A sign in the JSerra football team room read, “You can’t win until you learn to stop losing.”
“We took that sign down a year ago,” JSerra coach Jim Hartigan said.
A new sign can take its place, one that reads, “Jim Hartigan, 2014 Orange County Football Coach of the Year.”
Hartigan is county football coach of the year for leading JSerra to a historic season.
The Lions qualified for the CIF-SS playoffs for the first time. They won a playoff game for the first time. They reached 10 wins for the first time, and they were No. 1 in the final Orange County rankings. Perhaps just as important to JSerra and to the world of Orange County Catholic school football, JSerra beat Mater Dei for the first time.
It had been a long, hard road for Hartigan and JSerra.
In 2006, JSerra was forced to join the Trinity League. The school wanted to be in a league with Orange County schools, but not one that had the county’s big Catholic school teams in it. No league of county public schools wanted JSerra in its league, so JSerra was sent to the Trinity League with Mater Dei, Orange Lutheran, Santa Margarita, Servite and St. John Bosco.
JSerra forfeited all five of its Trinity League games in ’06. The Lions played Trinity games in ’07 and lost them all five of them by a cumulative score of 279-28. But things got better. JSerra won its first Trinity game, a victory over Santa Margarita, in 2009.
The Lions regressed in 2010, going 0-5 in league. Then progress resumed: a league win over Orange Lutheran in 2011; an overtime loss to St. John Bosco and a season-ending win over Orange Lutheran in 2012.
The 2013 season was a breakthrough. The Lions, who went 5-0 in nonleague games, ended the regular season with back-to-back league wins over Servite and JSerra. They finished in a three-way tie for third place in the Trinity, but failed to receive an at-large berth to the playoffs.
JSerra did not let a committee decide its playoff fate this year. The Lions went 5-0 in nonleague games, including 42-28 win over state-ranked St. Bonaventure of Ventura, their most significant nonleague win. Then they went 4-1 in the Trinity League to finish second behind St. John Bosco, which JSerra lost to by only five points.
The Lions got that first playoff win in the Pac-5 Division first round, a resounding 55-16 triumph over Santiago of Corona for their 10th win of the season. JSerra lost to Bishop Amat by a touchdown in the second round.
“This all would have been hard to believe five years ago,” said Hartigan, 54. “We’re still really trying to put together the foundation of our football program. But we’ve found out what it takes to win in the Trinity League.”
Hartigan learned what it takes to win long ago.
He played defensive back and receiver at University High and defensive back at Cal State Fullerton when the Titans had a thriving football program. Soon after his playing days ended, Hartigan became an assistant coach at University and then at Mater Dei.
At age 26, Hartigan was selected to be Santa Margarita’s first football coach, in 1986. The Eagles won a playoff game their first varsity season, 1989, and won CIF championships in 1996 and ’97.
Hartigan took the head coaching position at Clovis West in Fresno in 2003. He got another CIF championship ring with Clovis West. Hartigan accepted the JSerra coaching position in 2007.
He is thankful to many who believed in him along the way: Rich Schaaf, Santa Margarita’s longtime athletic director who gave the young Hartigan the keys to the football program; Andy Sulick, now an administrator at Santa Margarita who, when he was at JSerra was instrumental in getting Hartigan to JSerra; and former JSerra principal Tom Wazak for bringing Hartigan back to Orange County.
“There have been a lot of administrators, so many, who trusted my leadership and gave me the opportunities,” Hartigan said.
At JSerra, Hartigan has placed his trust in a staff of widely respected assistant coaches.
Offensive coordinator Sergio Muniz has been with Hartigan since the Santa Margarita days. Former NFL quarterback Billy Joe Hobert coaches the quarterbacks. Mike Milner, who was head coach of CIF champion teams at Fountain Valley and El Toro, and Scott McKnight, who coached defensive backs on a CIF title team at Tesoro, coach the Lions’ defensive backs. McKnight also coaches special teams. John Baggerly is defensive coordinator, Brian Bishop coaches receivers and Mike Walcott coaches linebackers.
It was a great season for those coaches and for the head coach. To Hartigan, though, the real greatness came from the players.
“Our kids put in a lot of hard work,” he said. “It was fun to see it pay off for them and for the school.”
————–
RELATED:
Offensive Player of the Year: Sam Darnold, San Clemente
Defensive Player of the Year: Matt Locher, Los Alamitos
All-Puprose and Special Teams capsules
Past Register All-County football award winners
————–
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
