Seventh heaven
Brian Hamilton wanted to return Concord High football to glory. Seven years later, he had a team and a quarterback that made it happen By Chace Bryson | Editor Brian Hamilton was at a loss for words. The rarity of such an occurrence falls somewhere between seeing Halley’s Comet and drawing a royal flush. Standing near midfield at the Oakland Coliseum, his Concord High football team celebrating its first North Coast Section championship merely a few yards away, the gregarious young coach fought back the overwhelming emotions of the moment. His emotions were running on two levels. On the surface was the fact that the Minutemen — behind the guidance of one of the most prolific quarterbacks Northern California has ever seen — had marched 79 yards to score the game-winning touchdown with 16 seconds remaining in the NCS Division II final against Rancho CotateRohnert Park. But understanding what this particular Dec. 11 night in Oakland meant to Hamilton, requires an understanding of just how far the program has come under his seven-year guidance. “What’s it mean,” asked one of the four reporters who surrounded the 34-year-old coach. It would be impossible to guess with any accuracy what images flashed in Hamilton’s mind during the three- to four-second pause he took to compose his answer. “It means that everyone believed,” he said. “Everyone that had faith ended up being right.”
“Where’s the drill?” Hamilton was a physical education teacher on the Concord High campus when the football coaching position came open in early 2004. He was coming off of a very successful year as the Clayton Valley offensive coordinator, leading the Eagles to the NCS Class 3A East Bay final and 10
SportStars™
December 23, 2010
finishing runner-up after three overtimes with Las Lomas. “(Brian) was definitely ready to make an impact at the high school level,” Clayton Valley coach Herc Pardi recalled of the young Hamilton who began working with his program right out of college in 1998. “He was very enthusiastic. That was the one thing that really would stand out. He had a very strong passion for football.” Meanwhile, the Minutemen had been at the opposite end of the spectrum. Concord had gone just 2-28 over its three previous seasons and hadn’t won a league title since 1991. “(Winning any title) wasn’t even an option to think
about,” said Rick Reger, a senior running back the year Hamilton took over. “We loved to play, so we just showed up and played our best. But it always seemed like the cards were already laid out for us.” Hamilton took the position and brought along two more Clayton Valley assistants, Randy Coddington (who has been his defensive coordinator for all seven seasons) and Sean Connors (who ran the offense before leaving for Diablo Valley College in 2006). “We found out pretty quickly we weren’t as smart as we thought we were,” Coddington recalled. “That first year we encountered so many things we’d never had to deal with Upload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsMag.com