After leading La Jolla's football program to record-setting levels in 2013 and 2014 with stars Collin Rugg, Carlton O'Neal, and Brandon Bonham, Coach Jason Carter has resigned as head coach of the Vikings. The position is listed on the CIF San Diego Section website.
Contacted two weeks ago about the possibility of his leaving the La Jolla program after three seasons, Carter said, "I don't know what I'm going to do."
He had told a player's parent at a recent all-star football game that he coached in, "I'm done with it."
Asked about this, Carter said, "It's not the kids." He acknowledged that he is a known coaching commodity in San Diego after serving as head coach at LJHS and offensive coordinator at Country Day, and that as a result he could get a coaching job at another local high school.
He also acknowledged the mindset of some of his players at La Jolla that he constantly had to confront--that they would lose. "I don't know why they think that," he said. "I tell them that's no way to think."
So, even with a new locker room, new coaches offices, and a new weight room coming in the new facilities being built at Edwards Stadium on campus, Carter decided to step away.
After piles of offensive records were set by the team under his tutelage his first two seasons, using a speed-up spread offense with no huddle, the Vikings fell on hard times the past season. Early in the season, they finished three straight games with running clocks due to large deficits.
Opposing teams often commented on the dwindling number of players on La Jolla's sideline. At least six players had to play both ways, on offense and defense, with the Vikings' roster numbers low.
Every game had to be played on the road, due to the construction on the stadium. Mission Bay High, which has an agreement with neighboring residents that games will not extend past a certain time, was the setting for one game in which the game was still in progress when the stadium lights were turned off abruptly. At that point, officials had to call the game.
A bump in the road for Carter came in season two when a junior varsity player reportedly sustained a concussion and claimed he was told by an assistant coach, no longer with the program, to suck it up and go back in the game.
A reporter for The Voice of San Diego, a local media outlet, recorded his multiple interviews of Carter about the incident, then the outlet published an extensive article quoting Carter's contrasting statements in the different interviews. Other media outlets in San Diego then picked up the story.
The assistant coach in question was dropped from the program. The student-athlete continued through the most recent season participating with the varsity as a student assistant, on good terms with Carter and the football program. His family filed a lawsuit against the former assistant coach and the school district. "It's not the program. It's that one coach," he said. "The medical bills are expensive," in explaining why his family was pursuing the lawsuit.
In response to the media reports about the incident, which reflected negatively on La Jolla High, boosters and parents came together and formulated a response that was made available to media outlets in which the program's attention to an established concussion protocol was detailed. Dr. Steve Hayden, whose son Kenny was a quarterback on the junior varsity this past season, was point man medically for the response and in the program's protocol. His wife, Marina Hayden, continues as head of the boosters club.
In the aftermath of the publicity, Carter and other members of the athletic program at La Jolla High became more cautious in their contacts with the media. It became more difficult to get comments at times from school officials for stories related to sports.
In addition to an expanded weight room, which Carter made possible when he took over as head coach in Spring 2013, LJHS also now has a strength coach, Ryan Lennard, who oversees the workouts with weights.
La Jolla High, with nearly three months already passed since its last game of the 2015 season, once again finds itself looking for a new head coach, as it did following the 2012 season, when Rey Hernandez retired. Plans have to be made and schedules put in place for spring practice and summer passing leagues.
The deadline for the position is January 31, according to the CIF coaching listing.
The Vikings had added Country Day, Carter's former school, as an opponent on their schedule as a direct result of Carter's involvement. La Jolla will play in a newly aligned league come Fall 2016 as a result of the ongoing conversion in the CIF San Diego Section to alignment by power rankings. The new configuration should enable La Jolla to be more competitive in league play, after years of facing Madison, a perennial CIF power, and Point Loma, a highly-ranked team.
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