Coach Jason Adams has recently been named head coach of the Varsity Football Team in place of Coach Greg Benzel who retired from the position last month. Coach Adams has been a defensive coordinator for the team for 17 years. Here are his thoughts on his new position:

Q: What is the first thing you want to take care of as head coach?

A: “I want to build a sense of pride within the student body, faculty, and administration. I just want people to be talking about Rocklin Football,” he said.  

He wants to see parents talking at the supermarkets about big games coming up and to see student’s talking about the team. He does not want the stigma of his players being big and scary. He wants to build a program that the community is proud of.

Q: What role will you be taking in the offense?

A: “Coach Kenny (the offensive coordinator) will be making the game plans for Friday nights. He will be the guy who oversees what happens on the offensive side of the ball. He will have a few coaches working under him. I wouldn’t say its complete autonomy, as a head coach I need to be involved, but he will be the guy that spearheads what gets done over there.”

Q: What will be the biggest difference between being a defensive coordinator and a head coach?

A: “I have been a head coach for little league football, so I’ve done that for six or seven years. I’ve had to oversee both sides but I’m not doing that this year. It’s just a lot more details now that I have to worry about. For example, Coach Benzel would take care of what time the bus would get here for an away game.”

Q: What lasting changes do you want to make?

A: “ We have a great parent group right now and our parent group is ready to come work, help fundraise, and volunteer. We are currently updating our weight room a little bit so our facilities are improving. From facilities, to parents, to administration, we are as good as we could be. All we gotta do is keep working hard.”

Junior Mason Decker says, “I don’t think it’s really going to affect the team that much because he was a big part of our coaching staff last year. I think he will be a little bit more involved in offense this year but I think he is still going to be defensively focused because we have Coach Kenny for offense. He’s just going to have to deal with some more stuff like sponsorships and fundraisers.”

Coach Benzel was a great leader, losing any coach is hard for a team. But with Coach Adams as the new head coach, the future for Rocklin Football looks bright.