Tracy Unified School District announced this week that West High sophomore coach Steve Anastasio will take the top football job at Kimball High for its first year of varsity football.
In the same announcement, the district said that Matt Loggins, athletic director at West and defensive coach for the Wolf Pack football team during the 2009 season, will replace Steve Lopez as head coach for the varsity team.
Loggins took over as West’s Athletic Director at the start of the school year after the retirement of the school’s original athletic director Steve Thornton. He will continue as a physical education teacher at West, but said that the district wanted him to chose between the head coach job and his job as athletic director at West.
District spokeswoman Jessica Cardoza also confirmed on Wednesday that Tracy High varsity football head coach Mark Stroup turned in his resignation from that job last week. The district has yet to post the job opening for a new varsity head coach.
Stroup said by e-mail that he had decided to step down at the end of this past football season. He said that the district never made him chose between the job of head coach or athletic director.
“I feel comfortable with where the program is at this time,” Stroup said in an e-mail message. “I never really expected to be coaching football this long when I first took the job. The timing feels right and I feel good about moving on, particularly after the success we have had over the past few years and some of the coaches we have in place.”
Stroup has been head coach for the past 10 years, and the 2009 season was the first year since 1986 that the Bulldog team went 10-0 in the regular season. Tracy also was the top-seeded team in the Sac-Joaquin Section’s Division I going into the playoffs. The Bulldogs beat Enochs High of Modesto in the first round of the section playoffs, and then lost to Los Banos the next week in the second round.
Loggins took over as West’s Athletic Director at the start of the school year after the retirement of the school’s original athletic director Steve Thornton. He will continue as a physical education teacher at West, but said that the district wanted him to chose between the head coach job and his job as athletic director at West.
"I wanted to be head coach, so at the end of the year I'll have to resign the athletic director position," Loggins said.
Stroup is still the athletic director at Tracy High. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Loggins has been with the district since 1998 and worked with Lopez as assistant coach for the Wolf Pack football team from 1999 to 2005. He moved to a job as linebacker coach for the San Joaquin Delta College football team for three years, and came back to West last year to serve as defensive coach.
“When I was at West originally I thought I would like to become a high school head coach,” Loggins said. “When I came back to West I felt like I wanted to succeed Coach Lopez when he was done.”
The move comes at a time when the local high school athletic programs are going through changes. The opening of Kimball High drew several coaches from the other high schools, mostly from West. It came right on the heels of Thornton’s retirement and righth before Lopez’ retirement at the end of the 2009 football season.
Loggins said that it also means that a West High student body that had grown steadily since 1994 took a sudden cut as athletes who might have gone to West will now be in Kimball’s athletic programs instead.
“On paper we’re losing some of our athletes,” Loggins said, “so our focus has to be developing and maximizing the athletic potential of who we have.”
“I can’t give you a number of wins for next year, but if our team shows up and works hard we’ll be successful.”
He added that another challenge will be finding the balance between building the football program he wants while preserving the program that Lopez built.
“We’re not going to make changes for change’s sake. I’m going to bring on coaches who want to develop the game and be teachers.”
Anastasio has been with the district since 1988 and has been a coach at West High since it opened in 1994. He has coached football, baseball and softball, and was varsity baseball coach from 1999 to 2006 and varsity softball coach since 2007. This year took on a new role as the girls varsity basketball coach.
Anastasio said that working with Lopez for four years as an assistant varsity coach, and his 12 years as the sophomore team head coach, were all steps toward his goal of becoming a high school varsity football coach.
“Hopefully I can build a program similar to what he built,” Anastasio said. “Ever since I played for Wayne Schneider (at Tracy High) I’ve tried to position myself to become a varsity football coach.”
He added that he needs to get to work right away organizing equipment and the workout regimen for his new team. He expects the varsity boys – all juniors for the 2010 season-- will take to the field on June 1, where they will practice four to five times a week through the summer.
Until then he will stay in his job at West, and will finish the year as girls basketball coach and again coach the West softball team during the spring season. He added that it’s too early to know if he will continue teaching at West next year, or if he will be able to transfer to Kimball.
Contact Bob Brownne at 830-4227 or brownne@tracypress.com.
know how to use the clock and ran out of time. You can bet that a lot of pressure was put on the higher ups because of this from those very proud football fans and from those that have played here in Tracy.#1 seed and you can't pull it off at home?????
I think we are on the same line of thinking when it comes to littleleaguecoach.
Unfortunatley, there are those coaches who coach or go on the board to bolster their own ego. OOOH, I'm a board member, I am king. OMG they drive me crazy. There is a definite clique mentality at TLL. That's for sure.
Also you are right that many coach because their kid is not the best athlete and they want to make sure they play or even get on the All Star team. Not that's pathetic.
So for those who are that way...we know who you are and know that even if we come to you with a legitimate concern, you will not listen. So why bother. Been there, done that and with those types of coaches it does not work. For coaches who are actually there for the kids, many times it does go OK and parents can talk to you and you may make adjustments or even explain your thinking to us and possibly open our eyes to what your strategy is. We know we are not always right either. For those AWESOME coaches, lots of love to you and keep up the great work. Luckily for all our kids most coaches we have been in contact with have been great and yes, we definitley thank them.
Volunteers can really make a difference in a kids life. Especially those kids who may be at a crossroads and a volunteer or coach can steer them down the right path. I've seen it. So even though it seems I may be bashing coaches, it is only a few that are problematic and have no idea they are a problem because their egos are so huge. The majority are great and are invaluable volunteers in our society. I encourage everyone to volunteer in one form or another. Yes, you might have some crappy parents to deal with, but the pride you feel with helping a kid outwieghs it 10 fold. I agree 2toots, there is not enough money in the world that can compare to that!
We have all been an "armchair QB" at some time in our life, but what purpose does it serve? Being a high school coach is definitely not a very rewarding job, at least in having to deal with unreasonable parents. Maybe all of you parents should read the book Just Let The Kids Play, this might put things in perspective for you. Instead of bad-mouthing local coaches ask your kids if they enjoy playing sports, that might provide enough insight for you to stop. My oldest son, has on more than one occasion, reminded me of exactly how ridiculous I sound when I start making these types of comments at his athletic events. Parents, all I am trying to say is put everything in the proper perspective. If you want to get an idea of the percentages of kids that play in college and the pro's, cut and paste this link into your address bar. http://www.gcic.peachnet.edu/Newsletter/Dec06/Dec Outlook/Athletes.html. I think many of you will be surprised!!!
Well, I am done commenting on this subject and wish all of you the best on this glorious Sunday.
"The only bit of advice I can give is to talk to the coaches that you so vehemently abhor. Until you do this, you are the ones with the problem, not them. During my 18 years of coaching, I have had parents not approve of how I coached their kids, but the majority of them had the decency to address these issues to me, face-to-face. These parents I respect! The others, I never responded to their behind-the-back commentary; it would serve little to no purpose. So for those of you with any real conscience, quit hiding behind the blog and speak with your sons/daughters' coaches and air your complaints in a respectful manner."
I applaud you, Mr. Keeney! If a parent has a complaint about the way a coach is handling his/her child's athletic experience, the parent should tell the coach. In fact, parents who LIKE what the coaches are doing should also tell them.
Coaches spend hours in the afternoon, in the evening, and on weekends working with kids. They are evaluated by their athletic directors and by their principals. I suspect that if you divide their coaching stipend by the hours they work, you would get less than the minimum wage.
By the way, a while back I attended all the Tracy High football games for many years and sat among fans, some of whom also bitched about the coaching decisions made by the man who was then head coach. Guess who was the coach. (Hint: They named the Tracy High stadium after him.)
Yes I was an AAU, high school and college athlete and have been a part of many of my kids organizations for almost 15 years. I have coached high school and know there are good coaches and bad ones, like I stated below. (Good parents, bad parents, good kids and bad kids too)If I have a problem with my child I do address it in a positive and hopefully productive manner. However, what I see the coaches doing with the team as a whole and with other players, though I may not like it, it is not my place to address them.
Also as an American I (all of us) have the right to say how we feel.
Also there are some coaches to whom you may address who will not take positive action or take your words to heart. They then may take their anger at your speaking up out on your kid.
Sometimes it is not worth the hassle and it is more important to teach your kid to deal with things the best they can and to learn from it.
You just have to take each coach and each situation and find the best way to deal with it whether it be to speak up or not.
Everyone is different and handles things in a different way.
Brian Keeney
I just don't want to say who I think is p*ss poor here in case it may come back to haunt me or my kid. I try to have the best relationships with the coaches that I can and for the most part keep my stronger, less flattering position of any of them to myself. Don't want to fan the fire. Might get burned. Just put on my happy face, put my best foot forward and plow through the best we can. That's my motto. Backlash doesn't always come in the form of benching a kid.
But in all my experiences with myself and my athletic career and my children in athletics I have personally seen what I have explained below. All I can tell you is what I have seen and experienced. I also never said anything about "sitting a player with more athletic ability". Read again. I said that there have been coaches who have been terrible and made it such a horrible experience for the kids that even some good kids decide not to play the next year.
Oh and PS the kids in high school now pay to play. $150 each session. Now I agree you need to put your best kids in and work the others in as needed. Or if you are way up or way down you rotate in the "bench kids". The problem is that sometimes the coaches don't think outside their little box way of thinking and there are times when other players and different strageties could and should be utilized. Now is that being an armchair quaterback? Yep. Everyone is guilty of it every now and then. Does it make it right? No. But some coaches learn from their mistakes and others are just stuck in the same rut and use the same way of thinking no matter what. A good coach adjusts as needed and if possible gives the other kids a chance to play and get better.
It also still needs to be fun. It is still only high school.
Again to the many coaches you have coached and taught my kids to be better athletes, better students and in the end better people, I peronally thank you. There are many great coaches out there, I will never deny that. But you have to jump back into reality 2toots&imgone and know that there are bad ones too.
Kids need to learn that not everything will go hunky dory all the time in school, sports, work, life. They had better learn to deal with anything or anyone. They had better learn to deal with it and always put their best foot forward even if the other guy doesn't.
As far as hiring coaches and teachers. I have seen that this is still a small town and sometimes it's not what you know, but who you know. Unfortunatley sometimes that does not end up working out to be the best idea.
A lot of the problems are the way some of the players are utilized. Last year a lot of mistakes where made in this area. It's an unfortunate thing that bad experiences like the team experienced last year may put off players from continuing to play next year. but ultimately the choice is for them to make.
It's the kids that suffer from bad experences. I as a parent could care less if my child plays a sport or not I have never forced my kids to do anything they don't want to do. I encourge them to do what they enjoy and if they start a season to finish it and not be a quiter.