Brawley hires former Calipatria Head Coach Rick Stewart

Stewart looks to help the Wildcats bounce back after taking over a team coming off a 2-9 campaign

BRAWLEY, Calif. (KYMA) - The Brawley Wildcats have found their next head football coach, hiring former Calipatria head coach Rick Stewart to lead the program.

Brawley athletic director Billy Brewer said the school is excited to bring Stewart to the sidelines after pursuing him for several years. The move comes after their first losing season since 2008 and after former head coach Bert Esposito stepped down.

“I’ve been trying to get Coach Stewart for the last three years. We're excited about him,” Brewer said. “The school’s excited, the kids are excited and I really believe we’re on a new path. We struggled last year. We haven’t had a year like that in I don’t even know when — not in my tenure. It was a tough year.”

Stewart arrives in Brawley with a decorated résumé, including a state championship from his time with the Calipatria Hornets just up the road. As he takes over the Wildcats program, Stewart said building trust within the team will be the foundation of success.

“The unifying thing is love and trust,” Stewart said. “There's three levels of trust you have to have in a championship program — players trusting the coaches, us trusting the players and the most important thing is that third level, players trusting players. The love and trust takes time to build. Once we get it, you’re moving mountains.”

Stewart said teams that share that bond are difficult to beat.

“I don’t want to play a team that has 40 players locked in that love each other and trust each other,” Stewart said. “That’s hard to beat.”

While Stewart has enjoyed success as a coach, he emphasized that learning from past mistakes is key to success as well.

“I told the boys, 'hey, I’m not Nick Saban, I’m not Jesus Christ, I don’t come in and walk on water, I've made mistakes in my past'” Stewart said. “I just never want to meet a man who doesn’t learn from his mistakes."

And the secret recipe to winning champions is actually off the field.

"The championships in any sport, and even in the business world, it happens off the field, that's where champions are built”

Stewart said the Brawley community also played a major role in his decision to accept the job. He hopes to reconnect the team with a passionate fan base that has long supported Wildcats football.

“What actually drew me to the job was the community,” Stewart said. “The community is a little fragmented right now, there's a lot of opinions because they’ve had a lot of different head coaches, but the thing about Brawley is they’ll get behind their football team if they like what they see.”

Stewart said his goal is to rebuild that connection between the team and the community.

“Our slogan this year is ‘Ignite and Unite,’” Stewart said. “We’re going to get this community passionate about their football again the way it used to be. Brawley was known for that — a passionate fan base and a team nobody wanted to play. Maybe we’ve lost a little bit of that.”

Stewart added that his focus moving forward will be creating alignment throughout the program.

“Players rowing the boat in the same direction, getting the coaches on the same page and getting the community ignited and united,” Stewart said. “That’s the goal.”