Oscar Robles (shown here last year with his brother Bryan) is the new head coach at Workman.
By Tim Peterson
(City of Industry) – Former Northview quarterback Oscar Robles, who has spent the last four years as a Viking assistant, has been named the head coach at Workman.
The Lobos went 4-6 last year.
Robles graduated from Northview in 2009 and also played at Waldorf University through 2014.
” I’m very happy and blessed to become the new head coach of Workman high. I grew up down the street from Workman until I was about 12, so it feels kind of fun to come back to the area where I grew up. My ultimate goal was to become a head coach eventually down the line, but I was able to have an amazing opportunity sooner than expected and I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of something new,” Robles said. “Coach (Marcel) Perez has done a great job mentoring myself as a coach for the past 4 years, and I’m very thankful to have been able to learn how to build and guide a successful program in the right direction from him.”
Any time, NWO. Good luck with your rebuilding at San Gabriel. I’d like the football teams in our district to upend those Montebello schools every now and then. They’ve dominated the Almont League for far too long.
Thanks Mr. Vrooman. You more than you think.
I give him 2 years , and he’s back with perez being a coordinater . That district is where head coaches go to kill their careers
Oops; I’m sorry about the editing mistake! The final sentence of my last post should read, “This factor might also be in play at San Gabriel.”
That’s what I get for being in a hurry to finish.
NWO, I’m not as familiar with the football program at San Gabriel High as I am with those at Alhambra and Mark Keppel, but I’ll try to give you some useful information.
In reading San Gabriel’s postings of the head coach vacancy on the CIF Southern Section website, it appears that the school is trying to be flexible in its approach to filling the position. The school administration is advertising the vacancy as either a walk-on job, or as one that comes with a social studies/P.E. teaching position.
This could be an indication that they’re having trouble attracting applicants. It’s good that the administration is finally offering a full-time teaching job with the head coaching position, but now they need to find someone who has a social studies or P.E. credential to fill it.
The last on-campus head football coach that the Matadors have had was Jude Oliva, who resigned after the 2012 season. However, Coach Oliva worked in campus security and didn’t have a teaching credential at the time he served as head coach. I can’t say whether that was a factor in his departure.
The last head coach at San Gabriel who was also a teacher there was Keith Jones, who’s now the athletic director. He ran the football program in the early 2000’s, and, by the way, his offensive coordinator was Jude Oliva, who is regarded as one of the best in that position. Coach Jones also had Donald Bernard as his defensive coordinator.
Try as he did during the last several years, Joe Ledesma, who was a walk-on coach himself, might not have had assistants who were of the same caliber. I’m speculating a bit here, since I don’t know anyone who worked on Coach Ledesma’s staff.
However, the program has declined dramatically since 2011, when the Matadors appeared in the CIF Mid-Valley Division championship game. It’s possible that potential head coaching applicants are shying away now because they know they’d be undertaking a major rebuilding effort if they accepted the San Gabriel job.
It also seems that the Matadors’ varsity team has fielded fewer highly-skilled or well-developed players over the last several seasons. Lately, they just haven’t come up with players like Frankie Bernard, Arthur Brown, Andy Guerrero, Alex Villalobos, or Joseph Mayorga.
As others have said on these blog threads, it’s a lot easier to coach superior athletes who already have considerable knowledge of the sport than it is to teach Football 1 at the varsity level. This factor might be also be in play at San Gabriel.
Hey Ron, why can’t San Gabriel find a coach?
Well if he is too young, then you old farts should apply for the job. Old, young, who cares at this point these programs need a coach. If he stinks then he stinks, but I’m sure he will learn from this experience. Good luck to him!
Based on the fact that he graduated from high school in 2009, Oscar Robles should be 25 or 26 years old now. But, NWO’s point is well taken; Oscar is unusually young for a varsity football head coach. I wish him the best as well.
21!? I think 30 is still pretty young to be a varsity football head coach. Good luck.
WOW! If no teaching job, it’s a rookie mistake. Even with teaching job, rookie mistake. Come on dude….it’s Workman. LOL.
At Least he will not be Coaching at Horrible So. Elmonte.
Is there a teaching job w/ this gig? Hard to build a program if the head guy isn’t a teacher. Any other faculty members coaching? Need both things to have a fighting chance. Good Luck.
Hard to see how a guy who is young enough to get carded at ten out of ten liquor stores is going to succeed at any high-pressure endeavor, let alone the seething pit of dysfunction that is Workman football. Still, we wish Oscar the best of luck as he grabs the bull by the horns.
In other words, here comes the recruiting trail to workman.
Young coach the game is involving Oscar and his staff are players coaches, they will be a good fit for the kids! Good luck coach Robles!
Wish you good luck, you’re going to need it.