Family first: Inderkum football coach Terry Stark steps down
Terry Stark’s plan was to this for the long haul, forever, or at least until his body or inner drive gave out.
Coaching, teaching, father figure to one and all.
But one of the regional staples in high school football coaching has tendered his resignation with a heavy heart. Stark has stepped down as Inderkum’s coach to help tend to his 6-foot-4, 29-year-old son, Christopher, who last fall took a hard fall. Christopher has undergone multiple surgeries, with more to come.
Stark bows out — for now — with 230 victories, which leaves him among the section’s winningest coaches. This includes a 159-29 record with the Tigers of the Natomas Unified School District, a run that includes seven consecutive league championships and a 37-game regular-season winning streak and one of his best teams last season.
But those accolades are secondary now. Stark may sit out a season, or it could be for longer. He will remain a physical education teacher on campus
“My son had a terrible accident and he needs (wife Christina) and me,” Stark said. “I almost quit coaching last fall around Week 7, when he was struggling with this, but I kept going. I can’t now. I need to be there for our son. I look at all the hours I put into football and all those great kids we’ve had and I can’t justify not putting all that time into family now.”
Stark said his son has been a “major stud” through this ordeal, adding that, “we think in time, everything will be OK.”
Stark is out of tackle football as a player or coach for the first time since he was in the eighth grade, in 1973. A star quarterback under famed coached Don Brown and the late Gerry Kundert at Mira Loma in 1975 and ‘76 during the Matadors heyday run, Stark played at American River College and logged eight years of semi-pro ball with the Sacramento Cobras, “playing at any park we could find.”
Stark became head coach at Mira Loma in 1990, implementing the Wing-T principals he had learned from his own coaches. Last fall was Stark’s 15th season with Inderkum, again relying on old-school values of running the ball and playing defense.
Stark’s Inderkum teams won at least 10 games in each of the past 14 seasons, the longest current stretch in the Sac-Joaquin Section. Inderkum has gone 11-1 in each of the previous three seasons and did so with scores of student-athletes who earned athletic scholarships to places such as Oregon State, Sacramento State and USC.
“For me, I don’t know if it was an addiction, coaching, but it was addicting,” Stark said. “It’s hard to step away from. It’s a race from each part of the season to the next. You go from the off-season to spring, to summer, to preseason games, to the regular season, to the playoffs. You try to get in as many practice reps as you can. It doesn’t slow down. You get your time in, and it’s a grind but it’s rewarding. It’s what you do. You get up in the morning and go.
“And when you’re a head coach, you’re a huge part of that school. Kids appreciate that, and we appreciate their hard work. There’s never a good time to leave because so many of the returning players want to play for you. I’ll be at school to teach weights, to help out, and maybe I’ll coach again. But not now.”
Stark said he is at peace knowing that longtime Inderkum assistants such as Tod Hamasaki, whom he calls, “my righthand man,” will remain in place. Hamasaki is one of eight on-campus football coaches for Inderkum, but he does not want to be the varsity head coach. There is joy in being an assistant.
Hamasaki said Stark will be missed as a coach beyond Friday night game time.
“Let’s face it, Coach Stark is the glue to Inderkum football,” Hamasaki said. “I think the kids are going to miss his old-school toughness. Coach Stark is not afraid of giving kids second or third. He believed that kids make mistakes. But without him giving kids second chances where would they be without football. He realizes that kids need football more than football needed them.”
Hamasaki added a personal touch, “The thing I’ll miss is the chess match mentality when we come up with a handful of plays that we came up with during the week, or when we find out what defenses are trying to do to stop the Wing-T. Terry would go, ‘I got ‘em!’”
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 7:24 AM.