GILROY—Mike Dovenberg has been named the head coach of the Gavilan College football team, the school announced Thursday.
This is the first head coaching position for Dovenberg, who joined the Rams a year and a half ago as their Offensive Coordinator/Quarterback and Wide Receivers Coach. He has been serving as the interim head coach since Spencer Gilford stepped down in April.
“It feels great,” Dovenberg said. “We’ve got a great group of kids and I’m pleased and honored to be coaching them. I’m looking forward to the challenges.”
The newly minted coach is taking over a Rams team that went 3-7 overall last season and 10-20 during its three years under Gilford.
Records aside, Gilford’s Rams continued to improve each year and started 2-0 last season for the first time in a decade. And Dovenberg said he’s looking to build on that.
“(Gilford has) been such a good and important mentor to me; I want to continue to do what he did,” he said. “Obviously a few things will be different, but the overall philosophy was in line with what I believe. We just want to continue to get guys out and continue to get better on a daily basis.”
Dovenberg is no stranger to the game and brings a wealth of experience to the program. He served as the Wide Receivers Coach at Kansas Wesleyan University for two years prior to arriving at Gavilan. There, his offense led its conference in total yardage per game and he had five WRs earn All-Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference honors. He also saw one named a Beyond Sports Network All-American and another earn Academic All-American honors.
Dovenberg—or “Coach Dovey” as he’s known on the Gavilan campus—has also coached at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa as well at Patrick Henry and Decorah high schools. He holds a Master of Business Degree from Kansas Wesleyan University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Sports Management from the University of Minnesota.
While he’s only been in charge for a few hours, Dovenberg is wasting no time getting to work. He said his first orders of business will be rounding out his coaching staff and recruiting.
“We’re going to recruit like crazy,” Dovenberg said. “Recruiting when we weren’t sure who the head coach was going to be was extremely difficult. We’ve got some catching up to do.”
The Rams open the 2015 season at 1 p.m. Sept. 5 at Shasta College in Redding.
