Valley Names Fenwick Coach

Jim Fenwick, the former football coach at Pierce College, was named the new coach at Valley College on Monday.

Fenwick, Pierce’s coach from 1981-85, replaces Chuck Ferrero, who was hired as the Valley athletic director last week. Fenwick led Pierce to a 36-17 record and three consecutive Southern California Conference titles from 1983-85.

Fenwick, 38, graduated from Cleveland High in 1970 and played tailback for Pierce in 1970-71. He was a Pierce assistant from 1974-80, a Cal State Northridge assistant in 1986 and an assistant at Valley under Ferrero in 1987. He also served as an assistant at Miami (Ohio) in 1988-89 and at Pacific last season.

“I feel real comfortable with the decision to come back to the community college level,” Fenwick said. “Coaching at the four-year level was a great learning experience, but it’s not as stable as teaching and coaching at the junior college level. And, financially, it’s not as good.”

Ferrero, the head coach at Valley since 1980, has great confidence in Fenwick’s abilities.

“He was the one guy that I felt really good about taking over,” Ferrero said. “Ever since (athletic director) George (Goff) talked about retiring this year and I began thinking about becoming athletic director, Jim has always been the guy that I wanted.”