Doug Bledsoe went around as a football coach in high school. He was head coach at North Hollywood, Dorsey, Pasadena and University. He says that his last coach position will be the last until his 3-year-old grandson reaches high school.
It will be its most difficult, trying to rebuild a Narbonne program which once again had an exodus of players and coaches after the violations of the rules pushed the city section to impose a ban on the three -year qualifying series and to pass the program from its title of the city. This also occurred in 2019 and the team fell to 2-9 during a similar transition year in 2021.
Bledsoe insists: “The Gauchos de Narbonne is not dead.”
He has four players returning from the League, including King’leon Sheard, a defensive end which had two bags in the final of the division of the city section last season, won by the Gauchos. They have chosen to stay even if there will be no playoffs at the end of the regular 10 games.
“They love school,” said Bledsoe. “We told them what we could do for them.”
There are around 30 university players. Bledsoe is convinced that he and his staff can prepare his many new university players for the coming season. Playing 10 games will be better than the eight games played last season when the Navy League coaches boycotted by playing the Gauchos, leading to the loss of four games.
A new coach and a new director give Gauchos a chance to start again. The hard penalty imposed could also be reduced with good behavior. A sign of dramatic change in one year is that the Gauchos had 27 transfers in the football program a year ago. There are currently none in the city section transfer portal for this season.
The starting quarterrier will be the basketball leader Quamare Meadows, who was the quarter JV two seasons but did not play last season.
Narbonne opens onto the road against Los Osos on August 22. He will play his first championship match in two seasons against the finalist San Pedro on October 3.
