Over the next three days, USA TODAY High School Sports will name the American Family Insurance ALL-USA Coach of the Year, Offense and Defense for football, with the ALL-USA State teams to follow next week.
We begin with the ALL-USA Coach of the Year Matt Logan of Centennial (Corona, Calif.)
Matt Logan of Corona Centennial has been named the ALL-USA Coach of the Year (Photo: Kelvin Kuo, USA TODAY Sports)
MATT LOGAN
School: Centennial (Corona, Calif.).
Age: 49
Details: Coached team to a 14-1 season, the No. 7 spot in the final Super 25 football rankings, a second consecutive Pac-5 title and a runner-up finish in state Open Division. His teams have won 10 CIF Southern Section titles since 2000.He won his 200th game this season and has an overall record of 211-46 in 19 seasons.
Biggest coaching influence: “There have been a lot of coaches who have influenced me. Probably Hal Sherbeck, my junior college coach (at Fullerton College). The way he treated people, meaning his players and his coaches. He was a genuinely nice guy and I didn’t know you could do that and still be a football coach. He cared about everybody and it shows for the incredible career he had. I’ve had more junior college reunions than I’ve had for the four-year university that I ended up and high school.”
Best advice: “I remember I was in my very first CIF championship game. I had coached at Mater Dei (Santa Ana) for a year and I saw Coach (Bruce) Rollinson at the luncheon the Monday prior to the game and he said, ‘Don’t be happy just to be here. Go out and win the thing.’ That’s something I took to heart right away.
Social media: “I don’t use Facebook. I do have Twitter. The original reason was to follow my daughters (he has three college-age daughters), to keep an eye on them and make sure they weren’t doing anything crazy. And then the second reason was for updates and find out what’s going on in the sports world or with my teams, or anything the local media is doing on us.”
Matt Logan led Corona Centennial to a 14-1 record this season (Photo: Kelvin Kuo, USA TODAY Sports)
Recent good read: “Friday Night Lights. It’s been awhile, but not when the book originally came out.”
Listening to: “I’m a huge Van Halen fan. Any ’80s rock or Van Halen is my favorite.”
Secret to winning at a public school: “The kids who come here know the expectations and obviously want to compete and that’s all we ask of them. Do the work, do what we ask and we compete every week. I always say, ‘We may get beat, but we always compete.’ I don’t care how tall they are, how fast they are, how big they are. We just want good football players.”
Secret weapon: “It’s the consistency with our staff. Each year, we bring on a coach or two, but I’ve got a very large coaching staff and most of my coaches have been here for seven or eight years or maybe longer. I’ve got two coaches who have been with me from day one.”
BLASTS FROM THE PAST
Click the link below to view the past 10 ALL-USA Coaches of the Year