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Santa Paula High School announced the hiring of a new head football coach last week. Steve Yarnall was chosen as head of the Cardinal Football Program. He has coached at College of the Canyons as well as Chaminade High School and Birmingham High School in the L.A. area as an assistant.
Yarnall was hired in January as head coach at Cesar Chavez High School in Pacoima, with the promise of a physical education teaching position as well. He said he was looking for a position where he could teach and coach at the same school. When it got to be mid-March and Cesar Chavez High still hadn’t come up with a teaching job, he decided to look elsewhere. He saw the advertisement for Santa Paula and applied. After going through the interview process “I felt amazingly confident,” he said.
Yarnall, 48, currently lives in Santa Clarita but plans to relocate, hopefully to Santa Paula. He started teaching in New York City for 10 years and then went on to Minnesota for three years, before relocating to California. He attended St. John’s University in New York, where he played football.
Yarnall said he’s pleased with the people he’s met at Santa Paula High School. As far as staffing is concerned he’s already been talking to people he knows in he L.A. area. He added that a local presence is important as well and he’ll look at interested Santa Paula people as well.
His philosophy of coaching is, “Family, faith and academics, then football,” he noted. He said the student athletes need to realize that their performance in the classroom will affect the rest of their lives.
Yarnall won’t be on staff fulltime until August, but will be here as much as possible in the meantime to get to know his players.
