Justin Garza High names first football coach — and it’s a familiar name in the Fresno area
Yosef Fares has been named the first head football coach at Justin Garza High.
The Central Unified School District Board approved the hiring during its meeting Tuesday.
“We are excited to add coach Fares to the Central family as our varsity football head coach,” Superintendent Andrew Alvarado said in a news release. “Coach Fares is one of the premier coaches in the Central Valley. We look forward to another successful football program within the Central Unified School District.”
Fares was the co-head coach at Bullard High recently. He previously was the head coach at Madera.
Fares said he applied for the position in August and that the opening at the new school was a “no-brainer.”
“That’s really why the job was so enticing: first head coach at the program,” he said. “Not many people can say that. Just to be a part of a school district that bought into their athletics and students in general, I’m extremely excited about it.”
Justin Garza, the former Central High coach, died in 2017 after a six-year cancer fight. In May, the new high school was named after the beloved football coach
Earlier this month, the school’s logo and mascot was unveiled as the Guardians.
“We are fortunate to have Mr. Fares at Justin Garza High School where his coaching and mentor skills truly embody the ‘Stand for More’ motto,” Garza High principal Ezequiel Gutierrez said.
Fares said he looked up to Garza and will always remember him.
“Justin was very supportive of me and what I did,” he said. “His hunger and thirst for the game and how he studied the game and doing things, he brought the next-level kind of thing. I really admired what he did; just the man he was. He was really kind to me and really supportive and talked ball with me. It’s a huge honor to be the first coach to be at a school that’s named after him.”
Garza High is under construction and is expected to be open in August 2021.
Home games will be played at Koligian Stadium.
