As JSerra closes in on selecting its next football coach, the school’s leaders probably are looking at what has been happening at another Catholic high school a few miles away.
Santa Margarita last December made a “splash” hire when it announced that Carson Palmer would be the school’s football coach.
Palmer had been a great quarterback at Santa Margarita who went on to win the Heisman Trophy at USC before having a long and distinguished career in the NFL. This season, Palmer led the Eagles to a share of the Trinity League championship and to CIF Southern Section Division 1 title.
The Eagles play in the CIF State Open Division championship game Saturday at Saddleback College against Concord De La Salle.
Santa Margarita’s season included a regular-season nonleague win over Centennial and a league win over Mater Dei.
Palmer assembled a coaching staff that includes A-list names like former NFL quarterback Doug Johnson to coach quarterbacks, former NFL receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh to coach receivers, former NFL punter Mike Scifres to coach kickers and former USC assistant coach Lenny Vandermade as offensive coordinator. Palmer also retained Steve Fifita as defensive coordinator.
The Palmer hire also attracted some outstanding transfers, too.
Among them are senior quarterback Trace Johnson, who moved to the area from Florida. Johnson has played his best during the playoffs, including throwing for 386 yards and four touchdowns in the CIF-SS Division 1 final.
Two of the top players for Santa Margarita, Simote Katoanga and Ninava Nicholson, transferred from JSerra for this season. Katoanga, a senior defensive end, was All-Orange County second team last season at JSerra. This season he has been the Eagles’ fourth-leading tackler. Nicholson, a senior, is Santa Margarita’s best offensive lineman.
It’s one thing to lose transfers. Losing transfers to a top local competitor and a league rival was a reason JSerra removed Victor Santa Cruz as its football coach on Nov. 1. The Lions lost to Santa Margarita 41-14 on Oct. 31, the final day of the regular season.
Chris Fore runs the EightLaces.org consulting firm that helps coaches land coaching jobs. He was the football coach at Capistrano Valley Christian, has experience as an athletic director and in school administration and currently is the principal at Mojave High, an alternative school in Mojave.
Fore said hiring a name-brand coach might not be the best decision for JSerra.
“That’s probably what JSerra thinks they need to do,” Fore said. “I don’t necessarily agree with that line of thought.”
Instead, Fore said, JSerra should consider hiring someone with abundant high school coaching experience, someone who knows the Trinity League and Southern California high school football landscape.
“I tell coaches and athletic directors, principals and administrators this all the time,” Fore said. “Is that the No. 1 mistake you guys make is after you go ahead and build your candidate profile – ‘What should he or she look like, what kind of experience do they have, what kind of person that person is’ – is they don’t stick to that candidate profile and instead they get that shiny object who doesn’t fit their coaching candidate profile.”
The best example of the best type of coach for JSerra to hire, Fore said, is already on campus – baseball coach Brett Kay. Kay was at Capistrano Valley Christian, briefly overlapping with Fore’s tenure there, before getting hired at JSerra. Kay has coached Lions to Trinity League, CIF Southern Section and CIF Southern California Regional championships.
“Brett came from this tiny school and didn’t have any kind of name recognition,” Fore said.
Name recognition, though, might be a top priority as JSerra zeroes in on its next football coach. A name that would create waves when the school makes its announcement next week.
NOTES
• Teams in the CIF State championship football games will be playing their 15th or 16th games this season. That’s too much football for high school athletes. People will say that the kids want to play these games so let them, but just because high school kids want to do something that might not be in their best interests doesn’t mean we should let them do it. …
• Woodbridge football head coach Connor McBride played football at the school. Offensive coordinator Rick Gibson was the head coach when Woodbridge won a CIF-SS championship in the 1990s. Quarterbacks coach John Halagan coached Woodbridge basketball to a CIF-SS title and is a longtime football assistant. Assistant coach Cliff Nelson has been at the school since it opened in the 1980s, as have Gibson and Halagan, and the other assistant coaches are ex-Woodbridge players. Woodbridge plays Redding Christian in the CIF State 7-AA championship game at Fullerton High on Saturday at 11 a.m. …
• Orange County football leagues are 90-plus percent set for the 2026 and ‘27 school years. For certain, the top league will grow from being the current four-team league to a six-team league with its membership being Edison, Los Alamitos, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, San Juan Hills and Yorba Linda. The bottom league will grow from being a five-team league to a nine-team league. …
• JSerra’s boys soccer team, which won CIF-SS Open Division and CIF Southern California Regional Division I championships a year ago, started this season 1-1. The Lions beat Woodbridge 1-0 last week and lost to Santa Monica 4-2 on Wednesday. The loss to Santa Monica was JSerra’s first home loss since the 2023-24 season. …
• The semifinals of the North Orange County Championships boys basketball tournament on Friday at Sonora: Heritage Christian vs. Canyon, 6 p.m.; Etiwanda vs. Rancho Verde, 7:30 p.m. Also on Friday at Sonora is Cypress vs. Orange Lutheran at 4:30 p.m. The championship game is Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Sonora.