His lows don't sink Madera coach

Published online on Thursday, Sep. 17, 2009

Art Blankenship, 80, will be there tonight at Madera High's Memorial Stadium. Maybe Zipper, the yellow Lab and traveling partner, too.

Betty Ann would have loved to have been a part of it, but she died in October.

Losing his 79-year-old mother, of course, made the 1-9 season seem almost irrelevant for Coyotes coach Randy Blankenship.

Still, the 199-game winner at six schools in 25 seasons has never had a more difficult one: "I never lost my mom, so, no, never."

So much vanity, this man.

And while maybe he doesn't walk with quite the thunderous march in his step -- as he once did in 15 years at Nevada Union-Grass Valley and Clovis West, going 152-33-2 -- he'll float into Memorial Stadium on a high, seeking No. 200 in a nonleague game against Chavez-Stockton.

"I'm proud of it," he says. "I never started coaching saying, 'Well, I can't wait to get to 200.' But I'm proud of the fact I'm still in it after over 30 years [including as an assistant]. It's a grind, a real grind. You gotta love it and take the highs with the lows. And I was very fortunate for a long, long time not to have a lot of lows."

Certainly not at Nevada Union (62-19-2) and Clovis West (90-14 with four Central Section titles), where he revolutionized a wing-T offense that drew statewide acclaim.

"He's the best wing-T coach I've faced," Buchanan coach Mike Vogt says. "Others have copied; others jumped on the bandwagon when he brought it to the Valley. But no one has coached it as well as him.

"And I've always felt Randy won a lot of games in the offseason. He's extremely good at getting kids going in the same direction, and I don't think he's gotten enough credit for that."

Blankenship, 56, is an expressive, love or loathe guy. He bolted Clovis West in 1999 after a relationship soured between him and then-athletic director Tosh Nitta.

Blankenship has taken the high road since, actually complimenting the Clovis Unified School District to the point it's become irritable to some suits in Madera.

On the football field since, however, he's found many lows in the road in an odd journey that has taken him from San Diego (Fallbrook) to Texas (Granbury) to Mission Viejo (Capistrano Valley) and Madera.

This has produced a 47-73 record, including 24-33 in six seasons with the Coyotes, who are just beginning to rebound after suffering the initial -- and predictable -- impact of a community high school split with the arrival of Madera South in 2006.

Blankenship made a run two years ago at a coaching job at Placer in his hometown of Auburn. But, never again, he says: "No, no, I'm in the Valley until I retire."

I was in the process of asking him, "If you quit today, what would your legacy say?" But he didn't allow me to get past "today."

"Not going to," he said. "I'd still like to coach for another 10 to 15 years. And, while the record doesn't show it, I think I'm a better coach than I was 10 years ago -- no doubt about it."

Proud man, this Randy Blankenship. Mighty proud.