By: Krissy Hetherington
Change is inevitable.
And changes are coming. On Monday, February 25th, 2019, Kevin Scharton, new Redwood Head Football Coach, hosted a full program meeting to introduce himself and inform parents and players of plans for the 2019 season.
Who is this guy anyways? As Dinuba Head Coach his accolades include winning 9 league championships, qualifying for playoffs 15 times, reaching 5 section championship games, and winning two Central Section championships. Scharton has been named Coach of the Year by his peers in the league 7 times and has an overall record of 143-59 and a playoff record of 15-8.
He shares some of his biggest accomplishments while coaching the Emperors included “The character we built in program got the most out of the kids and sent them into life with skills and the ability to build relationships.”
He has 19 years of teaching experience that includes his PE teacher position at Dinuba High School. It has not been determined what specific job Scharton will have in the PE department at Redwood.
Scharton is a 1986 graduate of Redwood High School. He was on the 1986 varsity team when Redwood Football won the Division II Valley Championship.
Redwood is home for Scharton. He tells Gigantea, “I’ve been a lifetime resident living in Redwood District, my children grew up going to Redwood, I have a child going there soon and almost all family came through that school dating back to 70s.”
‘It’s a new challenge coming back to my Alma Mater. I’m excited to rejuvenate and end my career where I started.”
Coach Kevin Scharton
As an athlete at Redwood, he said “It was an honor, we had a lot of school spirit… it was one of the best times of my life, not only from sports but clubs and spirit.” This impacted his choice to apply for the coaching job at Redwood.
Keeping the tradition of family alive, Scharton wants to blend all levels of the program together. He plans to change the football program by hiring on-campus coaches so players can visit and build relationships off the field, “Unity between the players and coaches creates one big family and just the ability to have fun.”
Ultimately, some of his big goals to start the season also include, “getting everyone involved from admin to lower league teams, reach for same goals altogether, taking pride together and unity in whole program, and sitting down with players and the coaching staff to build expectations together.” Along with this, he already has new jerseys planned and wants to return to the traditional dark/ navy blue and white.
Plans for coaching staff include some familiar faces and some newly hired coaches like David Clements, another Redwood alumni, C/O ’91. When looking for coaches, Scharton says, “First thing I wanted is a group of coaches that could all work together from freshmen to varsity, good chemistry between staff” and a good energy.
Scharton also plans to include the Redwood alumni more in the football program as a whole. Although the ideas are still not set, he mentioned planning on getting an alumni club and dinner to raise money, teaching past traditions to a growing program.
Scharton plans to communicate dates and information through social media including the first events for the program:
SHarton says, “I’m really excited to be back, the whole coaching staff is excited, we are just getting started and want to keep the spirit going, we just want to play Redwood football and put a good team on the field and have fun and work hard.”
Tags: kevin scharton, redwood football, redwood high school, visalia