click thread).
After leaving Northview in 2005, Quinsey moved to Oregon and coached Sandy High School, where he struggled in three seasons with a 5-24 overall record before returning to the San Gabriel Valley, where he was an assistant with Charter Oak’s football program this past fall, as well as their head varsity girls basketball coach.
Quinsey, who graduated at Northview in 1992 and played for then coach Eric Podley, was an assistant with Podley at Northview from 1995-98 before Podley moved on to Bonita. In 1999 Quinsey was an assistant with Greg Gano on Los Altos’ 1999 CIF-SS championship team, then returned to Northview, where he was an assistant with Bill Zernickow, who is now at San Dimas.
Zernickow left Northview following the 2002 season, turning the reigns over to Quinsey, who in his first year led Northview to a 6-5 overall record and second-place finish in the Valle Vista League.
Obviously, Quinsey was elated to hear he had been named Glendora’s next coach. He said he hopes to have all his assistants in place by Friday, and is hoping to secure some assistants from last year’s Glendora team.
“It’s an incredible opportunity,” Quinsey said. “I feel like I have worked with some of the best coaches around. Hopefully I can take a little of what I learned from each one and turn that into a winning situation at Glendora.”
Glendora principal Paul Lopez said the school interviewed several candidates, including former assistant and La Puente head coach Brandon Rohrer, who took his name out of the running because Glendora could not offer a teaching position to go with its head football coaching position because of the ongoing situation with teachers in California facing layoffs and public schools facing difficult budget cuts.
Quinsey was hired as a walk-on but will substitute teach in the Glendora high school district. Of all the candidates, Lopez said Quinsey, 38, impressed him during several interviews.
“He had a definite plan, that was the most impressive thing,” said Lopez, who was Glendora’s football coach earlier this decade prior to Pasquarella taking over. “We talked Monday for more than an hour and I felt real comfortable with him.
“Sometimes you get a (candidate) in a room and he wants to talk x’s and o’s and that’s important, but Glendora is such a tight knit community. All eyes are on the football program and Todd told me what I wanted to hear in terms of being involved in the community, building a program, his strength and conditioning ideas, and of course he has a solid coaching background in terms of coaching at Northview and the coaches he has learned from.
“Given our situation at school, with budget cuts and what we could offer, we feel like we were really fortunate to bring a coach like Todd aboard.”
It’s an ideal situation in terms of the opportunity of coaching one of the area’s high profile football schools, but it’s also a huge challenge after the departure of quarterback Chad Jeffries, who is on his way to San Diego State.
Glendora also moved into the Baseline League this past season, where it went 1-4 in league and finished just 5-5 overall.
In addition to the competitive Baseline, Glendora’s non-league schedule in 2011 includes Charter Oak, Colony, Monrovia, West Covina and Lynwood, so Quinsey has his work cut out.
Although Quinsey loses the services of Jeffries, he has returning backs Corey Victoria and Donovan Holmes, a good place to start since Quinsey is coach who loves to utilize his backfield, having run the Wing T at Northview.
“I really won’t know what type of system we’re going to run until we get all our assistants in place, then I will have a better idea,” Quinsey said. “But I know what we’re up against. You have to do everything right against this schedule, there are no easy games in league or our pre-season. But at the same time Glendora has always produced very good football players that can compete at this level. They had a good freshman season and we have some very talented players returning. It’s going to be our job to coach them and get them ready.”
Quinsey was a slot receiver in high school at Northview, Podley recalling how he always thought he would make a good football coach.
“Glendora’s going to be happy they hired Todd,” Podley said. “He was probably one of the best players that ever played for me, and helped us win a league title.
“He was a student of the game then and a student of the game now. He possesses the kind of qualities you think a coach should have. He was an over-achiever in high school. He wasn’t as athletic as others but he overcame that by being clever, and he was probably as competitive as a player I’ve ever had. He hated to lose and always looked for that edge you needed to win a ballgame.”
