Football coaches added this week to the all-time state list of those with 200 wins or more are Kevin Macy of Moraga Campolindo, Sean Doyle of San Diego Cathedral Catholic and Trent Merzon of Oakdale. Photos: Mark Tennis, delmartimes.net & oakdalefootball.com.
We had two separate coaches celebrated last Friday night in Oakdale and San Diego — Trent Merzon and Sean Doyle — who reached their 200th win, which is the total it takes to gain entry onto the all-time state list. We also are now including Campolindo of Moraga’s Kevin Macy with 200 career wins, but it turns out he already was well past 200.
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It would be great to say with certainty that three separate California high school football coaches were all able to win their 200th game on the same night last Friday. We can say for sure that for two of them did but one of them requires some explaining.
Trent Merzon of Oakdale won his 200th game when the Mustangs trounced East Union of Manteca 42-14. All of Merzon’s wins have come at Oakdale since he became head coach of the program in 2000. East Union took an early 7-0 lead in the game, but Oakdale surged ahead behind quarterback Jackson Holt, who threw for three touchdowns.
Oakdale’s 2016 team under Merzon won the CIF Division 3-A state title with a 47-0 victory over Bishop’s of La Jolla. The Mustangs also made it to the Division II state final in 2012, but had to play super-talented Serra of Gardena and lost.
“I have had great coaches along the way, also super blessed to have had the opportunity to be around so many quality kids who play for their community and school,” Merzon said in an email. “Also excited we reached 200 in less than 20 years. We don’t often recognize individual achievements around here.”
Meanwhile, players and coaches at Cathedral Catholic of San Diego were whooping it up and surrounding their head coach, Sean Doyle, on the same evening. Doyle’s squad had beaten Eastlake of Chula Vista 44-7, which gave him 200 career wins.
Doyle has been at Cathedral Catholic since 1996 and is in his 24th season. His team just last season lost in the CIF Division 1-AA state final in overtime to Folsom, but he’s had two previous teams that reached the state finals and have won. The first was in 2008 in Division II when Cathedral Catholic outlasted St. Mary’s of Stockton 37-34. St. Mary’s also was the team that the Dons topped (38-35 in overtime) in 2016 in the D1-AA state championship.
“I have been blessed with great young men that just love to work hard to be the best they can be,” Doyle said in an email. “The coaches that I have had over the years know what it takes to coach high school players and get the most out of them, from my freshmen staff up through all three levels.”
The third coach who has now been added to the state list with 200 wins or more is Kevin Macy from Campolindo of Moraga. He had written down on a questionnaire before the start of the 2018 season that he had 186 wins since 1996 at Campolindo. That total makes sense since the Cougars have won two CIF state titles under Macy (2014 in Division III and 2016 in D4-AA) and were runner-up two other times (2011 in Division III and 2015 in D-3AA). Assuming 186 is correct, Campolindo has won 10 games in 2018 and won its fourth for 2019 last Friday 21-0 over Hayward.
But Macy responded to an email on Monday afternoon that one reporter told him he had 199 wins to start this season at Campolindo and that he had 23 wins during an earlier coaching stint at Oakland Tech from 1988 to 1994.
“I’m not one for keeping count, but it must be at least 200 now,” wrote Macy, who added he would get us an exact number sometime soon.
For this week’s update, we put in Coach Macy with 223 wins counting the Campolindo and Oakland Tech wins together.
Regardless, all three head coaches are now on the all-time state list and we have updated that list (adding wins and losses to others on the all-time list for this season’s first five weeks) for this week.
FOR GOLD CLUB MEMBERS, CLICK HERE for this updated all-time state list.
More Coaching Notes
*Santa Ana Mater Dei’s Bruce Rollinson officially won his 300th game (not counting forfeits) when the Monarchs blanked Villa Park 59-0 in their second game of this season. Rollinson and the school celebrated his 300th win counting forfeits after the final game of last season. We’ve never counted forfeits in any of our coaching records. He became the 10th coach in state history to reach 300 wins and since then has moved up to No. 9.
*The next coach in line to get a 300th win is Mike Herrington of Newhall Hart. Coach Herrington started 2019 needing seven to get to 300 and so far his squad has gone 2-2. He’s been at Hart since 1989 and also coached for one season at Bellflower (1988).
*Legendary San Gabriel Valley head coach Lou Farrar of Charter Oak (West Covina) has been battling cancer and hasn’t been present at any of Charter Oak’s games this season, but he is still considered the coach of record by the school and therefore the team’s 2-3 win-loss slate so far has been added on to Farrar’s win-loss slate.
*We’re not sure who’s next in line for 200 career wins. If you know of someone we should check out, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle:
