Calaveras Enterprise

Manny Mossa takes over as Calaveras’ new head football coach

‘You just have to let them fall in love with the game’ – Manny Mossa



Manny Mossa is Calaveras’ new head varsity football coach. Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise

When the summer began, Manny Mossa knew that he’d be involved with football, he just assumed it would be on the youth level.

Mossa joined the Calaveras Jr. Red Hawk youth football program in 2022 after years of coaching at Calaveras High School. Mossa was getting ready to work on practice schedules, setting up a coaches’ clinic and making sure that everything was ready to go for the upcoming youth football season.

Well, that was the plan.

As the spring neared an end, Mossa was approached by Doug Clark, who had been Calaveras’ head football coach since 2019. After four years as head coach, on May 19 Clark resigned from the position.

Before Clark put in his resignation papers, he wanted to make sure that there was someone who could not only step in right away, but someone who would be around for years to come. The first call Clark made was to Mossa. Clark asked Mossa if he had any interest in not only coming back to Calaveras, but to take over the program as the head coach.

“I’ve coached with Manny for numerous years, and I think he has a great knowledge of the game,” Clark said. “I just thought that he was the right person. I know his work ethic and his knowledge, and he just seems to be the right fit. He’s an alumni and has been around the system for a long time. He started a business a few years ago, he built a new home, he’s settled here, and he’s got kids going through the district now, so he’s not going anywhere. Again, he just seemed like the right fit.”

With summer practice only a few weeks away, Mossa didn’t have much time to think about it. When he finally reached a decision, it resulted in Mossa taking the job as Calaveras’ new head football coach.

“It was more along the lines of, I’ve been doing this for a long time, I am an alumni, I do have kids coming up through the program, so maybe it’s my turn to take on some responsibility,” Mossa said.

Mossa is no stranger to Calaveras football. He has been a coach at Calaveras High School in some form for nearly two decades. He played at Calaveras and graduated in 1998. Mossa knows what Calaveras football means to the community and he wants to continue that tradition that has made Calaveras football a force for so many generations.

Manny Mossa talks with former quarterback while taking on Argonaut in 2021. Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise

“Where I grew up, during my freshman year, I was one of 72 kids on the freshman football team,” Mossa said. “Even though I played, and I started both ways, I was just another number. There was a lot going on and it was a big school. There wasn’t the tradition like there is here. This has been a small school for a long time with a lot of tradition. Per capita, I feel like we have more in our crowd than there is at some of the larger city schools.”

Mossa gathered his 2023 team on June 2 to let them know he was taking over as their new coach. He let them know of his expectations and what the plan is moving forward. Typically, football teams’ coaches have been thinking about summer workouts and filling roster positions since January. That’s not the case for Mossa. And even though he’s playing catchup, he feels that his team will be ready to go once the season begins.

“We’ll be ready to go July 24th,” Mossa said. “We are not that far behind. We are going to work on ourselves. We are not going to worry about what other teams are doing and we are not going to worry about who is doing a passing camp with who. We are going to work on ourselves, and we are going to be on this field right here, getting the things done that we need to get done to be ready for the 24th (of July), which is the first day of practice.”

Before Mossa took the job, he made a call to longtime Calaveras coach Scott Anderson. He wanted to make sure that if he took the job that Anderson would be joining him on the varsity staff. Anderson, who was the JV head coach in 2022, will join Mossa on the varsity level as the offensive and defensive line coach.

“I talked to Coach Anderson before I made the commitment because I wanted to make sure that he was on board,” Mossa said. “To me, Coach Anderson is probably one of, if not the best O-line coach in the section. He’s been doing it a long time and the guys just love him. When you are talking about the offensive and defensive lineman position, those guys do the dirty work, and they have to love who they are playing for, and they love that guy.”

Mossa is still working on assembling his coaching staff, but he does have an offensive coordinator lined up. His choice for OC is a name that many in the Calaveras football community will know, and that’s Mike Seawell. Seawell is a former Mother Lode League MVP (2013) and one of the most skilled running backs to wear a Calaveras uniform.

“Mikey is not only one of the best players that I’ve ever coached, but he’s one of the smartest,” Mossa said. “He’s played in college, and he’s been coaching at Lincoln High School, and he coached a few years at Delta. I think he’s really going to bring some things to the table.”

Manny Mossa watches from Calaveras’ sidelines during a game in 2021. Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise

After being away from high school football for a year and working at the youth level, Mossa changed his outlook on the game. While he understands that it’s a tough and physical sport, it is also fun to play football and he wants his players to enjoy their time as Calaveras gridders.

“You just have to let them fall in love with the game,” Mossa said. “It can be a fun game and it can be tough and challenging, but I think it needs to be fun. My year down there made me realize that not every practice and not every play needs to be perfect. You just have to let the kids go and let them play and try to keep them and try to keep them structured and keep the plan going. It’s a fun game and I want them to buy into this Calaveras tradition and I want them to buy into that ‘C’ in the middle of the field. I think the youth level ate it up and I need to bring a little bit of that to the high school level. It doesn’t have to be so serious all the time.”

While Mossa wants his players to enjoy playing football, make no mistake about it, he also wants to win games. He has coached winning teams and losing teams and he knows that when the winning doesn’t come, the community starts asking questions.

“I’ve always felt that football is very important to this community,” Mossa said. “When we have a bad year, and I’ve been a part of some bad years here, people really talk, and they want to know what’s going on. They also want to know how they can help to fix it. I really do feel like the community wants to step up and help do what they can to get us back on the winning track. I think that’s a really cool thing. I know that I have a lot of support and not just from my wife and close friends and coaches, but I think the community is very supportive.”

Calaveras is set to open its season on Aug. 18 against Stone Ridge Christian at Frank Meyer Field in San Andreas. And while most first-year head coaches would have that date circled on their calendar, Mossa is looking ahead a couple of weeks to the first official day of practice.

“Because this is really not my first rodeo, I’m really looking forward to the 24th,” Mossa said. “I’m looking forward to the first day of practice. I’m looking forward to seeing these kids and what they’ve done all summer long. Are they ready to go and are they ready to work? Honestly, we are going to just take it one day at a time after that.”

Calaveras will have summer practices, which begin on June 12 and will run for three weeks. The weight room will be open for the majority of the summer and during that time, Mossa hopes to get his players comfortable with the offense, defense and perhaps most importantly, he wants them all focused and heading in the same direction.

“We are all going to speak the same language,” Mossa said. “From myself and the coaches, to varsity and JV, all the way down to the youth program, we are all going to speak the same language. These kids are all going to be a part of one giant program. My No. 1 goal is to make sure that everybody understands that we are going to be one program.”

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