Despite the struggles this season of Richmond High's football team, it still came as a shock when head coach Khalid Elahi resigned abruptly in the middle of this week, with five games still remaining in the 2019 campaign. But the season will move forward for the Oilers, as assistant coaches Desandre Mapp and Rolandre Lincoln will take the helm as the team enters the bulk of its TCAL-Stone schedule.
Richmond was 1-4 this season under Elahi, who took over for Andy Odisio. Odisio led the program to a combined nine wins between the 2016 and 2017 seasons, the highest two-year total for the Oilers in the last 15 years. The lone win this year under Elahi came on Sep. 13 with a 22-0 victory over Washington-San Francisco. Aside from that victory, the team had struggled to score points, being held to six points combined in losses to San Rafael, Burton, Hercules and Bethel, the latter of which opened league play for the Oilers.
With Mapp serving as one of the coaches to take over, one of the hopes will be that the former Richmond High signal-caller can inject some life into the offense that he ran back in 2008 and 2009. Lincoln, meanwhile, has seen first-hand how a program can be turned around. He played for Kennedy-Richmond in 2013 and 2014, just before the Eagles made their turnaround into one of the top programs in West Contra Costa County.
With Vallejo, Swett and Albany still remaining on the schedule - three teams with a combined record of 2-14 - the Oilers can point to at least a few opportunities to increase this year's win total despite the mid-season coaching change.
