Dave White wanted a former Edison player to replace him as the school’s football coach.
It happened. Former Edison quarterback Jeff Grady was named Edison’s coach on Thursday.
This past season was White’s 31st and final season coaching the Chargers. White resigned to create time to watch his son Garrett play football at Yale.
Edison will be Grady’s first head coaching assignment. He was an assistant coach at Santa Margarita the past five years under three different head coaches, Harry Welch, Rick Curtis and current Eagles coach Rich Fisher. Grady previously was an assistant coach at Fresno State where he coached tight ends in 2007 and ’08 before becoming the team’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2009-11 under Pat Hill.
For Grady, coaching at Edison, one of Orange County’s more successful football programs, is a dream job.
“It’s always special when you have the opportunity to be back at your alma mater,” Grady said.
During White’s tenure Edison won 13 Sunset League championships, including nine over the past 11 seasons, and two CIF-Southern Section championships, including the 2016 Division 3 title. In 2016, the Chargers went undefeated in the Sunset League and finished 13-2 overall.
Among the quarterbacks Grady worked with at Fresno State was current Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr. At Santa Margarita, he has been position coach for quarterbacks, defensve backs, receivers and offensive line.
Since announcing his intention to resign before the 2016 season began, White expressed his hope that an Edison alum would replace him.
“As the outgoing coach that’s what you’d like,” White said. “But it doesn’t always happen that way.”
Grady said what he learned from White will be incorporated into how he coaches the Chargers.
“Coach White taught how to be men and how to handle adversity,” Grady said. “I’ve been lucky to have so many good mentors. My parents are No. 1, and then there’s Coach White and Coach Hill and the coaches we’ve had at Santa Margarita.”
There had been speculation that Grady or Canyon coach Mike Ogas, also an Edison alum, were the leading candidates to be White’s successor. White was not on the hiring committee but gave the committee his opinion of both coaches.
“I stressed to them how important it would be to the team, the players and the parents that it should be Mike or Jeff,” White said. “I would be happy either way.”
Fisher said Grady has what it takes to succeed as a head coach.
“He played quarterback at a high level, coached offense in college and dealt with everything at the high school level,” Fisher said. “He’s super bright when it comes to Xs and Os. He relates very well to kids and he’s got a great demeanor to him.”
Grady’s younger brother, Tommy, also played quarterback at Edison.
Grady’s first day as Edison’s coach is Feb. 6. He said he has not had time to decide upon the personnel for his coaching staff.
“I’ll get on that shortly,” Grady said. “The guys who’ve been here did an unbelievable job. I’ll sit down with all of them and if they say they want to stay then I’d love to have them.”
Contact the reporter: sfryer@scng.com
