After 10 years at the helm of the Gavilan College football
program, John Lango was relieved of his head coaching duties this
week and will be reassigned to other responsibilities in the
Department of Kinesiology and Athletics, athletic director Ron
Hannon announced on Friday
GILROY
After 10 years at the helm of the Gavilan College football program, John Lango was relieved of his head coaching duties this week and will be reassigned to other responsibilities in the Department of Kinesiology and Athletics, athletic director Ron Hannon announced on Friday.
“It is time to make a change in the program, to take it to another level. I’d like to see the program return to the tradition of Gavilan College football this community remembers,” Hannon said in a statement that was released on Friday.
In the release, Hannon also stressed that the college is committed to the long-term success of the football program.
“This isn’t something you think about over night,” Hannon said by phone on Friday. “There’s a lot of discussion on what’s best for the program and our student-athletes.”
As a tenured faculty member, Lango will remain part of the Kinesiology and Athletics Department at Gavilan, Hannon said.
“It’s tough to swallow right now,” Lango said by phone on Friday.
Lango said he was asked by Hannon on Tuesday to resign from his post, but he declined. On Friday, the 10-year head coach was relieved of his duties.
“I was told they wanted to go in a different direction,” said Lango, who was surprised by the decision. “They have the right to reassign.”
He later added, “I don’t know why it has come this way.”
Under Lango’s watch — he took over the program in January 2001 — the Rams went 35-75, including a 1-9 mark this past season and back-to-back three-win campaigns in 2008 and 2009.
“We haven’t won a lot of games recently. I understand that. It is what it is,” Lango said. “We realized, as coaches, that we needed to win. But I don’t know if it’s gonna change anything unless the school gives the resources to the next coach.”
Lango noted the difficulty of being the only on-campus coach for the football program at Gavilan. While the remaining eight coaches are off-campus and just coach football, the head coach of the Rams acts as the lone set of eyes and ears for players on campus who are in need of assistance, either academic or otherwise.
Some other nearby junior colleges, Lango said, have several coaches on campus, either full time or part time.
“Bottom line is, we need to win football games. I understand that,” Lango said. “But give me the resources to do that, and I know budget cuts have hurt everybody.”
Lango said he still very much wants to coach. He had already begun the recruiting process for next fall’s team, and had already received several commitments, including players from San Benito High in Hollister, North Monterey County High in Castroville and Piedmont Hills High School in San Jose, which just recently won the Central Coast Section Division I Championship.
With Gavilan’s search for a new head coach already under way, though, assistant coaches Wally Funk and Andrew Gonzalez will instead be working with students, helping sophomores transfer, and continuing the recruitment process of next year’s freshmen.
“We intend to continue the program and be ready for our first game in September,” Hannon said in a statement.
College President Steven Kinsella and Hannon met with the football team Friday afternoon to inform the players of the change, while Board of Trustees Ad Hoc Committee on Athletics, consisting of Tom Breen, Mark Dover, and Walt Glines, also met in closed session this morning to discuss the change.
