Seasons of 9-2 and 8-4, respectively, continued to elevate Ron Hamamoto and Valley Center’s Rob Gilster in the upper strata of all-time, San Diego Section football coaches. Cathedral’s Sean Doyle is on the cusp of 200 victories.
Hamamoto, who completed his 32nd season at Cathedral (nee University), Rancho Bernardo, Lincoln, and Monte Vista since 1985, completed the year with 227 victories. The graduate of Long Beach Poly still is fifth in number of wins but is stalking Morse’s John Shacklett, who won 229 in 32 seasons at Morse.
Gilster, an all-section lineman in the 1980s at Escondido, has won 224 games since 1989 at Orange Glen and Valley Center and moved past Gil Warren into sixth place.
Despite a wrenching, 21-14 overtime loss to Folsom in the state Division I-AA championship, Doyle’s 12-2 season vaulted him from 13th to a tie for 10th with Vista’s Dick Haines, each with 194 wins.
Damon Baldwin has compiled a record of 98-61-1 since becoming Ramona’s head coach in 2005 and could become the 42nd with 100 victories next year, with Olympian’s Paul Van Nosdtrand (97) and Grossmont’s Tom Karlo (95) in pursuit,
The eight active members of the Century Club: Hamamoto, Gilster, Doyle, Matt Oliver (166), Chris Hauser (159), Mike Hastings (145), Rick Jackson (131), and John McFadden (130).
CARROLL LEADS
John Carroll, 248-75-6 in 26 seasons at Oceanside, still has the highest winning percentage, .763, followed Birt Slater (.753), Rick Jackson (.751), John McFadden (.747), and George Ohnessorgen (.745).
All of Jack Mashin’s 125 victories came when Grossmont was a member of the Southern Section, from which San Diego schools broke in 1960. Herb Meyer, Bennie Edens, Chick Embrey, Gene Edwards, and Birt Slater also won games when their schools were in the Southern Section.
Ed Burke (215) won at least 40 more games as head coach at King City in the Central Coast Section. Dick Haines (194) won an untold number in Dover, Ohio.
Chula Vista’s Chet DeVore and San Diego’s Duane Maley are the County’s all-time leaders in won-loss percentage based on a minimum of 50 games. DeVore was 44-7-1 (.856) and Maley 97-19-3 (.828).
The all-time winner remains Herb Meyer, who won’t be challenged for many years, if ever. With 339 victories at Oceanside and El Camino, Meyer is 91 ahead of runner-up John Carroll (248).
Search the “Football” menu and scroll down to “Coach 100 Win Club” for a complete list.
