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Williams named Warriors' new head football coach

Kyle Williams, who had been an assistant coach for Fallbrook High School’s varsity football team, was named as the Warriors’ head coach.

The announcement of Williams’ selection was made Nov. 30. “I’m grateful for the opportunity and I’m very excited about the opportunity and I’m also grateful for the faith the administration has put in me,” Williams said.

“In my heart I believe he will change the dynamics of the football program in a positive way,” said Fallbrook athletic director Patrick Walker.

“I think we’re going to do great things at Fallbrook. I think this is a chance for the players and the coaches and the community to be proud of the program again,” Williams said.

Williams applied for the head coaching position after Joe Silvey’s Nov. 7 resignation. “It is my desire to see the Fallbrook football program return to prominence. The players deserve an experience that they enjoy while learning to be better men. I am fortunate, because of my father, to have the resources to help my coaches grow professionally and to help the student-athletes meet their potential as individuals and as a team,” Williams said.

Williams’ father, Bill, has been an assistant coach and consultant for numerous high school and college teams and was also an assistant coach for the Chicago Blitz of the United States Football League. The elder Williams has a library of more than 7,000 videos his son occasionally accesses. Williams will share those videos with his coaching staff. Because Bill Williams is an assistant coach at Poway High School, he will not coach the Warriors during the season but will consult for the Fallbrook team in the off-season.

Kyle Williams graduated from Poway High School in 1998 and was a defensive back when he played football for Poway High School and Mesa College. He did not play at a four-year university but obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cal State University San Marcos.

Williams returned to Poway High School as the defensive backs coach for the 2000 and 2001 football seasons. He was Mira Mesa High School’s defensive backs and special teams coach in 2002 and 2003 and Poway’s defensive coordinator from 2004 through 2007. Poway reached the CIF Division I finals in 2006 and 2007 and won the 2007 Division I championship.

A full-time teaching position in Fallbrook High School’s English department lured Williams to Fallbrook in 2008. He was the Warriors’ defensive coordinator from 2008 to 2011 and coached cornerbacks and special teams players in 2012.

Fallbrook posted 1-8-1, 1-9, and 1-9 seasons between 2010 and 2012. Williams noted that his ability to turn the team around will depend on support from his players. “We will focus on the things that we can control,” he said.

Factors such as conditioning and discipline are considered critical elements of a successful season. “There are things that we can control that have nothing to do with talent,” Williams said. “A successful football program requires the collaboration of student-athletes, educators, family networks, and community members. Together we share the responsibility of helping our student-athletes to pursue academic and athletic excellence through discipline, a good work ethic, responsibility, accountability, teamwork, leadership, and doing the right thing.

“The kids are going to work harder than they ever have in their lives, and they’re going to love it,” Williams said. “It starts with character development within our program, which will lead to great effort by the kids in the off-season – strength training, speed development, and conditioning – in order to develop themselves into the best athletes possible. The improvement will continue with their commitment to become great technicians on the field and their ability to grasp the concepts of the new offensive and defensive systems.”

Williams will be using a wing-T offense and a defensive formation with four linemen, two linebackers, and five defensive backs. “With these systems we can tweak them from year to year based on our personnel strengths,” he said. “We can adjust our systems to fit our personnel year to year.”

Fallbrook used the wing-T offense when Randy Blankenship was the Warriors’ head coach in 1999 and 2000 and when Dennis Houlihan was the head coach from 2001 to 2005. Williams has selected his assistant coaches, and many of them were part of those teams which reached the CIF playoffs in six of those seven years, played in the 2000 and 2003 CIF Division I finals, and won the 2000 CIF championship.

Williams has selected 18 varsity and junior varsity assistant coaches. “We are bringing back many of the coaches from the successful Fallbrook teams of the early 2000s. We are retaining many of the current coaches, and we are also including some new dynamic coaches,” he said. “Consistency within the program will be a key component of our success. This includes, but is not limited to, retaining players, retaining coaches, and consistency within our offensive and defensive schemes from year to year.”

Many of those coaches are Fallbrook High School teachers or other on-campus staff. Fallbrook will have two strength and conditioning coaches. Williams has not yet selected his freshman team coaching staff.

The Warrior defense may use three linemen and three linebackers or two linemen and four linebackers, but the formation with five defensive backs will allow for greater adaptation to different offenses. “We see a variety of offenses and it’s easier to adjust to multiple offenses with five defensive backs,” Williams said.

Williams’ short-term goals for the team are to create young men with great character, develop discipline and accountability in players, develop mental and physical toughness in players, develop winners, develop leaders, change the appearance of the program, instill pride in the program and morale on campus, create competition while having fun, have his players become great technicians, execute schemes at a high level, create exciting game atmospheres, and increase the number of varsity players by 25 percent in the first year. Williams also cited implementing technique in the team’s feeder programs.

Williams’ long-term goals include increasing the number of varsity players by 50 percent, implementing an academic improvement program in conjunction with teachers and support staff, maintaining and improving a structured weight program as well as speed training and conditioning, maintaining and improving schemes, technique and offensive scheme for feeder programs, and matriculating players to the college level. His ultimate team goals are to improve each day, to beat the Warriors’ rivals (specifically Escondido and Rancho Buena Vista in the current league alignment), to have a winning season, to win a league championship, to win the CIF championship, and to win a state championship.

Williams noted the importance of support from the players’ families. “Great parent involvement will also be vital to the success of the program. Championship programs are built on championship parents,” he said.

Williams’ wife, Kimberly, teaches at Sullivan Middle School. They have a two-year-old son and a ten-month-old daughter.

“Fallbrook is a very special town with a lot of special people who want nothing more than to support their football team. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, the past few years have not been successful ones for the program. We have a staff on campus that cares about the kids and an administration that has already been very supportive. The kids in Fallbrook are tough, and it is our job as coaches to tap into their potential and to keep them from getting distracted or involved with external influences that will cause them to be less successful. The football players will become leaders on the campus, which will teach them to become leaders in the community someday as well,” Williams said.

 

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