Victor Santa Cruz is no longer the varsity football head coach at JSerra, the school announced Saturday.
Santa Cruz coached the Lions for three seasons.
JSerra lost to Santa Margarita 43-14 on Friday, the final day of the regular season. JSerra finished the regular season 3-7 overall, 0-5 in the Trinity League.
Lions special teams coach Gabe Higerd was promoted to interim coach.
The Lions could be a CIF Southern Section playoff team, if there is an opening for them as an at-large team in Division 2. CIF-SS football playoff brackets will be released Sunday morning.
The timing of Santa Cruz’ dismissal before the brackets release could mean that the school looked at its football team’s chance of getting a berth, did the math and concluded that JSerra is not going to get an at-large berth.
If the Lions do get into the playoffs, an interim coach would have to be named from the current staff.
JSerra was 14-18 overall and 2-13 in the Trinity League during Santa Cruz’ tenure. The Lions were CIF-SS Division 1 playoff teams in 2023 and ‘24. They lost to Trinity League rivals in the first round but lost both games to Mater Dei (38-0) and Orange Lutheran (42-20), respectively.
Santa Cruz previously was the football head coach at Azusa Pacific University.