Family over football: Rio Linda’s Jack Garceau steps aside from CIF championship program
The games are the easiest part, if that makes sense.
They include the most stress and chaos, joy and despair, but what pushes high school coaches to the brink, or pushes them out entirely, is trying to budget teaching, family and football.
Jack Garceau, 43, is the latest area coach to lean toward family over football. After three seasons as Rio Linda’s head coach, including the magical 2018 CIF State championship ride, and 19 in total, Garceau has stepped down to take his young kids to baseball games without having to burden the football program.
He joins Travis Barker of East Nicolaus and Matt Ray of Antelope as coaches who have recently stepped down to focus on family and a recharge.
Coaching outside Friday nights includes fundraising, scheduling, equipment uptake, clinics, supervising all levels of the program on campus, dealing with parents, dealing with transfers, and more.
“The grind is unavoidable, mandatory and fun,” Garceau said. “It’s also exhausting to everyone involved. We played 39 games the past three years. Some of our guys played in all of them. That’s hard, but it’s also an honor. It means you’re a darn-good football team.”
He added, “Personally, I haven’t had a football-free fall since the seventh grade, as a player or coach. Probably time for a break. The grind of football and the grind of family sometimes collide and you have to make a choice. I had to make the right one for my family. They have sacrificed so much t allow dad to coach. Nobody outside coaching really get it, but you miss the little things.”
Garceau will remain a special education teacher at Rio Linda and the school’s assistant athletic director. He will forever refer to the Knights as family. For one thing, his wife Amanda was a one-time Rio Linda star athlete.
“There will never be enough I can do to show my appreciation to Rio Linda,” Garceau said. “Rio Linda high and the community around it have been a part of my entire adult life. I married a Rio Linda family. My father-in-law was an assistant coach, aunts, uncles, cousins on my wife’s side are Rio Linda grads.There is a lot of pride that comes with that.”
Garceau’s best memory was the 13-2 season of 2018 that culminated in a CIF State Division 5-AA championship at home against San Gorgonio, a 38-35 victory in front of an overflow home crowd. The atmosphere was a longtime coming for the school and proud community.
“Watching people filter into the stadium to find seats, jerseys and jackets from the 1970s and ‘80s, former players, teachers, people I’ve heard stories about,” Garceau said. “You can’t replace that.”