Everhart's rebuild of Fallbrook High football put on hold

In fall 2019, Fallbrook High School varsity football head coach Troy Everhart had roughly a month to prepare his Warriors for the upcoming season.

He was forced to do so after previous new hire, Jim Fisher, left the program, July 4.

Fisher was offered the position March 12 and began with spring practice and recruiting Fallbrook students March 18. But by July 4, Fisher announced he would be resigning, citing a job offer his wife received to be the head field hockey coach at the University of Michigan.

That's when Everhart, who had been a head football coach in Ohio, was hired. To manage the damage, Everhart and his staff left much of what Fisher had installed into the program in place to lessen the learning curve for his players.

Despite their best efforts, the Warriors struggled, going winless for the season.

Throughout the campaign, Everhart talked about the need to reshape the program, reshape the physicality of the athletes in the program and establish a winning, "never say die" atmosphere.

Helping that mission along was a strong freshman class, a few freshmen were featured on the varsity team and the frosh squad went undefeated.

Everything was going according to plan this offseason, he said. Then the coronavirus hit.

"Our numbers were way up, I was really excited about that," Everhart said. "We were floating around 90 kids in the roster, (grades) 10 through 12, continuing to recruit. As a matter of fact, uh, the week before, the deal, we got another kid out of a hallway. So I was just really excited about the momentum we were building there."

Everhart insisted that having his athletes hit the weight room hard over the offseason was a priority.

"Our kids that tested in November and then retested them there at the end of January, first of February," he said. "I mean, they were just crushing it. Kids were going up big time, and it was just a great attitude. Great physical improvement. I was really happy with the momentum."

In addition, Everhart said, his rising seniors were settling into their leadership roles.

"What I was really happy with was just some really great senior leadership," he said. "That's what people really don't understand about the weight room is it's not about just lifting weights; it's about creating that culture on your team (and) that's why they come out. They really do. And when you have great kids as we have and they're now being encouraged to act as leaders. That's why the numbers I think were showing up so big."

The Warriors were set to begin spring practices May 4, but that's been put on hold.

"We were doing a little bit of installation, but we were going very slow," Everhart said. "You're a teacher first. I've been around too many guys that threw so much at them and (the players) don't get it right. After what I've watched on film for the last four or five years here, I want to make sure we do it right. We had gotten through some defensive install, but nothing major. Not with everybody. Shoot, the spring kids were already in full baseball, track, et cetera."

He said he isn't concerned with what they're missing as much as the progress the team had made thus far mentally.

"The fact that we were getting a good relationship (together), kids were understanding the expectation level," Everhart said. "The kids that had defined themselves as the leaders on the team, we were meeting with them on how we want to delete going forward and how to eliminate the negativity and what I considered the poor culture that had been here before. We were just working on all that, and that's what we're going to continue to work for."

The team has moved into Google Classroom since they can't meet in person and the coaching staff is making sure the players continue with their training and creating individual programs.

As far as how other teams are dealing with the restrictions in place, Everhart figures every team is facing the same challenges.

"No matter who we play on our schedule, they're all in the same boat," he said. "But again, it was going to be the first offseason together, that kind of thing. I was excited about all that. Now we're just going to have to adjust and do a better job in our teaching when we get back on the field.

"That's what I've been speaking with the coaches about during this, how we're going to proceed forward with each different start. When we originally shut the doors, we had the belief that we were going to be back after Easter. Hey, no big deal, we'll just come back and ease them back into the weight room and then ... so, all those things we're making contingency plans for right now."

Everhart said he's been pleased with the leadership from the administrative level.

"I think we have tremendous leadership at our superintendent level," he said. "She's just done a great job of keeping it very factual, helping us as educators understand the needs that we have to provide for our kids. And then that helps me as a coach. Because now I know what my kids are going up against, in terms of what they need. To me, honestly, that was my No. 1 concern. How are my kids going to get through the rest of the year? Because I've got probably four or five, college kids that I think can play college football.

"In the senior class, I've got probably half a dozen who I've already identified as those guys. Then in that sophomore class, that freshman class this past year, how are those kids going to get prepared to take a test? How are those kids going to get prepared to get their credits that they need from the NCAA? Those are the questions that I'm really asking, eligibility questions. How are we going to handle that? Those are the things that I think are good questions to be asking. Not when is, you know, when are we gonna decide (when the season will start)?

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at [email protected].