San Marino Football Set to Begin New Era

San Marino High has garnered many awards over the years for excellence in academics.

Those achievements certainly have been made possible due to strong determination and discipline by the student body.

Therefore new football coach Mike Hobbie, a disciplinarian, should be a perfect fit for the Titans.

Hobbie, who brings an impressive resume and more than 30 years of coaching experience to the program, is quick to point out that nothing has been decided with his team.

That goes for positions and even goes for the type of offense and defense the Titans will play.

Hobbie spent the last four seasons at Roosevelt High in Fresno. When he took over Roosevelt, the program was on a 33-game losing streak and had not won a playoff game since 1953.

Last season Roosevelt won nine games, including one in the playoffs.

Hobbie left Roosevelt to be closer to family in the San Gabriel Valley.

Now his job is to get the Titans to improve on its 3-7 record from a season ago.

“My main focus is to evaluate the talent and see what we can best fit into,” said Hobbie, who was the offensive coordinator at the University of South Florida from 2001-2005. “It is easy for kids to stand out in shorts. Everybody looks good in shorts. I really don’t know who the football players are until we put on pads. So it’s not fair for me to signal somebody out.”

The Titans finished their summer program on Tuesday before a three-week dead period.

Hobbie said his team did participate in summer passing leagues, but it wasn’t a main priority.

“I think we played six total teams. I was pleased with how it went,” Hobbie said. “I don’t put a lot of emphasis on 7-on-7. It’s not real football. A lot of teams look good in 7-on-7.”

Hobbie said the dead period will allow him to sit down and begin to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

“The next thing is we’ve got to evaluate this team in pads and our offensive line will determine what we do on offense,” Hobbie said. “I don’t know if we’re going to be a under center smash-mouth team or a spread team and real finesse. I had both of those (types of teams) in my history.”

Hobbie said he is satisfied with where the team stands as his team begins its three-week break.

We’(ve) not (gone) too far into our offense,” Hobbie said. “I try to fit the offense to the talent. … I’ve got to evaluate real quick and make moves on the fly.”

The Titans certainly could be making their opponents confused come September.