Jacob Newman has been waiting for this opportunity for a while. The 24-year-old Newman is the new Gilroy High football coach, and he can’t wait to get things rolling.
“The immediate goal is to get the kids together and establish the team culture and expectations from a day to day and practice perspective,” Newman said. “Long term, we want to create better men and women who are involved in the program long after they graduate from here. I’m here to create better students and individuals, and using football to better themselves—not letting football use them.”
Newman takes over for Jubenal Rodriguez, who helped resurrect the program and has since become the coach of Monte Vista Christian. Even though Newman has no previous coaching experience, he feels everything he’s learned from playing Division I football at Southeastern Louisiana University will translate into his new role.
“That is where I picked up most of my experience from a game management point,” he said. “The process how to run practice and everything that goes into running a team I’ve learned from a lot of coaches from Louisiana and Alabama. I’ve always wanted to coach sports, and I love football more than anything else in the world. I love seeing kids grow and I’m a big believer that students you can use football to an avenue of success in every part of their lives.”
Newman was actually at a job fair when he meet assistant superintendent Alvaro Meza. The two had a nice conversation which eventually led to Newman applying for the job at Gilroy.
In an email to the school’s staff, Gilroy Principal Marco Sanchez said Newman “is a very hard working, disciplined, and experienced player. He is an excellent teacher and will bring a wealth of playing experience from the collegiate and university levels to the program. Caoch Newman will work closely with the existing assistant coaching staff to get spring ball off the ground in May.”
