Piner-Santa Rosa football Coach Tom Harris hasn’t coached his first game yet as the new head coach of the Prospectors, but as he sat behind his desk in the football team room on campus last Friday he looked like he had been in the seat for years.
The reality is Harris is no newcomer to the Santa Rosa youth and prep football scene. When five-year Piner Coach John Antonio decided to step back and take an assistants job a block from his home at Casa Grande-Petaluma, Harris, a Riddell sales representative that was the Piner offensive coordinator last season, seemed like the perfect fit for the job, and by the looks of it he is.
Harris will inherit a team that made the Sonoma County League playoffs the last three seasons and when they went 6-5 last season it was the first time they had finished above .500 in 25 years.
“We want to try and carry on what John (Antonio) was doing and try to build on that,” said Harris, a 1982 graduate of Cloverdale and a youth coach for 10 years before coaching JV at Cardinal Newman and Piner for four years prior to last season.
When Antonio took over in 2011 the Prospectors went 1-9 and were competing in the North Bay League. Since then, and after moving to the Sonoma County League, Piner was 4-6 and 3-3 in league in 2012, 6-6 and 3-3 in 2013, 5-6 and 3-3 in 2014 and last season besides the 6-5 overall record they finished third in the SCL behind Analy-Sebastopol and Petaluma with a 4-2 record. In 2013 they won their first-ever playoff game with a 43-29 victory on the road at St. Patrick-St. Vincent-Vallejo.
“The team has made the playoffs the last three years, and we did win a game in 2013, but we want to do more than just make the playoffs,” said Harris as he waited for his team to arrive for a bonding session that included his boys and the coaching staff chowing down for lunch on several pizzas Harris bought on his dime.
Not only has the record improved but since Harris began with the Piner program four years ago with Antonio, the numbers of boys in the football program have steadily increased.
“My first year as the JV coach we had maybe 40 kids combined,” Harris remarked. “Last year we had 45 players on the JV and 35 on the varsity, and we’ll have even more this coming year.”
The Prospectors lose a huge portion of their offense with the graduation of 1,500 yard rusher Jose Ramirez, however Harris has several players returning and with the growth of the program there are some fresh faces coming up from the JV squad.
The top returner is last season’s starting quarterback Fernando Ortega. The current sophomore didn’t throw or run a lot in the offense Piner used with Ramirez as the workhorse but that enviously will change. Last season he passed for 972 yards but only rushed for 27 yards.
“Last season as a sophomore we tried to keep it simple for him, but he’s making strides and we’ll want to use schemes where he has options to run,” Harris said about his 6-1, 155-pound signal caller.
Another returning player Harris is looking to for more output is 6-0, 205-pound current junior running back Johnny Payne. In eight games last season he had a 4.9 yard per carry average on 27 carries for 132 yards and four touchdowns
“Ramirez leaves big shoes to fill but we’re excited about Johnny,” Harris said.
Two other players Harris mentioned were current sophomores Mason McClintock and 6-0, 210-pound Brandyn Scott. McClintock is one of those players coming up from JV and Scott only had a handful of carries last season.
“We’re thrilled about the progress of Mason, and Brandyn played as a fullback last season and he’ll get more carries,” remarked Harris.
As for the coaching staff, Harris will pretty much retain everyone with some coaches like players moving up from JV where Dennis Reeger will be the head coach next season. The varsity staff consists of defensive coordinator Anthony D’Amico, defensive line coaches Joe Perez and Brandin Harris, linebackers coach Jerred D’Amico, defensible backs coaches Austin Namens and Nick Caughie, offensive line coaches Mike Hanford and Roy Thomas, wide receivers coach Darren Kille, running backs coach Matt Brady, quarterbacks coach and previous head coach Jason Pedri.
With such a large staff and with a full roster of players Harris had to dig deep for the 10 boxes of pizza the horde consumed.
For the players the transition will be easy since Harris coached all of them as JV players and last season as the offensive coordinator, a job he will retain along with head coach.
“Of course we’re excited to be playing for Coach Harris,” Payne said. “The important thing is we come together as a team and learn our positions with new players and new teammates and try to beat some teams we didn’t beat last year.”
Someone that knows Harris well is Casa Grande Coach Trent Herzog, who is also the Western Regional Scout for XOS Digital and a member of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl selection committee.
“Tom will do a great job to continue to grow and add to coach Antonio’s success,” Herzog remarked. “He’s a dedicated coach that understands the game and knows what it takes to have success as he’s had success at each level he has coached at.”
Working hard on and off the field is another thing that is important to Harris.
“We plan to carry on the work ethic, and the boys have been working hard in the weight room,” continued Harris.
Piner will have its hands full with Analy and its outstanding quarterback Jack Newman, and Petaluma looks like they will be pretty solid again this season, but don’t count out Harris and his Prospectors.
“We know Analy and Petaluma will be tough,” said Harris, “but our goal is to win league and make some noise in the playoffs.”
