LJ FB: Roach's intro

Tyler Roach (L), new La Jolla head football coach,

answers questions from John McColl,

Director of Operations. (Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

The major revelation that came out of Tyler Roach's formal introduction as the new La Jolla High head football coach Mon., March 13, was probably that John McColl, Director of Operations, got former coach Matt Morrison's message of taking the position at Parker at 3 o'clock and McColl called Roach only an hour and a half later.

"I was a little offended," McColl said to the assembled players and their parents in the private reception, "when he said to give him two days to think about it. But then he said he had to talk to his wife, and the people at Country Day" (where he had been coaching), and McColl thought that was a pretty good reason.

The new coach, returning to La Jolla High's program following a year's hiatus after three years as Viking offensive coordinator from 2013-2016, came off professionally at the intimate gathering: he spoke well, he represented a collegial spirit in calling in other specialists, he revealed something of the personal in talking about his own life, and he appeared to know what he was doing in taking his first head coaching job after assistant-coaching stints at University City (his alma mater), Scripps Ranch, and Country Day, besides La Jolla.

In response to McColl's question in an interview format about inheriting "a few less seniors" than the 18 starters who returned for Morrison last year, said Roach, "That's why we coach. To work with the players. To develop these guys into young men."

He and Kamal Assaf, former Viking varsity basketball coach who exhorted parents in a kind of motivational speech to contribute their efforts to the program, both spoke about the need for commitment on the part of the players and the dedication it requires to build success.

Roach said the right things about pairing his program with the scholastic atmosphere at La Jolla High: "I'm an academic guy. My parents said if I wasn't doing it academically (at UC), I wasn't doing it. I went on to play at Azusa Pacific," implying that his attention to academics continued there.

McColl, who handled the question-answer forum with informed queries, humor, and efficiency--everything he and his wife Anastasia Thomas have done for the football program the past several years has been well-organized--had a wry comment about the status of the football program, especially in light of the three coaches over the past 14 months. He posed this to Roach: "Some people say La Jolla is an academic school that plays with football (or sports), while other schools, like Helix, are football schools that play with academics. What do you say?"

This is when the new coach emphasized the academic with the athletic, bringing up English teacher Jane Medrano, who runs the tutoring program for the football players on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.

McColl began the evening with a humorous touch: "This is our second annual Meet-the-Coach. We hope we're done doing this," in reference to Morrison's one-year stay before accepting the head coaching position at Parker, his alma mater where he was an All-CIF quarterback under his father, following Jason's Carter resignation as head coach in early 2016 after three years at La Jolla.

The late naming of Roach--who seemed to be the only candidate for the newly-opened position two weeks ago, apparently because he had applied for the head coaching job a year ago before Morrison was selected and his having considerable support--means the new coach will be behind the eight-ball as Morrison was in holding Spring practice.

The schedule he made available Monday night shows the Spring team workouts being held May 22-June 9. Usually, Spring practice comes earlier in the semester.

Opening game in the Fall comes August 25, 2017, against Hilltop.