Former Cal Poly head football coach finds new home at Southern California high school
Cal Poly’s head football coach of 11 years announced his retirement in November.
But it didn’t take Tim Walsh long to find a new gig.
Santa Margarita Catholic High School announced Walsh as its new head football coach on Thursday.
The Orange County high school, alma mater of former NFL quarterback Carson Palmer, is in Southern California’s Trinity League. In 2010, the school was identified as the second toughest high school football league in the United States by MaxPreps.
Walsh compiled a 176-148 record in 29 years as a collegiate head coach, including a 59-66 mark at Cal Poly, according to university officials. The Mustangs posted a 3-8 record last season.
Walsh also served as head coach for 14 seasons at Portland State (1993-2006) and four at Sonoma State (1989-1992).
“This is a true honor to be the head football coach at Santa Margarita Catholic High School,” Walsh said in a statement posted on the school’s website. “It is a school rich in tradition, and I am excited to get to work.”
Santa Margarita posted a 3-8 record last year under head coach Brett Vieselmeyer, who resigned to take a defensive backs coaching position with the NFL’s Washington Redskins.
Walsh didn’t respond to a request by The Tribune for comment.
Walsh said it was mutual decision to leave Cal Poly
But he told the Portland Tribune this week that his departure from Cal Poly was a mutual decision with the university.
“I met with (Cal Poly athletic director Don Oberhelman) before the season, talking about where the program was at,” Walsh, 65, said. “It didn’t go the way we wanted it to this year. I just thought it was time.”
Walsh told the Portland newspaper that he still loves the “player part of coaching.”
“There are other parts I don’t,” Walsh said. “The stress part of it, the social (media) behavior, the academics. Cal Poly is a tough academic school. You really have to be on top of everyone. Our morning practices were at 6 a.m. because of all the classes and labs. To get up at 4 a.m. is not easy.”
Cal Poly will head in new direction on offense
Walsh employed a triple option offense, a run-heavy scheme, in a Mustangs program that struggled over the past three years with losing seasons after winning a Big Sky Conference title in 2012. Cal Poly posted a 1-10 mark in 2017.
“We could have finished 9-2 or 8-3 (in 2019) with one play here and there, but we couldn’t make plays to win games,” he told the Oregon newspaper. “That wore on me, and it wore on the administration, I’m sure. They wanted to make a change, and it was a good time for that. Eleven years is a long time to be in one place.”
Cal Poly announced the hire of former UC Berkeley offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin in December.
“Most likely you’ll see a 180 on offense,” Baldwin said at a press conference. “You will. Because it’s what I believe. That doesn’t mean that there will be a 180 in terms of how they play — because I have so much respect for that — but the style, yes, that will be more in the mold of (a) multiple offense.”
This story was originally published January 18, 2020 at 12:26 PM with the headline "Former Cal Poly head football coach finds new home at Southern California high school."
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