KELSEYVILLE >> As is common knowledge, building winning football teams is largely a matter of finding the right chemistry. And who better to do that than a head coach who, in fact, teaches real live chemistry at Kelseyville High School as well as math at Mendocino College.
Kelseyville is counting on Erick Larsen having the right chemistry to make the Knights a viable force in Northern California football, which, of course, is an entirely different matter than classroom chemistry.
Still, as anyone knows, to be successful a head coach has to have all the necessary parts. Such as …
• Experience. Larsen played and helped coached football under longtime head coach Stan Weiper in the late 1990s and after that in the Kelseyville youth program’s rotating system, most recently as junior varsity head coach.
• A coaching staff with a good (here’s that word again) chemistry.
• Fundamentally sound and enthusiastic players who blend together as a team; and
• A sense of loyalty to Kelseyville, which Larsen has in spades. He was a second-generation player at K’ville.
Obviously, this last qualification was what impressed the Kelseyville High School administration.
“I’m looking forward to him running our football program,” said Kelseyville athletic director Scott Conrad. “I think he’s going to do a good job. He’s a Kelseyville native so he has a lot of ties to our community. And he has assembled a strong staff.”
Said Larsen: “My dad played here. My uncles played here.” Three members of his coaching staff — Jeremy Linnell, Mike Lyndall and Rob Ishihara — all played at Kelseyville.
The first question for Larsen — as it is for any new football coach in Lake County — is can he beat Bill Foltmer and the Middletown Mustangs, who are year in and year out the force in the county?
The question stunned Larsen to momentary silence.
“Oh, man oh man … that’s a great question!” he said. “I look at Bill’s teams and I admire how disciplined they are and how well they play as a team and how much they love the game.
“I feel that the parts are there for that, but we have to get the kids working well and working together as a team,” he added. “There were a number of kids who didn’t come out last year.”
How good the Knights can be depends on how they respond from what Larsen calls losing “a senior-laden team last year.”
Over the long haul, however, Larsen is optimistic. The youth football program, which made news by going undefeated at three different levels last year, is in “great hands” he said, “and the board is working together to get all the things they need to get the gears turned.”
Larsen, a late ’90s graduate at Kelseyville, might have been the head coach there earlier … if he had applied for it.
“I love football and coached for the Chiefs (youth team) for four years,” he said. “My son is in that program. I coached with Jim Salmina and (Joe) Delprete in 2001. Then my daughter was born and Mendocino College hired me to teach nights, which was kind of weird (because) all the students were older than I was.”
Finally, when the Knights’ head coaching job opened again this season following the resignation of Mike McGuire, who was a combined 11-11 in two seasons at the helm of the Knights, Larsen said he was cleared for takeoff.
“My wife saw the twinkle in my eye to get back into coaching,” he said. “And then this opportunity came up and I’m really excited about it.”
What Larsen likes best is the balanced offense he anticipates at Kelseyville, powered by a tailback and play-action passing.
“We’ll keep the defense guessing and make them defend the whole field,” he said as a smile lit up his face. “We’re going to be balanced. I love that balance.
“It would be very helpful to beat Middletown.”
No one needs to remind Larsen that Kelseyville hasn’t beaten the Mustangs since Stan Weiper roamed the sidelines for the Knights a decade ago.
