By Matthew Nguyen, Staff Writer
After a disappointing 2018 campaign that ended short of their expectations, the departure of head coach Jimmy Nolan seems less of a surprise than an inevitable conclusion to a drawn out story.
Nolan was brought into the program in 2016 as a beacon of hope, being expected to drag the team out of the turmoil left by the previous, notorious coaching scandal.
Nolan successfully lead the Barons to two straight C.I.F playoff appearances and to an overall record of 13-20 and a league record of 3-12. On the surface these numbers look absolutely horrible—a total winning percentage below 40 percent and a league winning percentage a measly 20 percent.
However, if you were to remove Nolan’s first season with the team, as he came in with only one month before the opening game and a ridiculously unprepared team (as they spent an entire offseason cycling through three different coaches), his record would improve to 50 percent overall, and 30 percent in league, much more respectable numbers.
No matter how you look at the numbers the team improved every season under his tutelage. Fountain Valley went from 1-9 in 2016 to 5-5 in 2017 (including one playoff win and one lost) and 6-4 (with one playoff loss), but this could be chalked up to Fountain Valley dropping divisions every year as well.
Either way, it is to my belief that the team may be worse without him. From my personal experience with playing under Coach Nolan, he gave an edge to his players that few coaches were able to bring out and, while the results on the field may not have always shown it, he brought a new definition to what it meant to play as a Baron. He taught the team to always play with pride and never falter in the face of adversity.
In any situation where there’s a shuffling of the upper brass, a steep decline in production should be expected. Football isn’t any different. Like mentioned earlier, when Fountain Valley had undergone a similar situation three years prior, they finished with a record of 1-9. A similar fate is not completely out of the realm for a team that’s walking a similar path.
