There’s always plenty of fight in Gilroy High football coach
Rich Hammond.
There’s always plenty of fight in Gilroy High football coach Rich Hammond.
He’s not afraid to speak his mind, although he will not publicly bash players. He will, however, say things that people might not want to hear. If feelings get hurt, so be it.
One of those things he said 12 hours after his first season as Mustangs’ coach ended with a 29-21 loss to San Benito was that Gilroy needs to be more like the ‘Balers.
“That’s definitely the mentality I want to bring here,” said Hammond, a former undersized, overachieving San Benito defensive back. “They have been to more section title games in the last seven years than anybody else. They are a public high school.”
San Benito coach Chris Cameron and his staff installed an entire new offensive package just for the game last Thursday against Gilroy. Hammond talked about how that showed respect for the Mustangs. But he knew it was more than that.
Theoretically, last week’s Prune Bowl should have meant more to Gilroy because it had more riding on the game. After all, the ‘Balers were already in the playoffs. But San Benito plays to win regardless of the circumstances and takes the Prune Bowl trophy seriously. It’s been that way seemingly forever.
Hollister is a community that gets fired up about its football team. It travels well and demands excellence from its football team. Cameron demands the same and reportedly has wonderful rapport with his players. How else to explain being successful at installing new schemes in less than one week.
“It’s a different mentality there,” Hammond said. “They put a bond measure on a ballot for a second high school and it gets destroyed. The put a bond measure for expanding the original high school and it wins in a landslide.”
This year’s star running back, Tim Lango, is a typical San Benito player. Gilroy saw more talented backs all season. The Mustangs didn’t see one who played with more heart.
Much like GHS defensive back Vince Giacalone, another 5-6, 160-pounder, Lango never shies away from contact. The bigger the linemen, the harder he runs at them since he doesn’t have the blazing speed to run away from them.
“Hollister is doing it year in, year out with less talent,” Hammond said. “The proof is in the pudding. I want us to be more like them. If people don’t like it, that’s their problem.”
Hammond believes the Mustangs can be as successful as the ‘Balers. But he knows that talent can only take a team so far.
GHS star running back Paul Gonzales and several of his fellow seniors addressed the team immediately after the Prune Bowl. Gonzales has come as far as any Gilroy player, getting his academics in order and buying into the “we, not me” concepts that were introduced by Hammond and his staff.
Their message to the underclassmen was clear: We started this and now you have to finish it. You need to get better.
With a junior varsity team that went 8-2 and several key returnees next year, the program should be headed in the right direction. But anyone who doesn’t want to buy into the Hollister in Hammond will need to get off the train before it leaves the tracks.
Contact Marc David at (408) 842-1694 or at [email protected].
