Mountain View High’s new athletic director is now also the school’s new football coach.
A month after succeeding the retiring Shelley Smith as AD, Tim Lugo was hired Feb. 18 to replace Smith as football coach.
“I’m really excited,” said Lugo, who served as AD and football coach at Saratoga High before coming to Mountain View. “I didn’t realize how much I needed a change of scenery until I got here. I’m fired up again.”
Expect the Spartans’ offense to change dramatically with Lugo at the helm. Lugo is bringing the air raid offense – which he ran at Saratoga the past 10 seasons – to Mountain View.
“That’s how I made my name,” Lugo said of the pass-heavy scheme. “It’s a lot different (from what Smith ran).”
Mountain View was a run-first team under Smith, who guided the Spartans to the playoffs four times in his nine seasons as coach – including into the Central Coast Section semifinals last fall.
“Shelley has set a high standard, and I want to keep that success going,” said Lugo, who is retaining most of Smith’s assistant coaches. “Qualifying for the playoffs has to be the goal – and beating Los Altos.”
Lugo led Saratoga to the postseason six times, most recently in 2019. The 2021 squad went 1-9, however, and finished sixth in the SCVAL’s lower El Camino Division.
“The longer we stayed there, the tougher it got,” Lugo said of the challenges he and his staff faced at a school with declining enrollment. “The school and the number of athletes shrank.”
The Falcons began last season with 24 players and were down to 16 by the end of it.
Lugo expects Mountain View’s roster to be close to 35 players next season.
“I’m excited,” he said. “We have more bodies and better athletes.”
While the coach noted that the 2022 schedule “is going to be tough,” Mountain View principal Michael Jimenez is confident Lugo is the right man to navigate it.
“Since joining us in January, Tim has quickly proved himself a capable and organized athletic administrator,” Jimenez said in a statement. “He has worked hard to listen, develop collaborative relationships and has a passion for the sport that will serve him and his student-athletes well as our new head football coach.”
Lugo has coached football for 27 years. The San Jose native played the sport, along with baseball, at Andrew Hill High. After graduating from San Jose State in 2007, he served as a PE teacher and assistant football coach at Evergreen Valley High. A year later, he was hired as head football coach and athletic director at Saratoga. When he arrived, Smith was coaching the frosh-soph team. The two worked together until Smith left for Mountain View in 2013.
“He’s a great guy,” Smith said of Lugo in January. “He’s well respected.”
Smith’s son, Kevin, was Lugo’s quarterback at Saratoga in 2010. He was on his dad’s coaching staff last year and will stay on as an offensive assistant for Lugo.
“He’s going to call the offense at some point,” Lugo said.
The Spartans’ new coach said he planned to meet with the players Friday. The Spartans will participate in the summer passing league soon after school lets out for the summer. Practice for the fall season starts Aug. 5; the season opener is set for Aug. 26 at King’s Academy.
