Aptos Success: Coach Blankenship

[CoachJohnson51]

As someone fairly unfamiliar with football outside of my own league, I had to learn about Coach Blankenship this year. I've done some pretty thorough research and have spoken to older coaches and coaches that have come across him. The conclusions I have drawn is that people either love him or just flat out do NOT like him. I know to most of you, you may think that the "haters" come from him just beating on teams on a yearly basis but it is actually more than just that.
I was honestly just wondering if I could hear other people on this message board talk about stories they've either heard about him or have personally encountered.

As stated earlier, I've drawn the conclusion that people either love him or just flat out DO NOT like him. I've also learned he kinda just revolutionozed the utilization of the uptempo,fast-paced execution of the TRUE Delaware Wing-T tempo while at Nevada Union and just marched to dominance for X amount of years before going to like 3-4 other schools and doing the same thing (to a more or lesser extent [i.e Stint in Texas]). Seems like while on his way to dominance, he's stepped on more than a few people's toes and rubbed more than a few people a very wrong way.

Just in search of the truth or somewhere in-between and to also just further my knowledge of successful HC's here in CCS.

This post was edited on 12/7 1:11 AM by CoachJohnson51

 

[CaliTrojan4Life]

Dude has been coaching for a long time.. I know he was the coach back in the day at Madera and Clovis West. I'm sure Randy has had some good and bad relationships in this game. That's a part of the business. How old is he now?

 

[ThunderRam]

I played against a few of Blankenship NU teams. As you said, he was the guy that got them started in their wing-t system when he took over the program in 1984. Humphers of course took over 7 years later and the machine evolved and continued to roll. I remember Blankenship's teams being very disciplined. They executed their fakes to near perfection.

 

[patrick916]

Congratulations to coach Blankenship and to the Aptos football team on another great year. I played for Coach Blankenship in 1976-77 at Mesa Verde High School in Citrus Heights,Ca. I believe it was his first year coaching. It was a new school that year and we only had a frosh and sophmore class. All of the sophmores played on varsity and we played a full varsity schedule. I believe we were 0-10 that year. I remember coach spending a lot of time working on fundamentals and being very disiplined. Players that had their own agenda probably did not like him much. Team players had no problems and learned alot about football and working hard. Overall a very good coach and he has had a great career teaching young men the fundamentals of football and life. Thanks Coach Blankenship.

 

[CaliTrojan4Life]

Back in 1981 he ran the Wing-T against us when he coached at Madera High... That was the year he had two big time backs by the name of Henderson and Farmer. They had a Oline that averaged around 295 pounds that year. I had never played against a wing-T offense before and boy our defense didn't have a clue on who had the ball. Clovis High true Wish-bone under coach Tim Simons was even harder to defend...

 

[ThunderRam]

Patrick - I think you are confusing Randy Blankenship for his brother Rick, who was Mesa's first Varsity HC. Randy was working under Don Brown at Mira Loma during that time period. That's where he picked up the wing-t system prior to implementing it at Nevada Union in 1984.


PGW - I think you have a typo. Blankenship coached at Madera from 2004 through 2009.


Blankenship has been the HC at 7 schools:

Nevada Union 1984 - 1990
Clovis West 1991 - 1998
Fallbrook (San Diego) 1999 - 2000
Granbury (Texas) 2001
Capistrano Valley (Mission Viejo) 2002
Madera 2004 - 2009
Aptos 2010 - present








This post was edited on 12/8 4:28 PM by ThunderRam

 

[CaliTrojan4Life]

You right but I think his father or another relative may have been the coach in the 80's...

PGW

 

[patrick916]

Thanks ThunderRam you are correct. Rick (Randy's brother) was the first Head Coach. Randy was his assistant that year.
I know it was both brothers coaching though. I think Randy left Mira Loma for that one year to help his brother at Mesa.

 

[FormerMatador]

Thanks ThunderRam you are correct. Rick (Randy's brother) was the first Head Coach. Randy was his assistant that year.
I know it was both brothers coaching though. I think Randy left Mira Loma for that one year to help his brother at Mesa.

Randy was my JV coach at Mira Loma in 1978.
Humphers was my freshman coach in 1977.
Don Brown and Gerry Kundert were coaching the varsity then.
Talk about a collection of talent!

 

[carmelkyd]

Kudos to the board. A guy starts a thread about an individual with the emphasis on "people just flat out do NOT like him." And "Seems like while on his way to dominance, he's stepped on more than a few people's toes and rubbed more than a few people a very wrong way." Concludes that he is "Just in search of the truth or somewhere in-between."

But nobody on the board was prepared to slam Coach Blankenship. As CaliTrojan said...we all have good relationships and some bad ones. I doubt Blankenship is a saint. But I don't think the board is a place to dig up or suggest bad about players, coaches, parents or even administrations.

 

[colhenrylives]

Innuendo, unnamed sources and third- and fourth-hand "information" are a waste of time. As someone once blurted, "Fake news."

 

[Cal 14]

In the early 2000s, there was a reality TV show where a guy would have to impress a girl's father in order to get a date with her. In one of those shows, it was none other than Randy Blankenship that was putting the kid through football drills to find out about his character.

 

[NorCalSportsFan]

One thing I notice about his teams is he gets buy in in the weight program and he usually has a core of 3-4 really strong, tough fast football players (usually not D1 size but perform at a high level). The QB is usually very athletic and one of their top athletes. His lines are well coached in technique and usually quick. He usually gets one or two big kids on the line (none this year), but the 6-0 190 or 210 players he gets are quick and strong for their size and the deception gives them a split second advantage. Their offensive lines are pretty impressive. He also usually gets a couple players in the top core that can play LB and tyen d-line is usually very quick. No matter the size of the players they typically are quick and physical and they run their offense really well. In some ways they remind me of some of the good undersized DLS teams but without the D1 talent. He just knows how to coach and get his players buy in to work hard. Kind of remind me of the Novato program years ago when they were good. Oakdale and Aptos run the same offense, but I think Oakdale usually has some bigger kids and they may pass a little more. The Aptos and Oakdale game should be a good one. We will see two of the better Wing T teams in Norcal go against each other.

 

[Cal 14]

But, ya know... it's gotta do something to your ego when an entire league has to be disbanded just because you showed up.

 

[colhenrylives]

But, ya know... it's gotta do something to your ego when an entire league has to be disbanded just because you showed up.

That might say something about the league.

 

[Prepwisdom]

I don't know coach Blankenship personally but it is very apparent that his kids "buy in" and their execution is second to none.