Gilroy High School

The Gilroy High varsity field hockey team (1-0) routed host Sobrato 9-0 in nonleague action Thursday in Morgan Hill.

Standing at about the 35-yard line following a scrimmage with San Benito and Christopher last Friday night, first-year Gilroy High School varsity football head coach Brian Boyd improvised a possible motto for the Mustangs in 2012.

Eleven days separate this very moment from the opening bell of the 2012 high school football regular season. Other fall sports will get under way if not one or two days before, then a few days after. Nevertheless, the buzz is getting louder.

Jourdan Soares sprinted his way to a Central Coast Section championship in the 100-meter dash in 2011. He was third in 2012.

It wasn't exactly the start to his first year in charge of the Gilroy High School varsity football team that Brian Boyd envisioned after a productive summer.

The calm before the ... Well, that sentence can’t be completed, because the storm that is the start of the high school sports fall season is upon us.

It has been a busy six months on the coach-search front at Gilroy High School. Vacancies have popped up at a dandelion-like rate with coaches leaving posts for a variety of reasons. But with the fall season fast approaching, GHS filled two coaching voids, hiring Kassi Swalboski for girls varsity volleyball and Tim Jones for boys varsity basketball, athletic director Julie Berggren said Tuesday.

Jourdan Soares said statistics could have been tossed out the window. That coming from a guy who shredded defenses in amassing more than 1,400 receiving yards last fall. But as candid as ever, the Gilroy High speedster astutely stated that the only thing on the minds of the 45 players suited up for the South prior to the 38th annual Charlie Wedemeyer Silicon Valley Youth Classic All-Star football game was finding a way to carve out a win.

Earlier this year, former Gilroy High School quarterback Niko Fortino had a message on his phone. On the other end of the voicemail, Independence High School head coach Norm Brown relayed the news Fortino had wanted to hear for quite some time. He had been chosen to be a member on the South squad in the Silicon Valley Youth Classic Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star football game – the annual exhibition that showcases the upper-echelon of outgoing senior football players in Santa Clara County.

After two seasons in charge of the Gilroy High School boys varsity basketball team, Matt Tait will not return with the Mustangs next season.