Ben White has been picked as the new Capuchino High football coach, White said by phone Monday.
White is the son of iconic former Galileo High coach George White. He played at Carlmont High under Jim Liggett and has two decades of head coaching experience on his resume, serving at South San Francisco, Carlmont and Exeter High in the Central Valley where he currently resides.
“I told my wife (Frances) we would only stay there (Exeter) for five years, but we liked it and we kept winning and we stayed for nine,” White said. “But we were both born in San Francisco and now it’s time to go back there.”
White succeeds Joshua Horton who was not retained after last season’s 1-9 record.
“I want to bring some stability to the program,” White said. “I know they’ve had a lot of new head coaches the last few years – two different coaches in the last two seasons. They always had tough kids when I was at South City and Carlmont, so that impressed me. I want to bring the winning ways back to the school.”
White said his father has been his biggest coaching influence. The elder White coached Galileo for 30 years. George White Field at Galileo is named in his honor – changed from O.J. Simpson Field after Simpson’s murder trial in 1995.
“He taught me that hard work pays off and the importance of showing up and doing the job and motivating the kids to do their best,” White said of his dad.
White is Exeter’s all-time winningest coach with a 63-41 record, achieved over nine seasons.
He arrived at Exeter from Carlmont in 2005 and went 9-3. The Monarchs had won only 19 games combined in their previous five seasons.
By his third season they had won the school’s first league title since 1995. The Monarchs also won the league championship in 2010. In 2013 they went 7-5 and were defeated 42-28 by Wasco in the playoffs.
White will install a pro-style attack at Cap, using both two-backs and one-back sets, with some spread and lots of mis-direction.
The new Cap coach will continue teaching at Exeter until early June and then will move to the Bay Area, he said.
White will become the third Cap coach in as many seasons.
The Mustangs won a league title as recently as 2012, under coach Adam Hyndman who was fired after that season.
