After 34 years at the helm of the Mater Dei High School (Calif.) football program, head coach Bruce Rollinson is calling it a career. The announcement came on Thursday ahead of the Monarch’s playoff matchup against JSerra (Calif.) on Friday night.
“I have recently decided that this year will be my last year as the head coach of Mater Dei football,” Rollinson said in a written statement. “After playing at Mater Dei more than 50 years ago, 47 years coaching at Mater Dei and 34 years as the head coach, making this decision at this time with the entire starting line-up returning next year, should make it easier for the next coach and Mater Dei to continue with our winning tradition.
“During the months after the season, I am blessed to be able to assist closely in the effort to select the new incoming head coach. And in the future, I am committed to supporting the program in any way that I can.”
Mater Dei released the full statement via Twitter:
Rock & Roll, Baby ❤️🤍
— Mater Dei Football (@MDFootball) November 11, 2022
Rollinson’s teams have been some of the best in the country and have finished atop the USA TODAY Sports Super 25 a record-tying five times. (If the current Monarchs team holds firm through the playoffs, it will be, in all likelihood, the program’s sixth finish at No. 1 in the poll that began in 1982.)
His athletes were a significant part of the legacy, a lengthy roster of talented players, two of which who went on to win the Heisman Trophy—Matt Leinart and Bryce Young—and a championship-caliber pedigree that stockpiled college teams from the west to the east, the north and the south.
However, it’s hard to overlook that Rollinson also leaves under a current shadow of controversy, one that has been quiet in public circles since a former Mater Dei football player’s family filed a lawsuit that described a culture of hazing.
According to the reports in the court filing, the suing family’s son suffered a traumatic brain injury while part of the Monarchs program. The allegations include negligence and failure to warn, train or educate—all violations of the California penal code.
Whether or not these circumstances were part of the head coach’s decision remains to be seen.
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