Tyler Roach, who served as offensive coordinator for La Jolla High\u2019s football team from 2013 to 2015, has been hired as the Vikings\u2019 new head coach, according to athletic director Paula Conway.
\n“I\u2019m fired up and ready to hit the ground running,” said Roach, contacted at a coaching clinic in Mission Valley. “I think the future is bright. We have a good crop of seniors coming up. I\u2019m excited to work with Kenny Hayden, our quarterback. I just met with him today on campus. He\u2019s excited, too.”
\nUnder Roach, La Jolla\u2019s offense set school and CIF San Diego Section records. In 2014, Viking quarterback Collin Rugg set a CIF record for touchdowns with 47. Rugg\u2019s favorite targets in the spread, no-huddle offense were receivers Carlton O\u2019Neal and Brandon Bonham.
\nInitial reaction to Roach\u2019s hire from Viking players was positive. Buster Hoy, a 5-foot-9-inch, 150-pound junior, absolutely gushed over the announcement. “I\u2019m stoked because I thought he should have been the head coach last year,” said Hoy, who plans to be a running back in Roach\u2019s new offense. “He knows a good offense. He\u2019s been around football. Everyone loves him.”
\nAs for what Roach did for him personally, Hoy said, “He coached me as a running back. When I was a sophomore, he got me in on the varsity, while I was also playing on the junior varsity. He put me in the game (to my surprise).”
\nThe future senior summed up, “He\u2019s happy, enthusiastic about winning. He\u2019s not like, \u2018You have to do this, etc.\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018Let\u2019s go win.\u2019”
\nCommented Dr. Chuck Podhorsky, in his fourth year as principal at La Jolla High, “We\u2019re happy to have a coach like Tyler Roach. We\u2019re happy to have the program up and running. We\u2019re sad to see Matt Morrison go. He was great, but we\u2019re very happy to have Tyler. He had a lot of community support coming in.”
\nMorrison, who coached one year at La Jolla High, accepted the head football coaching position at Francis Parker School, his alma mater, and a full-time teaching position, according to Conway. Morrison, who played under his father, John, as head coach, helped lead the Lancers to a CIF title and was named All-CIF at quarterback.
\nReaction from other Viking football players to Roach\u2019s selection was similarly positive, though the graduating seniors won\u2019t be able to play under the new coach. Said senior Ross Martin, who played for Roach as a junior, “I love coach Roach. He will tighten up the offense and bump up the work ethic. We\u2019ve been good on defense the last couple of years, but he\u2019ll also bring an emphasis to the offensive side.”
\nRugg, having transferred back locally after spending one year at college in Missouri, responded, “Coach Roach is one of the best coaches I have ever had. He has taught me so much about football and many life lessons. La Jolla High School really lucked out. He demands excellence from the team and will put all his time and effort into the players. La Jolla High football has a promising future.”
\nRoach, in the interim year since leaving La Jolla\u2019s program as offensive coordinator, served as defensive coordinator at La Jolla Country Day School.
\nHis previous coaching resume includes one year at Scripps Ranch High School as defensive coordinator and two years at his alma mater, University City High School. Roach was an all-league center and middle linebacker, playing both ways, at UC in his junior and senior years, while serving as team captain. He was named team MVP and Academic All-CIF.
\nHe went on to star at Azusa Pacific University as a fullback and halfback, graduating with a degree in sociology in 2009. His wife Leslie and he have an infant son, Marshall.
\nTanner Watson, another Viking senior who played for Roach as a junior, said in reaction to his former coach being hired as head coach, “I think that\u2019s great for the program because he\u2019s a guy who\u2019s been here and knows the program. He brings knowledge. He knows how to run an offense. He knows La Jolla and the players.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tyler Roach, who served as offensive coordinator for La Jolla High\u2019s football team from 2013 to 2015, has been hired as the Vikings\u2019 new head coach, according to athletic director Paula Conway. “I\u2019m fired up and ready to hit the ground running,” said Roach, contacted at a coaching clinic in Mission Valley. “I think the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":269278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Tyler Roach hired as new LJHS head football coach","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}