Winning high school football coach Darin Owens is headed to Cerritos High School. (Photo courtesy: PRPreps.com)
As head football coach, Darin Owens has pulled off near miracles at four separate high schools by flipping losing teams into winners.
He’s been so successful turning around high school teams, Hollywood has taken notice and there’s a movie in the early stages of development.
Owens has been hired by Cerritos High School to work his magic. The last coach resigned before the 2011 season.
But with an 11 game losing streak, only 10 touchdowns scored the entire 2011 season and just five wins in five years, even Owens acknowledges he may be facing his biggest challenge to date at Cerritos High.
“I’m ready to jump in and get to work. This is an opportunity to turn a negative atmosphere into a positive one,” says Owens.
By hiring him, Owens says it’s clear the school is committed to winning.
Today he told players, students and faculty Hillcrest High School in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where he is currently head coach, that he is leaving.
When Owens arrived in Idaho in 2008 he faced huge challenges: The team was on a 23 game losing streak and had only scored three offensive touchdowns the previous season. Morale was at all-time low. Hillcrest, once the jewel of Idaho Falls, had not had a winning season in 10 years and didn’t even make the playoffs. The community there was skeptical. But that first year–in just one season–it all turned around.
Owens led the Knights to the seemingly impossible: A championship.
The team won every game but one and captured the state championship–breaking school records and state rushing records along the way.
In a single season, Owens helped restore Hillcrest to glory. And the team has continued its winning ways ever since.
Owens has accomplished similar feats at three high schools before Hillcrest. And it’s what he plans to do again at Cerritos High.
“For me, it’s about expecting to win, preparing to win and believing,” says Owens.
Owens is originally from California. So this head coaching job at Cerritos represents a homecoming.
Owens is represented by Glenn Selig at the PR firm The Publicity Agency.
About The Publicity Agency: The Publicity Agency (http://www.thepublicityagency.com) is a premier publicity and public relations firm that specializes in news, entertainment and politics.
CONTACT
Glenn Selig
PR Firm: The Publicity Agency
Email:
Phone: (813) 708-1220
Web: www.thepublicityagency.com
SOURCE: The Publicity Agency
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As a parent from Cerritos and Owens i guess coaching! Wow they as the school sports Dept has dropped the Varsity program for this year! He gave up on our boys and lied to them all in their face……. So not happy with him or the school i have been in contact with KTLA news and is being broadcasted.
To Christina Smith
Take it from me as a starting player from coach Owens last program he has your boys best interests in mind. If he doesn’t feel they are in a position to succeed them he won’t put them there. He is an amazing coach and has done more for me as an athlete and a person than you can imagine. If your boys can’t step upti the challenge then he won’t put them into a challenge where they will fail.
To Christina Smith
Take it from me as a former starting player from Coach Owens last program he is and amazing coach and has done more for me and all the other young men from my team both as athletes and as people. If he doesn’t think your boys are in a position to succeed then he won’t put them there. I still BELIEVE and if your boys aren’t ready for the level of football he coaches then he won’t make them do it.
EXPECT TO WIN
PREPARE TO WIN
AND BELIEVE
My son played in coach Owens program for 4 years and directly on his varsity team for 2 years .The positive impact that coach Owens had on all the young men he helped formed
was amazing. From our experience he is a man of honor and deep caring for all the young men he coaches. He is very demanding but in a positive and fair way. Coach Owens teaches hard work, honor, commitment, and love. All values we need. I have to BELIEVE his decisions were motivated by what is best for the young men on the team. My prayers go out to the seniors and all players that feel hurt by this situation. Keep your heads up and do not stop believing yourself.
HOW DARE YOU INSULT THE BEST COACH YOUR HIGH SCHOOL HAS SEEN! I am a United States Marine who was coached under Darin Owens at Hillcrest high in Idaho! He will always place the safety of his team first! I never want to hear negative about him again. Semper Fi Coach
Owens is a legend
I have witnessed first hand the positive impact that Coach Owens has on the young men that participate in his football program. He is an honorable and good man. I feel for the seniors on this team but I believe that the decision made was in the best interest of all of the boys. Parents, if you continue to BELIEVE, your boys will learn lessons on the field that will help them suceed in all other areas of their lives.
My brothers were the starting center and quarterback for Owens team when they went to the state championship and I know for a fact that, that year was one of the GREATEST years of their life and without Coach Owens that WOULD NOT have been possible! There is always a danger when it comes to football but just because someone gets hurt DOES NOT mean its Owens fault, your child took the risk of injuries when he signed up. Coach Owens has done his job and for you, Christa Smith, to insult an AMAZING man like Coach Owens is a shame. I DARE you to try his job for a few games, you have no idea what he’s going through until you have walked in his shoes. I know that whatever Coach Owens does he does it will all that he has. I believe that the reason Cerritos High loses and gets hurt so much is because of negative attitudes such as yours Christina. Why try and ruin Coach Owen life? What will you gain? Its some sort of sick, disturbing, game for you and you are ruining what could have turned out to be a great thing for Cerritos. My brothers got hurt plenty of times but they kept going because they RESPECTED and LOVED Owens. My brother Matthew (starting Quarterback) had so many coaches tell him that he was terrible and would never amount to much, well Owens changed his whole perspective on that and they won the Chamionship. Coach Owens BELIEVED and he made all of us Hillcrest students and Parents believers too. Owens deserves to go somewhere, where the people will respect his greatness. Owens is a one of a kind Coach, and Im very sad that Cerritos has treated him the way they have.
Coavh helped me become an ALL-STATE athlete and helped us all get a chance at college football and as for safety, he plays to win but he would never put a student into harms way for a W
Christina, I am so sad to hear you say the things you have about Coach Owens. I am a single mom and have two sons that played for Coach Darin Owens. I will be forever grateful for what he did for my sons both on and off of the field. I am confident that whatever Coach Owens has done down there he has done out of concern for his players. Coach Owens taught my sons that not only to you give 100% on the football field, but in all aspects of life too. His players knew that he expected them to do their best and he did his best in return for them as a coach and mentor. I know many players that have said how much they love and respect that man and would do anything for him, because they know that he would do the same for them. I truly believe that my sons would not be the fathers and husbands that they will one day without his influence in their lives. I hope that you are able to step aside from your anger and will see how much this coach has done for your son as well.
I played quarterback for Coach Owens back in 2007-2008 and think nothing but the best of him as a coach and as a man. He took a program at Northgate High in northern CA that was one of the worst in the state and turned it into a program that competes year in and year out for league titles and playoff bids. I went on to play D1 football ONLY through the experience I had playing for Coach Owens.
I am now in my second year coaching varsity football at San Luis Obispo High and this experience has only reinforced my belief in what a quality leader and motivator Coach Owens is. I am more than confident in saying you are extremely lucky to have Coach Owens running your program and whatever decision he made in terms of keeping or not keeping the varsity program was in the best interest of the kids and the program.
I am sure that this is very disappointing for the seniors, but football, especially at the high school level, is just a mean for teaching life lessons to young men. Owens made this decision because it will be better for the program in the long run and these boys AND PARENTS need to understand the concept of sacrificing to something bigger than themselves.
Ms. Smith, I believe it would be wise to reevaluate the stance and actions you are taking in this situation. You need to look at this as a big picture, and evaluate your personal knowledge and experience with running high school football programs before taking actions like attacking the head coach through the media (which could be extremely detrimental to what Coach Owens is trying to build). I do not know another coach who has more experience or success with turning around perennially bad football programs and I see this as an amateur questioning the tactics of an expert in their field.