Salinas football coach, Mark Ironside, resigns
By George Watkins, Salinas Californian
Salinas – Salinas High School football coach Mark Ironside resigned last Wednesday, less than a week after the program was hit with an unprecedented two-year ban on playoffs.
Ironside’s decision to step down follows a ruling two weeks ago by Central Coast Section officials that put the entire Salinas High athletic department on one-year probation – two years for the football team – for a series of rule violations, sportsmanship issues and eligibility problems.
The football team also received a two-year ban on playoffs while all other Salinas High sports were prohibited from post-season play for one year.
Ironside made his decision to resign after a meeting Wednesday morning with Salinas High principal John Macias.
“It was his call,” said Macias, who hired Ironside when he was at Gonzales High in 1990 and again after moving to Salinas High six years ago.
Ironside wouldn’t say if his decision to step down was based on Friday’s CCS ruling or any particular incident involving the football program.
“I just felt it was in the best overall interest of the Salinas High School athletic program,” he said.
Ironside will remain on staff as a health and physical education teacher.
He announced his decision to a group of Salinas High football players at about 1 p.m. in the school’s basketball gym.
“The reaction of the kids was more or less stunned,” Salinas High Athletic Director Paul MacDonald said.
Ironside spoke to team members for about 15 minutes before leaving the gym.
“There are a lot of things I can’t comment on,” Ironside said. “But I love to coach and I’ll always be interested.”
Ironside has been coaching football since 1979, the last six years at Salinas High.
Ironside’s resignation was another in a series of disruptive events that have rocked the Salinas High athletic program for nearly three months.
The football team has been under fire ever since a player was caught with a fraudulent address in November, forcing the Cowboys to forfeit five wins and a tie.
In late November, seven varsity football players received lifetime bans from high school sports for appearing in an unsanctioned television commercial.
It’s been a roller-coaster ride for Ironside, who told his players in mid-November he would not return to coach after Salinas had to forfeit the games and a spot in the CCS playoffs.
But during a team breakfast on the day of the final game, Ironside said he had changed his mind and would return.
Salinas Union High School District Superintendent Roger Anton was in a meeting in Monterey on Wednesday, but said he had received word of Ironside’s resignation.
“I got word he had submitted a letter of resignation,” Anton said. “Without talking to Mark, I don’t know what precipitated his decision.”
CCS Commissioner Nancy Lazenby-Blaser said it was doubtful that Ironside’s resignation would affect any sort of appeal that might be made by Salinas High administrators to reduce the sanctions against its athletic program.
“There was so much discussion by the hearing panel – it wasn’t focused primarily on one person by any stretch,” Lazenby-Blaser said. “I don’t think this changes anything significantly.”
Ironside has been at Salinas High for six years following a successful 10-year run at Gonzales High.
He had Salinas High headed to the playoffs for the third time in five years this season until the forfeits turned a 6-3-1 record into a 1-8 mark.
Ironside’s six-year, on-field record at Salinas High is 36-21-3.
In Ironside’s second year as Salinas coach, the Cowboys beat Hollister to claim the 2001 CCS Division II championship – just the second football title in school history.
Salinas went 9-1 in the regular season in 2002 before losing in a second-round playoff game.
Contact George Watkins at gw******@************an.com.
