Stewart to accept Fresno High football coaching post

Rick Stewart didn’t want to leave Porterville High. But the Fresno Unified School District has made an offer he can’t refuse.

Stewart said he would be ironing out the final details on Thursday afternoon with Fresno High to become its new football coach. Stewart will leave PHS after serving as the Panthers’ football coach for the past five seasons and turning around the program in the process.

Stewart said he has yet to turn in his resignation to PHS, but added he plans to do so by Tuesday. He also said Fresno High will still have to negotiate buying out his contract from PHS in the process.

It was hoped, Stewart said, that he could hold off in announcing his move. But word leaked out about Stewart’s decision and when Stewart’s players at PHS found out about it, he said he had to go public, adding he talked to his players on Thursday morning.

Fresno High had scheduled a press conference for a week from today to announce Stewart’s hiring, but since his impending hiring is public knowledge, Stewart said that press conference may be held sooner.

When talking about leaving PHS, Stewart said, “emphatically, I did not want to leave.” But at Fresno, Stewart effectively will not have to teach in a classroom as he does at PHS and will basically be a full-time football coach at Fresno. He will oversee weight training classes and study hall solely with his football players.

“That right there in a nutshell was probably a deal-maker,” Stewart said.

And the job will mean a raise in pay. “All that adds up to a better quality of life,” said Stewart, adding it “all added up to not having to work as hard.”

Stewart said he did approach the district, saying that “if you can get anywhere close to matching that,” as far as Fresno’s effort, he would have stayed at Porterville.

“I did not go looking,” said Stewart about pursuing other possible jobs, adding he turned down two job offers in Utah.

While Stewart stressed he received a great deal of support from his boosters and the community, another reason for leaving was Fresno High does have an outstanding support network. Stewart said he’ll have “$100,000 in seed money to get me started.”

Another reason for leaving is Stewart will have six other on-campus coaches he’ll be working with and that three teaching positions are being kept open that will also including coaching football, giving Stewart’s program at Fresno a total of 10 on-campus coaches. At PHS, there have been just two on-campus football coaches, Stewart and head assistant coach, defensive coordinator Carl Scudder.

“That’s a biggie,” said Stewart about how having so many on-campus coaches affected his decision. “I don’t think people understand that,” Stewart also said about the importance of on-campus coaches.

And Stewart noted that Fresno schools have an open enrollment policy. Stewart said last season there were close to 10 starters at Valley powers Bullard and Central alone who began school at Fresno, so a key will be keeping those players at Fresno.

The most important game for Fresno is against arch rival Roosevelt and Fresno alumni should like what they hear when it comes to what Stewart has to say about that rivalry. “I’m not worried,” Stewart said. “We’ll beat them every year just like we beat Monache every year.”

Stewart will face a rebuilding project at Fresno that’s similar to the one he faced at PHS.

“They’re a very low performing Division III school,” Stewart said. “They’re the same as Porterville when I got here. They’re where Porterville was five years ago.”

In 2007, Stewart arrived at PHS and by his second season in 2008, he had turned the Panthers into a winner. PHS has had winning seasons and gone to the playoffs the last four years. Stewart also led Porterville to two Valley runner-up finishes when the Panthers finished 11-3 in 2009 and 12-1 in 2010. In 2010, Porterville won the East Yosemite League title and had its first perfect 10-0 season since 1991. Last year, PHS finished 8-4 and advanced to the Division III Valley quarterfinals under Stewart.

As far as Stewart’s possible successor, Scudder said he “will definitely apply for the job” once it officially comes open and Stewart has endorsed Scudder for the position.

On what Stewart did at PHS, Scudder said, “I think he did a tremendous job here at Porterville High, for the district and for the community.”

And on what Stewart will be able to accomplish at Fresno, Scudder said, “It’s going to be what Rick Stewart does best. He’s going to rebuild the program.”