Longtime Foothill-Pleasanton coach Matt Sweeney stepped down on Tuesday from his head football coach position, though he remains on staff as a teacher and confirmed that he will stay as head softball coach in the spring.
Sweeney, who was the Prep2Prep NCS Coach of the Year after the 2015 season, when he led the Falcons to an unbeaten regular season and a berth opposite De La Salle in the NCS Division I title game, won 265 games in his head football career, third all-time in the NCS according to Cal-Hi Sports.
"This was a difficult decision, but the right one for me and my family," Sweeney commented.
In the last few years, he has successfully battled throat cancer, and continued to bring his 31 years of knowledge to young student-athletes, but started to feel that the end of his football career might be approaching during the 2017 season.
"I could sense the feeling, that it was time, during this last season," Sweeney said. "I waited to see how I would feel after the season, and over the break, but it didn't leave me after the season either. I'm not willing anymore to do the amount of work that it requires year-round."
Sweeney led Foothill to an 8-4 record this past year, including wins in eight of nine games following an 0-2 start without quarterback Ben Wooldridge. The lone loss during that stretch was to De La Salle, a stretch which ended in the Division I quarterfinals. The team posted winning records in each of his last five seasons.
When he was named Coach of the Year in 2015, and then took on throat cancer during the following school year, then-principal Jason Krolikowski referred to Sweeney as a legend in the mold of "the coach in a movie about high school football in Texas." And while his presence will be missed by the football program, athletes and those in the softball community were relieved to hear that he would be continuing his coaching duties in the spring. He has guided the program to 47 wins in the last two years, including an NCS Division I championship last spring, with a young team that returns most of its talent.
"I plan on continuing to coach softball as long as I am still teaching," Sweeney said. "I have fun out there, and it doesn't require the same year-round commitment or hours."
Included in Sweeney's coaching highlights for football will always be back-to-back NCS titles in 1993-1994 and again in 1999-2000.
Foothill's search for a head coach, the second such opening in the East Bay Athletic League in the past two days, might not have to go very far. If interested, on-campus teacher Greg Haubner has been doing most of the heavy lifting for Sweeney each spring, and has head coaching experience, having guided the Livermore program from 2010-2015 before returning to once again assist Sweeney and Foothill. The Cowboys were regarded as a disciplined, organized, and well-prepared team under Haubner's leadership.
