Benefield: Meet the new faces in Redwood Empire football coaching ranks

A three-year starter is a gift for a new coach. A three-year starter at quarterback? Perhaps a godsend.

Jonathan Dewey takes over the coaching duties of the football program at Ukiah High School this season, but he’s got QB Brett Hofstetter to help aid the transition. Hofstetter, a senior, led the Wildcats to a 2-8 overall and 1-6 league record last season.

But perhaps more importantly, he’s there to help Dewey with the transition from last year’s coaching staff to the crew out there this year.

“Brett is a leader,” Dewey said. “I would say his leadership, that will be his best quality as a quarterback.”

Dewey, a 2010 Ukiah grad who went on to play at Mendocino Junior College and Kansas Wesleyan University, took over at Ukiah last January, so he has worked with his squad through spring ball and summer passing league.

Leadership is a theme throughout the North Bay as Ukiah and a handful of other football programs have new people at the helm.

Elsie Allen, Piner and Clear Lake are among those programs with new head coaches heading into the 2016 season, although Elsie’s coach is a familiar face to Lobos fans.

Madison Lott, the former football coach who still coaches boys varsity basketball and is also the athletic director, was called in to lead the football team when a coach tapped to lead the program “did not work out,” according to a school official.

The football program has struggled under a near-constant change in leadership in the past 18 months. The team has not won a game since 2013.

Lott said he will work closely with JV coach Derek Hester to not only steer the varsity squad this season but prep Hester to take over the varsity program next year.

“We are just trying to move on from it,” Lott said of yet another departed coach.

“We had a competitive JV team last year and a lot of sophomores and juniors,” he said.

Hester had high praise for sophomore Diego Mendoza at wide receiver and cornerback, and junior Eric Vargas at quarterback and linebacker, as potential impact players on the junior varsity team right away.

Across town at Piner, where the Prospectors went 6-5 overall and 4-2 in the Sonoma County League, Tom Harris has moved from offensive coordinator last season to head honcho this fall.

And his first order of business is deciding on a quarterback. Juniors Mason McClintock and Grayson Ponce are in a heated battle for the keys to the Prospectors’ offense.

“They are neck and neck in almost every category we look at,” Harris said.

Harris is looking to make a final call soon, as his schedule is stacked. The Prospectors open the season with a pre-league game against Montgomery Friday. And things won’t ease up too much in the SCL, he said.

“As a whole, I think the SCL is going to be better, top to bottom,” Harris said.

The North Central I League will be stacked again, as well. But first-year Clear Lake High School Mark Cory says he’s not too worried about wins and losses at this stage, but rather installing a new system and getting player buy-in.

The Cardinals went 2-8 overall and 1-6 in the NCL I last season.

“There are some really good programs in our league and we’d like to be in the mix,” he said. “Hopefully sooner rather than later.

“Athletically, I feel like we have some spots where we can do some damage with some people,” he said. “A lot of it is getting the system in. We are behind the curve on some of that.”

Cory, who spent decades at Eureka High School, started in mid-May.

“We’re taking a lot of what we did that worked and trying to do it here,” he said. “Those things don’t happen right away. I wished they did, but they don’t.”

That’s the thing about new seasons, new coaches, new directions and new visions - expectations and excitement abound. It’s a great and nerve wracking place to be.

For new coaches, possibilities are just that - possible.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com.