The football-coaching carousel at local high schools has been spinning ever since the season ended.
John Hazelton stepped down at Carpinteria, Dare Holdren did the same at San Marcos, and news broke on Monday evening that Will Gonzales has resigned at Santa Barbara.
“I thought I’d step aside and let someone with a little more energy do it. It’s just time to do something else,” said Gonzales in a phone interview Tuesday night.
The coach said that although he had started to think about stepping down during this past season, the decision was a fairly sudden one.
“It happened kind of quick for me. I came home and told my wife the other day and then on Monday I went in and told (Principal Mark Capritto),” said Gonzales.
Athletic Director Nan Verkaik said that the news of Gonzales’ resignation was not supposed to be made public yet, but had kind words regarding the coach, who led the team to two city titles and a pair of playoff berths in his three seasons at the helm. The Dons’ 2007 city title was the program’s first since 1995.
“He’s really helped a lot of kids and has a huge heart for kids that need the extra help,” said Verkaik. “Hopefully he’ll stay on the staff in a smaller role because he really benefits the program.”
Gonzales actually mentioned that coaching basketball is something he would like to get back into. He coached ex-Laker Mark Madsen up at San Ramon High School in Danville earlier in his career, and assisted Jeff Lavender at San Marcos before coming to Santa Barbara High.
Gonzales’ children are now five and seven years old, and he said he looks forward to coaching their teams as well.
Gonzales said that he had not talked about the decision with RJ Rosborough, the former Carpinteria High quarterback who recently transferred to Santa Barbara for his senior season. The coach also laughed at a rumor that there was any recruiting involved in Rosborough’s decision.
“People love to come up with different scenarios,” he said, saying that such rumblings especially surface when a team is successful.
“I really enjoyed my time with the program, but it just comes down to not being able to dedicate that much time to something. There are so many administrative things that coaching football ends up being only 25 percent of the job,” he said.
As far as coaching replacements go, one has already been named with Jeff Hesslemeyer taking over at San Marcos.
“We’re really excited about it because he’s been the guy we’ve been wanting to do it all along,” said athletic director Abe Jahadhmy. “There were quite a few people really interested in doing it but Jeff is the guy we wanted.
Hesselmeyer teaches physical education at San Marcos and was on Dare Holdren’s staff working with the offense over for the past two seasons. The UCSB grad began working at Dos Pueblos in 1975 and coached there until 2001, including a 10-year stint as head coach.
Holdren stepped down last month, citing reasons similar to Gonzales’.
“I think Dare did a great job of getting things pointed in the right direction,” said Hesselmeyer in a phone interview Tuesday. “There are a lot of good coaches on this staff and we hope to keep all of them. We’re looking for every kid to contribute to the program and we’ll keep improving.”
The Royals went 3-7 this past season after a winless campaign in 2007, leading to Holdren being named the Channel League’s Coach of the Year.
Hesselmeyer said he officially took the job on Friday.
“I’d just like to really thank the administration at San Marcos and all of the coaches in every sport for their confidence and support,” said Hesselmeyer.
