Sobrato High School has a new head football coach who will meet
his new teams Thursday, while former head coach and Hollister
resident Jeff Patterson is on paid leave awaiting completion of
further investigation of his case by the Morgan Hill Police
Department at the behest of the District Attorney’s Office.
Sobrato High School has a new head football coach who will meet his new teams Thursday, while former head coach and Hollister resident Jeff Patterson is on paid leave awaiting completion of further investigation of his case by the Morgan Hill Police Department at the behest of the District Attorney’s Office.
“We have been without a coach, and right now is an important time to be doing work with our football teams,” Sobrato Principal Rich Knapp said Monday, of Wilcox High’s Dan Brown taking Patterson’s spot. “There are things to be done, schedule planning, equipment refurbishing, planning for our spring activities. It has been a difficult time not having our head coach here. We made a decision to fill the position.”
Patterson has been on paid leave since early November, but the school district is holding his position as a math teacher at Sobrato High School until the investigation concludes. Police began investigating Patterson on Nov. 8 after a 16-year-old female student allegedly told her parents that Patterson “urged” her to forge a note to get out of her sixth period class a week prior, met her on Burnett Avenue, gave her a ride to the UPS store and then parked on a street while she performed oral sex on him.
Police initially presented the results of their investigation to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office at the end of November. Victoria Brown, of the district attorney’s sexual assault team, reviewed the case and requested additional investigation in early December. MHPD detectives complied, taking the case back to Brown again Jan. 19, when she reviewed it and once again requested further investigation.
Morgan Hill Police Cmdr. Joe Sampson said this round of the investigation could be finished as soon as next week.
Brown has refused to comment until the investigation is completed.
Patterson’s lawyer, Larry Biegle, had said earlier he would not comment again until Brown decides whether to file charges. When asked to comment on the hiring of a new Sobrato coach, Biegle said Patterson would support the school.
“We respect that they need to move forward,” he said. “But Jeff’s heart will be with that football team, with Sobrato. Jeff will be a big supporter of Sobrato athletics.”
Dan Brown, who attended Oak Grove High, will also teach physical education at Sobrato. He said he is bringing an experienced coaching staff with him.
“I have seven paid slots, including myself, and I would like to fundraise for two more,” he said. “I’d have five working with the varsity and four with the frosh/soph. I think we can build a very strong program.”
Brown said Monday he is looking forward to joining the staff at Sobrato.
“I hear good things,” he said. “I’m within the boundary, also, born and raised in South County. I’m looking forward to building the program.”
Knapp said he received seven or eight applications for the position.
“I was pleased – we had a deep pool of qualified coaches,” he said. “It was kind of exciting. When we narrowed it down, I asked other coaches around, and to a man, they all said he would do a wonderful job with the program.”
