GHS football brings back a coaching legend
GILROY – Mustang head football coach Darren Yafai knew the time would come again when Gilroy High coaching legend Rich Masey would return to the gridiron.
Every chance he got, Yafai dropped hints that he wanted his one-time offensive coordinator and former coach during his playing days at Gilroy High back. Each time, Masey would thank him for the opportunity before politely turning him down.
“Every year I would bug him. I knew sooner or later he was going to come out,” said Yafai of Masey. “I always held out hope some day he’d come back.”
Well, guess who’s back?
The 27-year coaching veteran finally caved in and decided to take Yafai up on his offer, joining the Gilroy High staff as a part-time offensive line coach.
“I never really left Gilroy High,” said the Gilroy High physical education teacher who has remained in his teaching position since 1974. “I just felt the time is right to donate some time.”
“Football has always been a true love of mine,” Masey added. “I love working with young men who come out for sports. They are generally motivated to do the best they can. That’s a reward in itself.”
The entire Gilroy High coaching staff is delighted to have him back.
“Coach Masey is going to make us a way better offensive unit,” said offensive coordinator Tim Pierleoni, who was a freshman at Gilroy High when Masey was at the varsity level. “The kids like to play for him. He’s going to be a huge addition for Gilroy High football.”
“I think he invented the O-line,” said Charles Ogle of his one-time assistant wrestling coach. “He has a great rapport with the kids. Definitely, we’re going to have a better O-line next year. He doesn’t yell. He’s not a screamer, but he’s very firm. The kids respect him. He’s got that aura about him.”
With five spring work-out sessions already completed, Masey’s new players also are glad to learn under a man Yafai calls “the magi of offensive line coaches.”
“We never had an offensive line coach as long as I’ve been here so that’s going to be big,” said sophomore lineman Robert Best of Masey. “He’s the kind of guy who expects you to do what he does. He doesn’t get mad. He’s not in your face. He just expects you to do the work and since we all like him we do it.”
Masey coached at every level of high school football in Gilroy during his tenure from 1974-2000. He even coached Yafai in the 1985-86 season, which marked the last time the Mustangs won a league championship.
“I always looked up to him and had a lot of respect for him,” said Yafai, who was a wide receiver in high school. “His O-line coaching that was the dominant part of the team. We were a run-attack. I was a wide receiver and all I did was block.”
Yafai returned to teach at Gilroy High in 1991 and Masey was the freshmen head football coach. Wanting to coach as well, Yafai asked Masey if he could be his wide receivers’ coach. Yafai expected to be join the freshmen staff, but instead he moved right into the varsity receivers spot because the opening was there.
“During my time as an assistant, I told (Masey) if I ever get the head job, I wanted him to be my coordinator and help me out,” said Yafai, who was named head varsity football coach at age 29. “Although I had been coaching high school football for seven years, I still needed guidance and a mentor.”
That mentor was Masey, who became Yafai’s offensive coordinator and assistant coach for one season at Gilroy High.
“Every day whatever it was, in meetings or on the practice field or in games, I looked to him for guidance and advice. Most of all I wanted him to be a mentor,” Yafai said. “He let me know when I needed to be tougher and when certain things needed to be focused on.”
But at the end of the season, Masey stepped away from the program he had been apart of for nearly three decades.
“I broke away from the coaching ranks to spend more time with my family,” said Masey, who has one son and two daughters.
Masey, who still attended some football games, spent the next four years as solely a physical education teacher at Gilroy High School.
That all changed a few months ago when Masey, who was a track coach at Gilroy High, agreed to return to the gridiron on a part-time basis.
“I’m familiar with working with Darren,” said Masey, who was an offensive tackle at the University of the Pacific. “I’m just a coach that believes in fundamentals. If you teach the basics well, everything else becomes easy.”
Masey has been assisting Coach Steven Lo with the offensive line, which includes four returners from last season.
“We have a great young assistant Steven Lo. I’m his assistant. He’s a very smart, energetic young man,” said Masey, getting his first taste of the new-age Mustangs last month at spring workouts. “I was quite impressed with their athleticism and their attitude. It seems like the team has a good group of young men this year.”
And things have not changed too much since Masey’s heyday.
“We didn’t play Palma too much then, just preseason. The Live Oak and Hollister rivalries are still as strong as they used to be,” he said.
Masey will offer his expertise three days a week during practices and will be up in the booth for Friday night games.
“O-line techniques and schemes have changed through the ages and some have come back full circle, and Masey has coached every faze and trend. He’s got experience with all of it,” Yafai said. “Coach Masey, as a part-time O-line coach, is better than most other full-time coaches.”
