One day after longtime Bonita coach Eric Podley and Covina’s Darryl Thomas resigned after spending more than a decade as head football coaches at their respective schools, one of the winningest in San Gabriel Valley history decided to hang it up after 19 years and a 70 percent winning clip in nearly two decades.

South Hills football coach Steve Bogan, who was named the Huskies’ head coach in 1992, resigned on Tuesday after winning four CIF-Southern Section titles, 13 league titles and compiling an overall record of 172-73 and 31-10 mark in the playoffs.

“It’s been a great, great ride,” Bogan said. “When I look back I’ve been very fortunate to be here this long. I’m not exactly sure where I’m going, but I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.”

Bogan, a government and history teacher at South Hills since 1985, will remain at the school and continue to teach.

Bogan, who nearly left South Hills to take the Maranatha head coaching job last year, had thought about stepping aside in recent years.

“I just thought it was the right time,” Bogan said. “When I first got hired my goal was to go 10 years without being fired, because you heard of so many quality guys getting fired and you’re like, `It’s what have you done for me lately?’

“To be here this long and accomplish everything we did, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. South Hills is my home, it’s a great place and I will continue to be here. I’ve always thought I was a teacher first, and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”

Bogan said it’s too early to decide whether he’s finished coaching, he just knew he needed time off.

“I don’t know exactly what you want to call it,” Bogan said. “I’m going to look at possibly getting an administrative credential. I just felt like the Lord was saying you have to see what life is like on the other end. There were a lot of factors and the biggest one was our kids. I love them all, this is why we do what we do.”

Damien coach Greg Gano started his career as an assistant with Bogan in 1992 at South Hills. Gano later won four championships as the head coach at Los Altos and remains close friends with Bogan.

“I don’t think anybody has any perspective of what he’s accomplished at South Hills High School,” Gano said. “Not just the wins and losses, but his influence on kids, even after they graduated. He’s always been a class act.”

Bogan was named the San Gabriel Valley Tribune coach of the decade from 2000-09 – a span in which he won four CIF titles in five finals appearances, and reached at least the quarterfinals all 10 years during that stretch. He also was named the Tribune and CIF-SS divisional coach of the year twice.

Bogan won his first championship in 2000, a 19-14 victory over La Habra in the DivisionIX title game that gave South Hills its first football title in 26 years.

After getting knocked out in the divisional semifinals in 2001, the Huskies won again in 2002, beating Walnut 36-8 for the Division VII title.

South Hills’ back-to-back bid came in 2003, which might have been Bogan’s best team of all. The 2003 championship team, led by brothers Bryan and Jeremy Payton, who went to Oregon State and Arizona State, respectively, allowed just six points in the playoffs, and that came in the Division VII championship game, a 25-6 blowout over San Gabriel.

After losing to rival West Covina in the Division VII championship game in 2004, spoiling the Huskies’ three-peat bid, South Hills came right back the following season.

Bogan’s final championship campaign was a rout at Covina District Field for the 2005 Division VII crown with a 41-16 victory over Orange.

South Hills’ football program grew into a divisional and area power under Bogan, which promoted South Hills’ move to the more difficult Sierra League and the Inland Division (equivalent of Division 2) in 2009 – a climb of seven divisions since the Huskies won the Division IX crown in 2000.

South Hills struggled the past two years, going 3-7 in 2010 and ’11. The Huskies missed the playoffs both years, the first time they had missed the playoffs since 1998.

“I thought about leaving two years ago, but we were in transition,” Bogan said. “Our principal (Judy North) was retiring and we were moving into a much tougher league and division.

“I wasn’t at peace with leaving then, but I just got to the point where it was time, and I’ll still be here to help make the transition (for the next coach) as smooth as possible.”

Read more: http://www.sgvtribune.com/preps/ci_19717630#ixzz1jGYT5qhl

Need him to fill in at quarterback for injured starter Vince Hernandez? No problem.

Need him to play wide receiver when Hernandez is healthy? No problem.

Need him to hit the game-winning field goal as a place-kicker?

Consider it done.

All this from a senior who strongly considered not playing this season because of a serious concussion suffered last year. For the Huskies’ sake, though, thank goodness football is in Sheehan’s blood.

“We’d be in a lot of trouble if we didn’t have him,” South Hills coach Steve Bogan said. “He has a Jim Thorpe-like quality; multi-talented and can kick, throw, play baseball, play football. It’s not surprising to us that he can step in and play any role we need filled.

“We’re grateful, but we’re not surprised.”

The original plan this season was for Sheehan to handle kicking duties and serve as a nice No. 2 receiver next to standout Jamie Canada. Due to Hernandez’s shoulder injury, that plan has been scrapped. Sheehan is the quarterback until Hernandez returns. His foot is also the one South Hills turns to when the Huskies are in a close game.

Thursday, Sheehan’s job was to drive the Huskies from their own 20-yard line into scoring position to break a 28-28 tie against powerful Los Osos in the final two minutes. Sheehan did just that, then hit the game-winning 27-yard field goal with 10.1 seconds left to send South Hills to a 31-28 victory.

“I’m just going to do whatever Coach Bogan asks me to do to help our team win,” Sheehan said. “If he needs me to play quarterback, I will play quarterback. My team needs me to step up, so I do it. It’s not like I also play defense.”

Sheehan’s game-winning kick Thursday took the sting off of a potential game-tying extra point he missed earlier in the season against Colony. In that game, the Huskies scored near the end of the game, decided to go for two, but a penalty pushed the Huskies back and they decided to kick the extra point. Unfortunately, though, Sheehan missed and South Hills lost, 30-29.

“That one hurt,” Sheehan said. “I felt like if we went into overtime, we had the momentum on our side and we could have pulled through. I felt like I really let the team down, but they helped me and picked me up and helped me push through it.”

So when Sheehan again got a chance to help his team with his leg, he wasn’t about to pass it up. South Hills had blown a 21-0 lead against Los Osos, but had a chance to eek out the victory with a field goal from Sheehan. But things started eerily similar to the Colony miss as he set up for the kick.

“It was kind of deja vu because we had a false start again,” Sheehan said. “I was thinking I was going to nail it because I didn’t want that taste in my mouth again. I had all the confidence in the world. I didn’t want to let my team down again.

“When I hit it, I was super excited. It was a good team win.”

Handling multiple roles on a football field is no surprise given his bloodlines. Sheehan is the son of former Covina coach Dick Sheehan, who is now the Superintendent of the Glendale Unified School District.

Before that, Dick Sheehan was the principal at Northview.

Danny Sheehan also has two uncles who played football at South Hills.

“I know the game,” Sheehan said. “I grew up around football with my dad being a coach.”

Despite the family lineage, baseball is Sheehan’s first love. He’s a second baseman and leadoff hitter for the Huskies’ strong baseball program. And because baseball is Sheehan’s biggest endeavor, his dad gave him the OK to give up football, especially after last year’s head injury.

“I was deciding this year whether or not to play football again,” Sheehan said. “I really figured that down the line I would miss it if I didn’t because I come from a football family.”

Read more…

From: sgvtribune.com ~ Aram Tolegian, Staff Writer

Not so, according to Huskies coach Steve Bogan, who will lead his team into action at Covina District Field against Colony at 7 p.m.

“We’re not about vengeance, or setting things right, or righting a past wrong,” Bogan said. “I’m very happy about last year’s season. The kids developed and got better and better. With what we have, our main goal every year is to get better, and I thought that team improved tremendously.

“Some of the kids now weren’t involved last year, and some were. It’s a mixed bag. Some guys are out there to maybe make a story right in their own minds, and others are out there just to play football.”

South Hills should give a much better account of itself this season thanks to several key returners, including quarterback Vince Hernandez and running back Jamel Hart. The real ace in the hole for Bogan is receiver Jamie Canada, who’s back from a knee injury and could give the offense the explosive element it was missing last year.

The Huskies must find improvement on defense, though, after allowing 35.6 points per game last season. Fortunately for Bogan, several defensive starters return, and Canada could be a force in the secondary.

Colony should present a nice test for South Hills after going 7-4 last year and finishing second behind Chino in the Mt. Baldy League. The Titans were the beneficiary of a transfer by quarterback Matt Simko to their team from Claremont.

The Huskies were able to get some information on Colony last week, and from what they saw, Bogan knows today’s game won’t be easy.

“They’ve got a lot of speed,” Bogan said. “They are up-tempo, no-huddle, and that’s always a bigger issue early in the year than later. You can just tell they’re very strong in the skill-athlete positions. You can tell they know what they’re doing and they’re well-coached.”

With expectations high again at South Hills, Bogan is like all Huskies fans: anxious to see just how improved this team will be. That makes tonight’s opener somewhat like opening a present.

“It’s like we’ve been working in the classroom but never taking any tests,” Bogan said. “Now we’re getting a chance to really find out what our strengths and weaknesses are.

“There’s definitely excitement. We want to find out where we’re at so we know what to do next.”

From: sgvtribune.com ~ Aram Tolegian, Staff Writer

Aram Tolegian, Staff Writer

I’m still not sure what to make of it, but I’m leaning toward it being anything but a cruel ending. A cruel season, yes. A cruel ending, no.

How the Huskies were two fourth-quarter leads away from making it to the CIF-SS Inland Division playoffs is beyond me. How they beat Claremont, then took Charter Oak to overtime is total mystery unless you’re judging heart.

On Friday night, two of what would have been South Hills’ biggest offensive threats were wearing Charter Oak blue.

Several zip codes away, three more Huskies starters were wearing Amat blue in a loss to Alemany.As for the players who didn’t seek greener pastures, South Hills’ best offensive threat and defensive back Jamie Canada was in street clothes, as he’s been all season because of a knee injury. That’s OK, because there still was a hobbled Jamel Hart, a cagey Jordan Gutierrez, a gutty Vince Hernandez, several exhausted linemen and a sharper-than-ever head coach all using heart to try and stun the Valley and reach the playoffs. Raise your hand if you thought in October this motley crew was going to come within a whisker of extending their season to an 11th week. Most teams, when faced with such circumstances, would have packed it in. It appeared the Huskies were doing just that after they dropped five consecutive games earlier this season.

Then something happened. Just when everybody had them dead and buried, they turned to playing with heart. That’s what should happen with a powerhouse program. Pride kicks in when physical skills cannot handle the full load. Why there was a mass exodus this offseason has made less and less sense as the year has progressed. Was the grass really greener? No transferred player won a league title. True, Amat and Charter Oak will be dancing next week while South Hills turns in gear.

The record books will show 3-7 next to the 2010 South Hills team. It won’t say anything about what led to it and how it almost ended with an improbable 11th game. But those who were there know the immeasurable qualities – the ones that numbers can’t describe – were there at the right time, and that made this ending anything but cruel.

Read More: Aram Tolegian - http://www.sgvtribune.com/southhillshighpreps/ci_16602753

That’s because Chino Hills (5-1), with nonleague victories over Tesoro and Redlands East Valley, has become a huge league favorite as it prepares for Friday’s game against Claremont (5-1), another school projected to be in the playoff hunt along with Charter Oak (3-2), which visits Ayala (4-1).
South Hills (1-4) is hosting Damien (3-2) at Covina District Field in the league opener Friday following four consecutive losses, which include a 42-27 thumping by West Covina, a 59-6 loss to Tesoro, and a 43-28 loss last week to Los Osos.
In fact, the 42, 43 and 49 points allowed were the most points the Huskies have allowed in a single game this decade, and it all happened in a month’s time.
Although Damien has a winning record, in two games the Spartans had a chance to measure themselves, they were beaten soundly by Bishop Amat (42-7) and JSerra (42-7).
How times have changed for two of the area’s winningest coaches.
“It’s been humbling, it really has,” Gano said of the lopsided losses. “It’s been humbling for Steve too, but nobody’s feeling sorry for us, we’ve got a game on Friday we have to win, and so do they.”
Nonleague records are often misleading because of schedule strength, but it’s hard to make a case that South Hills and Damien are better off for playing tough schedules because they haven’t been competitive in big games.

“We’re in a similar boat,” Gano said. “The loser almost has no chance of making the playoffs, that’s just common sense.

“We’re both struggling, we both need a win, it’s important. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll make the playoffs, but the winner at least has a fighting chance and some momentum, because a win in the first game of league is always important for (your mental makeup)….”

Read more: Fred Robledo – http://www.sgvtribune.com/preps/ci_16315153#ixzz12U6hZGWd

“I would imagine you’ll see two angry football teams,” Monrovia coach Ryan Maddox said.

Indeed. Monrovia comes in off a 35-34 overtime loss to San Dimas in which the Wildcats blew a big fourth- quarter lead against a Saints team they’d been waiting the whole offseason to get revenge against after losing to it in last year’s Mid-Valley Division championship.

For South Hills, there was no lead to blow in last week’s loss to Tesoro. The Huskies saw a close game turn into a 10-point deficit just before halftime before things really snowballed in the second half of a 59-6 loss.

“It was two different halves of football,” Huskies coach Steve Bogan said. “We played a great first half, but then we got worn out in the second half. That’s part of the deal when you play up, school-size wise. We just have to keep improving every week.”

Neither coach is convinced the other team’s record is indicative of how good they truly are. For Monrovia, South Hills is another stop in a string of tough nonleague opponents set up by Maddox, who wanted to challenge his team before league started.

“They’re a good football team,” Bogan said of Monrovia. “Turnovers killed them against Glendora and against San Dimas; I think they just turned it down a knob. This team could very easily be undefeated.”

In addition to Tesoro, South Hills has faced one of the best West Covina teams in years and Baldwin Park. The Braves account for the Huskies’ only win, and Maddox doesn’t want to be their second victim.

“They’re just a good football team who has played some good football teams,” Maddox said of South Hills. “They’re huge up front. That’s what really stands out to me.”

If South Hills wants to stifle Monrovia, it will have to find a way to slow down quarterback Nick Bueno, who’s dangerous with his feet and arm.

Bogan said limiting Bueno’s big plays will be critical for his defense, which starts three sophomore linebackers.

“You can’t let him get in space, but that’s easier said than done,” Bogan said about Bueno. “Mobile quarterbacks are definitely a problem – ask Pete Carroll. They’re unique people. You don’t stop them, you contain them. If we can do that, we’ll be in a good place.”

South Hills’ offense also has proven effective on the ground and is led by running backs Jamel Hart and Jordan Gutierrez. Hart has 276 yards and three touchdowns while Gutierrez has 260 yards and one score.

Given the past success of both programs, being 1-2 is a major disappointment and going 1-3 would be unthinkable, but neither coach would go so far as to call today’s game a must-win. Whichever team shakes off last week’s setback quicker may find itself in position to even its record and finish nonleague the following week with a chance at a winning record.

“Kids are resilient,” Maddox said.

As for the Huskies, well, don’t expect them to be taking Monrovia lightly.

Read More: Aram Tolegian – http://www.sgvtribune.com/southhillshighpreps/ci_16212269

Baldwin Park jumped to a 16-0 lead in the first half against the Raiders before falling apart in the second half and losing 35-29. It was a performance good enough to put a scare into Bogan, whose Huskies visit Baldwin Park on Friday night in their season opener.

“They played a great first half,” Bogan said. “Coach (James) Heggins will know more about what happened in the second half after watching the films. It just seemed like one half belonged to Baldwin Park and one half belonged to Rowland. But they do a lot of things we need to stop. They have got some things going.”

Unlike recent years, when South Hills scheduled itself a difficult scrimmage, the Huskies will come into the game untested after plans for a scrimmage with Colony fell through.

South Hills tried to make up for it by playing a mock game against itself.

“This will sort of be our first game/ scrimmage,” Bogan said. “It’s kind of a mix. We hope we don’t have too many first-game screw-ups. You can only assess so much in practice. We’ll learn about ourselves in our first two games.”

One area Bogan is hoping to learn something about is wide receiver, where the Huskies won’t have Jamie Canada, because of a knee injury. Canada had surgery recently and his status for the season remains in doubt.

Read more: Aram Tolegian – http://www.sgvtribune.com/preps/ci_16027919#ixzz0zBtu9N3G