With a new head coach and a new season, the Gilroy High School
football players are expecting big things from themselves
Gilroy – The season hasn’t even begun, but the players have already bought into the system.
Rich Hammond, the new Gilroy High School football coach, said he let his players know they were going to be a disciplined team. He told them to control what they could control. Only the players who worked hard and deserved to be on the field would make it on the field.
Many of the players said their coach has been consistent with that message and are noticing the positive effect that has had on the team.
“I like that he treats everyone with the respect they deserve,” said Carlos Estrada, who can play both offensive and defensive tackle. “There’s no more seniority. It’s whoever busts their butt is going to get on the team. … It’s just people who want to win.”
Estrada said he’s seen a complete turnaround in how the team operates and the players treat each other. Last year players would hang out in clicks, he said, but this year everyone seems closer, and the separation of players last year has mostly disappeared. That is mostly due to the coaches influence, Estrada said.
Wide receiver Marshad Johnson agreed with Estrada.
“I think having a new coach is better for us,” Johnson said. “We’re more focused. Our team seems to be coming together. He’s more about the chemistry of the players than the team on the field.”
Hammond said that Johnson’s attitude toward the team has done a complete 180 since the start of training camp. Johnson knows what the coach is talking about.
Johnson said he took everything nonchalantly. He knew he was a gifted player and that everything he did when it came to football he did with ease. But Hammond sat him down and told Johnson stories of what he had seen during his time playing football and let receiver know he would have to change his attitude.
He did change his attitude, but not just with football, but with his life.
“Since he’s come I’ve raised my grades tremendously,” Johnson said. “He told me I have to work for what I want. I want to be a better person.”
Football is just a game, Hammond said, and he wants his players to understand that. They should work hard on the gridiron but they need to know that there is more to life beyond it.
But while they are on the team they had better be willing to put in the work.
“I’m a pretty intense person,” the coach said. “I yell a lot. I yell a lot of good things and I yell a lot of bad things. These guys get quick feedback from me.”
The players appreciate it – the ones that stuck around that is.
According to Assistant Coach Craig Martin, about 65 players showed up at the beginning of practices. There are about 40 now.
“We’re going to teach them that if you do something wrong there will be consequences,” Martin said. “But if you do something right you will be rewarded with love.”
Martin said that Hammond pays attention to detail and that he doesn’t care who the player is, they have to put in effort. That philosophy, Martin said, will be the difference between a winning season and losing one.
“The kids have bought into him and our system,” Martin said. “That is going to be key to our season.”
Vince Giacalone, the team’s strong safety, believes it will be key to their season. He said Hammond is strict but that is good, ” ‘Cause that’s what it takes to win.”
Giacalone said last year the team had one bad game and the season just went downhill afterward. After their first loss to San Lorenzo Valley nothing was ever the same, he said.
“I don’t see that happening this year.”
