After a six-year hiatus from high school coaching, former Piedmont coach Kurt Bryan is back at the helm of an East Bay program, now running the show at Arroyo High School.
Bryan, who stepped down after the 2010 season at Piedmont, having coached for 25 years at that point, has taken the position vacated by Matt Hoefs, who helped turn things around for the Dons’ program in one season before taking the head job at Dublin High. For a program looking to build on the momentum created last year, Arroyo has hired one of the more dynamic figures in the East Bay coaching ranks.
In 2007, Bryan and his offensive coordinator Steve Humphries created the A-11 offense, in which all 11 players wore eligible numbers and shifted on and off the line of scrimmage to create multiple formations from which to run their base plays. The NFHS effectively outlawed the formation in 2009, but Bryan still intends to run a version of the offense, something he terms the “super spread”, an offense which meets the numbering requirement but still allows for maximum creativity and placing athletes in space.
“I’m really excited about coaching again. I missed the game terribly,” Bryan said. “We are going to be fun to watch. We will be running our base A-11 plays, along with aspects of the fly offense and read-pass-option (RPO) stuff.”
Bryan, who turned 53 in July, asserts that he is looking forward to building a program and having fun while doing so. At Piedmont, he led the Highlanders to four straight playoff berths, including 15 combined wins in the 2007 and 2008 seasons. In 2009, his quarterback, Cormac Craigie, tossed 17 touchdowns with just two interceptions.
Now, he takes over an Arroyo program which has not reached the post-season since 2010, and won just three games in three seasons before Hoefs led the team to a four-win campaign last year. He does so with an enthusiasm for the style of football he expects to see played, and for the basic tenets which he promises will be the cornerstones of his program.
“We want to turn Arroyo into a destination football program,” Bryan said. “We are changing some things to create more excitement on campus, and to guarantee that every player who leaves our program will have had a positive experience.”
Part of Bryan’s guarantee to his players involves playing time, a guarantee which most coaches are unwilling to get involved with. He promises that every player who is eligible, physically able to play, and attends all practices, will receive playing time in the game. He did this successfully for nine years at Piedmont, and found it to be a large motivating factor. His staff even monitors this during games to ensure that each player steps on the field.
Another part of his promise is that coaches and players get weekends off, until Sunday night at least, which is when the coaching staff meets to prepare the weekly plans. But there are no Saturday film sessions or practices, no extra conditioning or lifting on the morning after the game.
“I don’t want to see my players or coaches get burned out,” Bryan explained. “The weekends are an opportunity to go experience a college football game, or enjoy family time. We get back to football after enjoying that time off.”
One big thing Arroyo has going for it is a two-year old football stadium, with brand new sound system, on campus. The school cannot install lights, and due to this, has traditionally played its games on Saturdays. That was one of the first changes Bryan made, switching home games to Friday afternoons on campus, encouraging the student body to go directly from class out to the stadium. Now, it is time to get down to the details of instilling his offense and getting his team game-ready. To that end, Bryan is excited about the coaches he has brought on staff, and some of the players who have shown early potential.
Leonard Matthews, a teacher at California High, will be Bryan’s defensive coordinator, having coached at Cal for several years and also previously been the DC during successful years at San Lorenzo. Meanwhile, Richard Rogers will be the head JV coach and also coach the receivers and ‘anchors’ in the A-11 scheme at both levels. Rogers has been a longtime figure in the Oakland Athletic League, and was the interim coach at Alameda last year.
Bryan is also excited about the addition of strength and conditioning coach Mikel Dace, an on-campus coach who will also coach the offensive line for both the junior varsity and varsity levels.
Two players have stood out in early training for Bryan, who has been actively looking for players who can fill the multiple athlete roles in his system. That includes senior receiver Jonathan Caling, who Bryan is ‘very excited to see play’, and senior running back and linebacker Zach Soto, who Bryan describes as having the potential to ‘be a special player.’
In the end, however, this gets back to an opportunity for Bryan to return to something he loves, and to continue promoting what he terms a ‘safer brand of football.’
“I will never leave Arroyo for another high school job,” Bryan stated. “I didn’t have to coach again. I wanted to coach again, and I am just real excited about this opportunity and what we will be able to accomplish here.”
The Dons open the 2017 season on August 25 at Carlmont High in Belmont. Their non-league schedule includes game with Castlemont, Irvington, Brookside Christian, and Hercules before the WACC-Shoreline portion of the season.
