Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

Fisher selected as Warriors' football coach

Jim Fisher is now Fallbrook High School’s head football coach.

Fisher was offered the position March 12 and began with the spring practice and recruiting Fallbrook students March 18.

“It’s a big hire,” Fallbrook athletic director Patrick Walker said. “This is up there with the best.”

Although the Fallbrook tenure will be Fisher’s first high school coaching experience, he has 12 years of assistant coaching including recruiting specialization at the college level.

“He is highly qualified,” Walker said. “For me it’s his leadership. He’s enthusiastic, charismatic. He’s led his whole life.”

Fisher attended Huron High School in Huron, Ohio, and was on the Tigers’ varsity football team for three seasons. He played tight end, quarterback, defensive line and linebacker.

He also played basketball for Huron High School before graduating in 2000.

“I’m a huge proponent of playing multiple sports. I’m fully supportive of that,” Fisher said.

It includes being supportive when football players desire to compete in winter or spring sports rather than concentrate on offseason football practice, he said. It also means that Fisher will attempt to convince Fallbrook boys who play winter and spring sports to participate in football.

“As far as getting players from other sports, I would hope that if we build a good enough program we will be attractive not just for kids from other sports but for kids who are part of the community in general. I want to build something people in the community want to be a part of,” Fisher said.

Fisher said that a high school athlete who has scholarship offers from colleges should focus on that sport but one who isn’t hearing from college programs should consider playing multiple sports.

“I think that will be my message to other athletes,” he said.

While Fisher intends to work with community members and with alumni, his focus will be on the current players.

“Right now it’s all about the kids who are part of the program and what I am striving to do is not necessarily building a program as much as a family,” he said. “With the kids in the program what I’m trying to build is a family.”

The program will be built around that core nucleus.

“Everything starts with the players, and that’s what it’s about for me,” Fisher said. “It’s about helping them become the best version of themselves. I think the way you do that is by caring.”

Walker said that Fisher has been lifting weights with the students.

“He understands that you have to build relationships first, and he cares about kids,” Walker said.

“It all starts and ends with the players,” Fisher said. “It all just kind of starts there and just builds around it.”

That will create an appealing environment for alumni and other community members, he said.

“The key in my opinion is to build a program, and you can’t build a program without first building a family,” Fisher said. “We want to build that program that everyone wants to be a part of.”

Including his redshirt year in 2000, Fisher was on the University of Michigan’s football team for five years. He played in 35 games during the four years he lettered from 2001 to 2004, and during those years the Wolverines won two Big Ten championships and played in the Rose Bowl twice. Fisher was a tight end at the University of Michigan.

Fisher began his coaching career in 2005 with Ashland University in Ohio as a graduate assistant coach for their NCAA Division II program. For the first two seasons, he was the tight ends coach and the video coordinator. In his third year with the Eagles, he was the recruiting coordinator and the assistant coach for tight ends, wide receivers and running backs.

“I went there because I didn't know if I wanted to coach college or high school, so my intent was to get my graduate degree while I figured it out,” he said.

Fisher obtained his master’s degree in educational administration during his coaching tenure at Ashland University.

“I enjoyed my experience to the point where I decided to stay at the college level,” he said. “My intent was at that point to kind of continue on in college for a while and just take it a year at a time.”

An assistant coaching opportunity at the University of Oregon became available for Fisher, which gave him the opportunity to coach at a Division I university in a major conference. However, the University of Michigan athletes when Fisher played included San Pasqual High School graduate Kristi Gannon, who was on the Wolverines’ field hockey team. Gannon became Kristi Fisher and was Michigan’s assistant field hockey coach when her husband was coaching at Ashland University.

“We were trying to figure out if it was a good decision for her to stay at Michigan,” Jim Fisher said.

Fisher and his wife opted for a nine-month separation which allowed Fisher to be an offensive graduate assistant coach at the University of Oregon in 2008, but after those nine months Fisher was offered a full-time position as the Ducks’ recruiting coordinator.

“Little did I know that those nine months were going to turn into nine years,” he said.

During those years the Fishers lived in Eugene, Oregon, about a mile from Autzen Stadium. Three children were added to the family while Fisher was at University of Oregon.

“We just decided at that point to start our family,” he said.

It meant any relocations due to coaching positions would involve the children as well as Fisher and his wife.

“We knew at some point we would have to make a decision,” he said.

Fisher and his wife opted to move to San Diego County rather than to be part of the “coaching carousel,” which often involves moving the family every three to four years.

“With the three young kids we decided we didn’t want to get on that, and we decided it was time to get closer to family,” Fisher said. “We’ve been coming down here for years, so it’s been like a second home for as long as we’ve been together.”

Valley Center High School had an opening for a field hockey coach, so Kristi Fisher applied for the position and was hired. The 2018 field hockey season was her first with the Jaguars, who defeated Fallbrook in both league matches.

Jim Fisher did not seek a coaching position for 2018.

“We basically slow played anything for the first year to figure if I was going to go stir crazy being outside of college football,” he said.

After that year Fisher decided that high school football would fill the void.

“College football ran its course. It was time to go back into high school,” he said. “I kept my eyes open for local opportunities.”

In December 2018, the decision was made for Fallbrook High School to part ways with Darius Pickett, who had been the Warriors’ head football coach in 2017 and 2018.

“The Fallbrook job was that opportunity, and I was fortunate enough to land it,” Fisher said.

Steve Jorde is coaching Fallbrook’s boys golf team this spring but has announced his plans to retire from the school district. Jorde is also a physical education coach, so the school had a physical education coach position open for the 2019-2020 school year. Fisher will thus be a physical education coach rather than a classroom teacher.

“That’s why this job makes sense. It’s close to where we’re living, and it’s in the part of North County where all of my family lives,” Fisher said.

Fisher, his wife and their children are currently living in Valley Center. Fisher’s wife is also seeking a full-time position as a physical education coach as well as a field hockey coach. Fallbrook High School has a vacancy for a field hockey head coach, but at this time the school is not hiring an additional full-time physical education teacher.

Walker received 25 applications for the football coaching position including the physical education coach activities by the Feb. 15 deadline. Six of those went before an interview panel consisting of Walker, Fallbrook High School principal David Farkas, former head coach Terry Cummins, former assistant coach and current Freedom House principal Tony Morrow and booster club president Sophia Perry. The panel selected Fisher as their choice.

Fisher said that his college experience covers four years of coaching and eight years focused on recruiting.

“In the recruiting role, there’s not a ton of coaching,” he said.

Walker considers the recruiting experience to be a benefit.

“He’s going to build our numbers,” he said.

Fisher will not raid athletes from Fallbrook’s cross country or boys water polo teams nor will he attempt to entice boys in non-CIF sports to switch their affiliations, but boys not playing another fall sport including boys not participating in athletics at all will be asked to consider participation with the football team.

“Anybody that he sees he will go right up and have a conversation,” Walker said.

The focus on the players rather than on the alumni and the community won’t prevent Fisher from interacting with others once the foundation with the players has been established.

“He’s going to be one who’s out in the community,” Walker said. “We’ve got a special coach. He’ll impress you.”

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 03/11/2024 00:49