By Tim Peterson
(Whittier) – Louie Zamora, who was a former assistant, was named the head football coach at California Monday AD Jim Arnold confirmed.
Zamora was an assistant under Arnold at Cal in 2008 and 2009 and also served as defensive coordinator in 2014. He has also coached at the lower levels at the school over several years.
“He has stayed within our program for several years and has earned all of the players confidence. He has also been in several different programs and is completely qualified to take the next step to be a head coach,” Arnold said.
Zamora was on Arroyo’s staff as well in 2011 and ’12. “He was a great DL coach. One of the best assistants I’ve ever worked with,” said Arroyo HC Jim Singiser.
Zamora takes over for Kyle Trudell who stepped down after the season. The Condors finished 4-6 last year and missed the playoffs.
“CALIFORNIA DREAMING’! ?? with due respect u may be dreaming; Your statistics are very, very far from truth! Wow! Very negative, but worse is the fact that you should have gone to max preps or elsewhere to realize the TRUTH on Cal hi football during the last two decades (in which you claim, wrongly, that “only Ancich had success with his recruiting”!) I Wrong! ??What ? now truth= Arnold won a lot; (Yes I do 100% think, not know, Arnold was very fortunate to take over Ancich’s well trained, disciplined, football passioned players!! But he did win with them! Reach their potential? I dont know) first year cif semis and 4-1 in league; next year went to playoffs and lost; in 09 tj jones year they went 9-3-1 and semifinal loss to CIF Champs and consistent CIF Power Charter Oak and won league undefeated. Terrace Jones on club; in 10 third in league and playoffs first round loss; and 11 beat la serna for 2nd time in 3 years ; and that was when Beltran was at LS!! and 2nd in league; in 12 3r in league. with embarrassing loss to La Serna when all they had to do was take a knee and win game, but they ran another play and scored. Therefor LS got ball with 30 seconds , drove field and TD and beats Cal. then final year no playoffs; that is good career for him. So u have wrong stats. B4 Ancich was Patricio; won league and lost to los altos in semis in 2001 season I think; Gonzales at QB; LeVier at wide receiver, and more; los altos with great future pro. Then patricio made playoffs again in his last season at Cal. Before him was coach from florida and he improved Cal a lot, improved to 2nd in DRL before moving to Lompoc to coach. LeVier on team of great athletes; several were part of Cif champs in baseball. U r only correct on years b4 that. So the program was , for many years pretty darn good, and has regressed over last 5-6 years. That is the real stats for Cal over the last 2 decades
‘Getting the kids to ‘buy in’ is the ‘highest quality a successful head coach has!” Period. I think, not know/nor do I claim to know more football than other posters do!/ I just believe in my suggestions and state them= there is also some positive statements here, not only negative. Cal has moved down, consistently, in the DLR during Arnold’s last season and throughout Trudell’s seasons. Therefor I think that if Zamora gets his club to the playoffs (and I think that means 2nd place; or maybe if they have great record overall, and place third they may earn wild card berth) in first or second year ….Zamora has done a great job. Cal players must learn how to win; that is not easy with LS and now , thanks to coaching (as Lopez showed a few years back) The Ranch is a good club and I think will continue unless their head coach takes his show elsewhere. Then there is SF , who I think won league a year or two ago. Tough job. Now, if Medrano leaves and ER’s new coach is not real good, then that is advantage Cal
Area Dad; I respect your thoughts; and I do not claim to be fully correct, nor know more than any other person that posts on this site; I do have confidence in my suggestions though; and with due respect=you posted ‘if Zamora can instill the toughness and work ethic he learned at The Ranch; CAL WILL be the team to beat in the DRL”! That comment does suggest they have more talent than other teams. La Serna has, over and over and over again, proved to be a very, very very good team. The loss of Beltran has not mattered too much and that definitely suggests that their players are very talented; and they still have a very good staff. I think, not know, that part of the reason Cal has ‘fallen’ the past 5 or 6 years ; The coach before Trudell, his last year no playoffs, then trudell teams were middle of pack; did they ever earn playoffs; I just believe if the , as you suggested, “if the talent has always been there’ they would have won more games.
Not a Cal supporter but I wouldn’t count them out just because the new HC is “unproven” or whatever negative press he is getting. Zamora is a good dude. I think it will depend on his support staff and whether or not he can get the kids to buy in. If he can do that he’s got a good shot at making an impact in the DRL.
Oh do not mistake Zamora for being a nice guy. He will bring discipline to the team
Never said they had better talent just said talent, sporty
Condor fans are delusional if they think that promoting one of the guys who was an integral part of Cal’s current decline will somehow turn things around. Let’s get real here and admit that the only success Cal has had in football for DECADES was when Dusan Ancich came in and recruited the hell out of the area, building a powerhouse of huge linemen and swift-footed skill players.
That all came crashing down when the administration felt they needed a coach who would present a clean, rule-abiding image to the world, and the man who embodied that image was Jim Arnold. When nice guy Jim compiled a losing record, he was retained out of sheer love for nice guys, and replaced by another swell fellow named Kyle Trudell. Now Trudell has been shown inadequate to the task of winning, and, applying the rule that nice guys get the grease, Kyle has been replaced with yet another staff favorite, the ultimate nice guy Louie Zamora. There is no telling how many losses this man will inflict upon a school that seems to ask for failure.
Area Dad= Cal has better talent than La Serna? Sure dad! Arnold left for a good reason=less talent; no more Grigsby or TJ; nor the teams that beat LaSerna in 09 and 11!!
If Zamora can instill the toughness and work ethics he learned at El Rancho Cal will be the team to beat in the Del Rio. Cal has always had the talent but lacked the direction. Zamora can make a team believe and bring out the best in a team
There is a buzz around the program that hasnt been there in years. I think they will be OK.
Way to stay in 4th place cal High! Hopefully Santa Fe has another awful season and Whittier takes a step back (doubt it with that RB they have) and you can sneak up to 3rd place and ALMOST make the playoffs.
Good luck Louie. Proud of you. Go get it done now.
Congratulations to Coach Zamora. Serving as a high school football head coach is one of life’s most demanding challenges, and I wish you success at the current opportunity that you have earned.
you guys keep sleeping on Louie …
hes more than ready for this… i wish him best of luck!
as for A.White taking cal, hes a great coach….. but also a GREAT RECRUITER!!!!!!!
but regardless…. big M is back..so we know all recruits will shift to LM now
I can only stand in awe of Jim Arnold for showing the guts to go with another first-time head coach. Other athletic directors might has done the safe thing and gone with an experienced guy, but Jim has the courage to stand-up for what he believes.
Don’t count out Cal… unless your Winchell, lulz.
Hahaha. No Horse…errr I mean No Knowledge Louie is more than experienced enough. He is a solid coach who has built excellent relationships with his players. Trust it’s a 100% improvement from the last guy.
Do they care? Do the administrators and AD care? I hope he does well though. Did not open up position/ never on CIF Coaches wanted site! That definitely suggests that coach from Buena Park , Anthony White, and other extremely successful coaches will not have a chance to turn around less than average program as they have done before. Tough task; White had great success with fairly similar socio economic kids
You’re right to many schools let those kinda guys go and they end up be good coaches at other schools.
At some point you roll the dice and hire the guy that has paid his dues by loyalty and doing the dirty work. If you don’t you will keep getting recycled coaches. Before you folks on here rip up this choice how about giving him a chance?
I don’t know Trudell or Zamora but I do know Cal doesn’t learn from its own mistakes. They replaced a coach that had no varsity head coaching experience with a coach that has no varsity head coaching experience. Here’s to another 5 years of mediocrity Cal High! Player confidence in a program that hasn’t made the playoffs in 4 years isn’t saying much. Technically wouldn’t this coach be part of the problem if he stayed in the program? La Serna and El Rancho are going to just run this league.
Pretty awesome that both Adrian Medrano and his former El Rancho teammate Louie Zamora will be head coaches in the same league this upcoming season.