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PrintTulsaPeople Q&A: Joe Medina
Cascia Hall head football coach.
Cascia Hall’s Joe Medina actually considers himself more of a teacher than a football coach.
If so, his students certainly have learned their lessons.
He and his team enter the 2010 season with three consecutive class 3A state titles and are on track to break the all-time consecutive winning streak among Oklahoma’s 11-man football teams.
On the eve of the upcoming season, his Commandos aim to surpass two enviable milestones.
They seek to complete a four-peat in 2010 and break Ada High School’s state record of 42 consecutive victories.
Medina graduated from Cascia Hall in 1984, then attended Villanova University in Philadelphia, where he played football as a freshman and sophomore. After transferring to The University of Tulsa, he graduated and then accepted an assistant coaching position at Cascia Hall.
Catching the head-coaching bug led him to San Diego in 1991, where he was a high school head coach for eight years before returning to Cascia Hall and the head coaching position in 1999.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Medina is one of the most successful coaches in Oklahoma high school football, boasting a 127-16 record at Cascia Hall as he enters his 12th season as head coach. Including his eight years as head coach at St. Augustine High School in San Diego, Medina’s overall record is an impressive 184-53-2.
However, as revealed in the following exchange, there is much more to Medina than just wins and losses on the gridiron.
How did you get your start coaching football?
After being an assistant coach at Cascia Hall for four years, I first became a head coach at age 25 at St. Augustine High School in San Diego, where we had over 200 players in the program. I was lucky to be hired without any prior head coaching experience. However, I could speak Spanish, I could teach science and I came from an Augustinian school (Cascia Hall) and I attended Villanova University, an Augustinian college. All those items were in my favor.
After coaching eight years in California, I then had the opportunity to return to Oklahoma and Cascia Hall in 1999.
What do you like about coaching at Cascia Hall?
The people. There’s no question; it’s the people. The administration is tremendously supportive. I respect their authority, but they are near and dear friends. The teachers I work with are such committed people. The parents are very supportive. But the kids are wonderful. They work awfully hard. People need to give us credit for how hard our kids work — tremendously hard — and not just on the playing field but in the classroom as well, and also when they go out in the community to do their service projects.
What classes do you teach?
I am a science teacher. Last year I taught environmental science, biology and I also teach a theology class called “Marriage and Relationships.” I am in the classroom five periods a day. I feel fortunate that this situation provides for a different connection with the kids. I get to see them in a different light and they get to see me in a different light.
What about the “streak” of consecutive wins?
The streak is just a by-product of preparation and hard work. It’s a nice thing to talk about, but we actually don’t think a lot about it. I think the streak that is more important to us is the streak of three consecutive state championships. That’s an annual goal. If I had to give up the first three games of the season in order to win the last five games (in the playoffs), I’d gladly make that trade. At Cascia Hall, we are defined by our state championships.
To what do you attribute your coaching success?
I am a teacher. I’m a teacher in the classroom and I look at coaching football as an extension of that teaching, where my classroom is the football field.
I try to make things simple in both the classroom and on the football field for my students in the way that I teach and the way I try to get my point across.
Our system is very simple. It’s not complex at all. Our opponents know what’s coming, but they still have to stop us. We try to place a premium on the execution of our offense, defense and special teams. Our goal is to out-execute our opponents and make fewer mistakes.
What attributes do you think are best suited for a high school football coach?
I think you have to be understanding but at the same time demanding. You have to hold other people accountable, including your assistant coaches — and really your whole community. You don’t have the facilities that we do without the help of everybody. Understanding this generation of kids and parents is also very important.
With all your success, have you any desire to move up to a larger high school or even to coach in the college ranks?
I would love to have the college coach’s salary, but I like being a teacher too much. I like being in the classroom. I like having kids that have to go to school and maybe take three AP classes. The fact that I think I’ve found my niche is the biggest thing. I found my niche being a private school football coach. People often ask me if I want to move up. I think it would be real nice, but right now I’m very happy doing what I’m doing at the place I’m doing it.
How important a role has your family played in your coaching success?
There’s no question my wife, Lisa, is the foundation of our family and home. I pretty much check out from August to December during the season and she holds everything together. She’s the one that allows me to spend a vacation working at the office. She has been very supportive and holds everything together.
Our daughter, Jessica, just graduated from Cascia Hall and plans to attend The University of Tulsa.
Our son, Joey, will enter the sixth grade and will be playing football. I’m looking forward to perhaps one day coaching him.
Do former players come back to visit?
Winning championships is one thing, but the greatest return for me as a coach is when our former players come back to visit and they tell you thanks and that you made an impact on their lives. That’s the fuel that keeps me going — the opportunity to make an impact on young people. That’s the neatest thing for me — and for any teacher — the realization that you made a difference in young people’s lives.
What would you wish your coaching legacy to be?
That people would think, “He was a very passionate teacher who cared about his students and gave everything that he had and that he was fair.” I think it is important for teachers to put the kids first and to always be fair. That’s how I would like to be remembered.
But what about the wins and losses? Aren’t they important?
I think that is where I have changed from being a “young” coach to an “old” coach. When I first started out at California, it was, “I’ve got to win, win, win.”
Every year there is a champion. But last year’s champion is often quickly forgotten.
I love to win — don’t get me wrong. That’s the nature of the beast.
But when it’s all said and done, I would like to be remembered as the guy who was so passionate about being a teacher in the classroom and on the football field and that he really cared about his students.
