Head football coach Matt McGinn and assistant coach Brian Tuomy officially resigned at the end of the 2008 football season after coaching for three and seven years, respectively. A new coaching staff headed by Bob Sykes, who last coached at Menlo-Atherton (M-A), will take over next season.

During the last football season, parents raised concerns that provoked Athletic Director Chris Horpel to look into reevaluating the football program. The previous coaching staff was composed of three adult coaches–McGinn, Tuomy and assistant coach Mark Weisman well as recent high school and college graduates. The administration and Horpel discussed making changes to the program, such as getting more adult coaches who would have more experience and making the team more inclusive.

“Ultimately, I felt the program would be better served with a new head coach and I strongly urged our current staff to continue as assistant coaches,” Horpel said. “I also felt we needed separate adult coaching staffs for our varsity frosh-soph teams.”

According to McGinn, Horpel had other changes in mind for the program on which they did not see eye-to-eye, including reducing off-season work outs and eliminating the mandatory 10-day practice in the spring so that students would only have to attend regular spring practice, which he felt would lower team standards. McGinn, however, felt that it was more important to have players who were in shape and prepared to play football, rather than having a larger number of players. According to McGinn, he and Horpel simply had different opinions about how the program should be run. “Essentially, we just had philosophical differences,” McGinn said.

The administration also became involved in evaluating the football program. According to McGinn, they backed Horpel and gave McGinn and the coaching staff little support in finding a solution. The situation was not improving, so Horpel asked McGinn to step down as head coach or take the position of assistant coach or an “off-campus” coach instead.

“I felt that I have put in way too many hours and days developing the standards, philosophy and techniques of the football program to step aside and allow someone else to come in and change everything,” McGinn said.

Before resigning, McGinn had a plan to evaluate the team after five years and make any changes if necessary. Both he and Tuomy were hurt by the lack of support from the administration. “I was frustrated by the process in which I and my assistant coaches were evaluated, and I felt that we deserved to be treated better,” McGinn said. “It takes a long time to build a strong football program. We were willing to put in that time and develop the type of philosophy and expectations that we wanted the players to understand.”

Likins said that it was not their intention to upset the coaches, and that they merely did what they thought was necessary in order to improve the program. “I’m sorry they don’t feel supported,” she said. “It certainly was not an intention, but my responsibility is to improve programs and make them go forward.”

Like McGinn, Tuomy did not agree with the changes that Horpel had proposed. “There was some action that transpired between the Athletic Director and the head coach and some of it I did not agree with,” he said. “I felt out of the loop. I felt that was an indication of things to come.”

After McGinn and Tuomy resigned, the administration moved quickly to fill in the spot. “Our job was to make sure we had a new coach,” Likins said. “So as soon as we found out [about the resignations], we wanted to make sure we had somebody in place to take over and continue to build the program.”

Horpel and the administration hired Sykes from Menlo-Atherton High School (M-A) to take the position of head coach once McGinn resigned. Sykes had previously coached at Los Altos High School and Saratoga High School, and at M-A had inherited a 1-9 team that reached the Central Coast Championship (CCS). He will be bringing a new staff and a strong coaching record with him. Weisman will continue assisting under the new coaching staff, which will have four varsity coaches who are all adults. “Coach Sykes has never had a losing season no matter where he has coached,” Horpel said. “He played college football and has coached college football. He is very experienced.”

Even though the changes Horpel wanted were carried through, he said he feels bad about McGinn leaving the staff.

“Matt has given a huge part of his life to Gunn—director of athletics, assistant and head football coach, assistant wrestling coach and assistant track and field coach,” Horpel said. “I hope he sees what Coach Sykes does with Gunn football and in time wants to be a part of it again. He is a huge asset.”

The administration is also thankful to McGinn for his contributions to Gunn football over the past seven years. “We’re very grateful to Matt McGinn for the time he has put into this program,” Likins said. McGinn, who coached for four years as assistant coach and three as head coach, says he has gained a lot of experience in learning how to run a program. “As a head coach, you are forced to evaluate what you may not have as an assistant coach,” McGinn said.

According to Tuomy, being a coach allowed him to bond with the athletes. “The hard part about leaving is that you’ve developed an emotional connection with the kids,” he said. “I think a lot of it is just from the everyday interaction—you’re at your wit’s end and somebody cracks a joke and it all just goes away. It was the easygoing attitude of the players even when things were hard.”

Tuomy hopes the change impacts the players in a positive way. “The thing I wish for them the most is that they continue to [play football] because they love to do it,” he said. “A lot of these kids don’t have the opportunity to play Division One ball, so I hope they continue to play it because it’s a part of them.”

Though Tuomy and McGinn are leaving, they still have high hopes for the team’s success. “Hopefully, they will continue the type of work ethic we started to establish,” McGinn said. “I still want the football program to do well and I am here to help in any way I can.”