After a lengthy search, La Salle announced Thursday that it has hired Mark Serve as its new football head coach.
Serve was in his third season as the head coach at Westlake last fall when he was dismissed by the school administration. The team was 1-4 at the time. He went 8-17 overall at the school.
Now Serve gets a second opportunity at La Salle.
Ben Buys was La Salle’s coach the past five seasons, but he left to become the head coach at Chaffey College.
Before he took the Westlake job, Serve was a hot commodity after 12 years as an assistant coach at Sierra Canyon, including six as the offensive coordinator. At Sierra Canyon, he was part of two CIF state championship teams and four CIF-SS champions.
Serve has nearly three decades of coaching experience, which includes many years at the college level. He was an offensive coordinator at Pierce College and a wide receivers coach at Northwest Missouri State.
“When asked about his coaching philosophy, coach Serve leans on four key areas of distinction – energy, effort, discipline, and accountability,” La Salle athletic director Daniel Threadgill said in a statement announcing the hiring of Serve. “He believes that character, leadership, hard work, and selflessness are foundational for our student-athletes’ success.”
Serve, who is known as a passionate, player-friendly coach, will attempt to turn La Salle into a consistent winning program.
La Salle was 4-6 this past season and went 19-27 and made two CIF-SS playoff appearances during Buys’ tenure.
Buys had one winning season at the school. In his first season in 2019, the team went 6-5 overall after going 0-10 the previous season.
ARCADIA NAMES ERIC ELIAS HEAD COACH
Arcadia filled its vacancy for a football head coach Thursday by hiring former assistant Eric Elias, Arcadia athletic director Milica Protic confirmed.
Elias is an Arcadia alum who was an assistant coach for the Apaches more than a decade ago.
Elias was the the offensive coordinator at Cantwell Sacred Heart this past season, and he has previous coaching experience at Buena Park, Schurr and Arroyo.
