Talk about what appears to be a win/win situation at Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa. The perennial football power in the Redwood Empire portion of the CIF North Coast Section found itself in a tough spot needing to find a new head coach with just a few weeks before the beginning of the 2021-2022 season, but they appear to have found a good one.
When previous and very successful head coach Paul Cronin shocked the Redwood Empire football community after announcing he was leaving Newman to take the head coaching job at Windsor, his town of residence, the Cardinals faithful and alumni were busy on social media lamenting what looked like a real short fuse in hiring what they hoped would be a quality head coach as a replacement.
A little over a month after Cronin held a May 18 press conference to announce his move, we received a June 24 text message from Cardinals girls basketball head coach and new Athletic Director Monica Mertle informing Prep2Prep of her new role at Newman and the hiring of a new football head coach.
“There have been a lot of positive changes here at Cardinal Newman the past few weeks,” Mertle texted. “We just hired a new football coach – Richard Sanchez. Coach Sanchez brings a wealth of experience and knowledge and we’re absolutely thrilled to have him join our community.”
The football experience he has gathered began at Sweetwater High in National City where Sanchez, a 1986 graduate, played wide receiver on the 1984 team that went 13-0 and was ranked No. 1 by Cal-Hi Sports in Class AAA in the state. For his senior season Sanchez switched to quarterback and Sweetwater went 11-1 and finished No. 6 in the Class AAA rankings.
After Sweetwater Sanchez played at and graduated from New Mexico State before beginning his career as a coach and educator.
Sanchez got his first head coaching job at the age of 27 at Montclair in San Bernardino County. From there he became the head coach and Athletic Director at San Diego High. After two years at San Diego High Sanchez became a grad assistant at San Diego State where he got his Masters degree. From there he went to the University of San Diego and spent two years as an assistant before leaving for Indiana and Valparaiso University where he was the defensive coordinator. Sacramento State as an assistant was the next stop for Sanchez but by then circumstances in his family life had changed.
The Cardinal Newman job is not the first Catholic high school head coaching job for the well-traveled and experienced Sanchez, who also will be working with Mertle in the Athletic Department as the Associate Athletic Director. After his stint at Sacramento State the he took the job as head coach at St. Augustine-San Diego. In nine years his Saints teams went 83-30 overall and 31-8 in league, winning four Eastern League championships, including three-straight from 2012-2014, and one Western League title in 2017, his final season at the St. Augustine helm.
“I wanted to see my family grow up,” Sanchez remarked. “My son was playing sports and my daughter was playing sports, so I became a high school coach again.”
Even so, Sanchez still wasn’t done with college coaching. After nine successful years at St. Augustine he went back to San Diego State as the defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator. From there he went to Southeastern University in Lakeland Florida where he served as the quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator and assistant head coach.
When he heard about the job opening up at Cardinal Newman, Sanchez applied and not surprisingly he was offered the job. At that point he and his wife of nearly 26-years, Marie, a developmental therapist he met in class at New Mexico State, decided to make another lifestyle change and move from Florida to Northern California.
My daughter Kristiana is married and living in San Francisco,” Sanchez said. “She and my son-in-law Israel are planning on having children soon and I didn’t want to be a grandfather living 2,000 miles away. So when this opportunity came up I expressed my interest and my wife is on board.”
The Sanchez’s son Ricky is along as well and will attend Santa Rosa Junior College with hopes of transferring to Cal.
When asked what the most important thing will be in this new environment, Sanchez talked about how and why he was successful at all the other places he’s coached.
“I’ve always had great support from the administrations of the schools I’ve been at, great principals and presidents,” Sanchez said. “But in the end it’s about building relationships with young men to get the most out of them.”
“So if you have to put the first thing on why you’re successful, sure it takes talent but it also takes the opportunity to develop that talent,” Sanchez continued. “You develop that talent through building positive relationships.”
One of the positive relationships Sanchez has forged in a short amount of time is with Lucas Knechtle, and it’s a very important one since the 6-foot, 185-pound senior will be his quarterback.
“I’ve loved meetings and practices with Coach Sanchez. He’s very personable and wants to make connections with his players,” Knechtle said. “He likes to crack a joke or two to break the ice. Every one of my teammates that I’ve talked to has loved what Coach Sanchez has already brought forward to us in the short amount of time.”
As for the system Sanchez has installed it obviously has been honed and gleaned with each program he has been a part of. He hasn’t totally completed his staff and wanted to wait on naming all of them, but he already has some solid, experienced assistant coaches on staff that have stayed on, including longtime Cardinals assistant and Cardinal Newman Director of Admissions, Patrick Piehl.
“I will call the offense and Coach Piehl will call the defense, Sanchez remarked. “We will run an attack style defense based on a 3-3-5 front. “We’ll run a pro style offense compatible with our player’s talents.”
“There has without a doubt been a transition and an adjustment to what Coach Sanchez has installed,” Knechtle remarked. “The scheme we are running is quite different, which can be confusing, but I would say I’m handling what’s being thrown at me well because of how Coach Cronin prepared me with all our talks about defenses and offensive plays.”
Sanchez and his boys have 10 games on the schedule with an August 27 opener hosting San Leandro in the first of five non-league games. From there they host Vacaville, Vintage-Napa and De Anza-El Sobrante before a road game in Stockton at CIF Sac-Joaquin Section powerhouse St. Mary’s. Their five North Bay – Oak League games starts with Ukiah on the road, cross-town Maria Carrillo at home, arch rival Rancho Cotate in Rohnert Park, and finally at home against West County-Sebastopol.
When asked if maybe it’s time to settle down a little after eight stops as a college and high school coach, crisscrossing the nation, Sanchez had a quick response. “A lot of bit,” he said and then repeated it a second time.
“The plan is to retire and hopefully make this our last stop in this crazy coaching career,” Sanchez contined. “After that we plan on retiring in San Diego.”
For the Cardinal Newman faithful they’re not looking for Sanchez to retire real soon, and lately the buzz on social media has been very positive. Still, the players will have to respond to their new coach once the season gets underway.
“I’m looking forward to the new experience of a new coach and a new culture within our program,” Knechtle said. “I’m also excited to prove Cardinal Newman football will continue to be played at a high level. We have lots to prove as a team this year but I couldn’t be happier with our new coach.”
Newman volleyball also gets a new coach
After starting the girls volleyball program when Cardinal Newman went co-ed in 2011, Anna Waller is returning to lead the program once again after a six-year hiatus.
Coach Waller played volleyball at Santa Rosa Junior College where she earned all-conference honors and was voted twice to the All-American team. She led the Bear Cubs to two Big 8 Conference championships before transferring to UCLA to study economics where she graduated with cum laude honors and earned a BA degree in economics and a minor in accounting. In 2005, Waller was inducted into the SRJC Athletic Hall of Fame.
