Justin Schaeffer resigned as Fountain Valley football coach this week before having coached a Fountain Valley game.
Schaeffer, 41, was hired in March. He had been Murrieta Mesa’s only football head coach since the school opened in 2009.
The reason for his resignation was not revealed Friday. It could have been that Schaeffer and the school could not agree on his teaching assignment there or that Schaeffer and the school differed on the assembly of what would have been Schaeffer’s coaching staff.
Fountain Valley principal Morgan Smith said in an email sent to the school’s staff: “After further personal consideration, Justin Schaeffer has withdrawn his acceptance of the head football coaching position at Fountain Valley High School. Upon receiving this information, our administrative team immediately began the process in securing leadership for our football program. We will have Athletic Director, Steve Eggert oversee the facilitation of our program and utilize the strength of our varsity coaching staff to run our Spring Ball and Summer program.”
“It just didn’t work out,” Schaeffer said. “The kids at Fountain Valley are awesome. They have great boosters there and a great support staff. But it just didn’t work out.
At Fountain Valley he would have replaced Ray Fenton, who resigned there earlier this year to take the football coaching position at Los Alamitos, where Fenton succeeds all-time Orange County football victories leader John Barnes.
The timing is difficult for Fountain Valley. The school’s football program starts spring football Monday.
As for Schaeffer, Murrieta Mesa has hired his replacement. He still has a teaching position at Murrieta Mesa for the coming school year.
Murrieta Mesa was 5-5 overall and 2-3 in the Southwestern League in 2015. It was the first time the Rams had won more than one league game.
Schaeffer’s career overall record at Murrieta Mesa is 26-34. Murrieta Mesa is 3-27 in the Southwestern League in its six seasons of varsity football.
