Lewis Lahood, a standout Falcon lineman from 2010, former championship-winning JV coach, and 2018 Varsity assistant coach, has taken on the Varsity head coaching spot for the 2019 season.
The appointment caps a long search for a replacement after storied coach Louie Walters announced his retirement last year.
Lahood coached the Falcon’s JV team through 2014. Of that time, he wrote, “After two years of running the freshman and JV offensive/defensive lines, I was named the first frosh-soph head coach in Scotts Valley history at 21 years old. I was given the challenge of the one of the largest single rosters in Scotts Valley history with 50+ players going into the season. With almost zero organizational experience and only two years of coaching under my belt, the challenges of gaining the respect of a huge roster of players and a coaching staff, of which I was the youngest by almost 5 years, were great. And with expectations sky high after the players had previously gone undefeated and had achieved great successes at seemingly every level they had played at, the pressure was on for me to deliver on the field, and off it, as the leader of the team.” And, “I am proud to say that season was a tremendous success not only on the field, but off it, as we lost zero players to poor grades, and portrayed class in our wins and our losses.”
In 2014 he moved up to coach the Varsity offensive and defensive lines. “The amount of preparation, higher level strategy, and complex game-planning was a challenge I thoroughly enjoyed meeting along with the rest of our tightly knit coaching staff,” Lahood wrote. “I believe that building relationships with the players will cause them to respect you as a person and play hard for you. I try to use this to create intrinsic motivation in my players not only for the game of football, which is temporary, but for lifelong values like health, hard work, and teamwork.”
Lahood received his Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology, Teaching Physical Education in 2015 and his Single Subject Credential/Physical Education in 2016, both from San Jose State University. When he is not at school or on a football field, you can usually find him on a disc golf course, at the gym, hanging out with the same group of friends he’s had since 2nd grade, or camping with his family and enjoying the outdoors.
