Longtime San Diego high school football coach Jerry Ralph dies at 64

Jerry Ralph, one of the top offensive minds in San Diego high school football over the past three decades, died Wednesday. He was 64.

Ralph finished a 17-year head coaching career with a 126-84-2 record, with stops at Santana, St. Augustine, Del Norte, Hoover and El Camino.

He spent his first 11 years in coaching as an assistant at Grossmont High School and the last several years of his career on the staff of high school classmate Sean Doyle at Cathedral Catholic.

Ralph had his most success at St. Augustine. Ralph's Saints went 78-32-2 from 2000 to 2008, winning San Diego Section Division 3 championships in 2005 and 2006.

Ralph spent four years (2012-15) at Hoover, turning around the Cardinals and going 27-19.

Ralph’s teams won at least 10 games five times, including an 11-win season at Santana in 1999, and nine games four times.

He also took teams to China and Australia to play football.

A product of San Diego's parochial schools, Ralph attended Our Lady of Grace, University High School (now Cathedral Catholic) and USD, where he played both football and rugby. He was a longtime Uni assistant under Ron Hamamoto and then Doyle before getting his first head coaching job at Santana.

Over the last six years before his death, Ralph dealt with mental illness, his sister, Jennifer Sage, said Monday. She marveled at how many of his former players and colleagues offered help.

It's what a Ralph would have done for them.

Doyle, who graduated with Ralph from Uni in 1980, called Ralph "a great coach, a brilliant offensive mind and a good man."

"He had a good heart and loved helping people, whether it was kids, players or teachers," Doyle said.

"It’s too bad he fell off at the end, but that’s not the way he should be remembered. You know, some things like that are just out of your control."

Ralph is survived by his son, DJ – a former star quarterback at Cathedral Catholic who played collegiately at San Diego State and Chadron State – in addition to a daughter, Courtney, a stepdaughter, Riley, and his siblings.

The longtime coach was in attendance this fall when DJ Ralph played his final collegiate game.

Ralph's family is planning a Celebration of Life for this summer in San Diego.

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