Kane stepping down as football coach at Temecula Valley

By: TOM SHERIDAN - Staff Writer | Tuesday, November 6, 2007 9:01 AM PST ∞

Bud Kane has announced he will not return next season to coach at Temecula Valley.
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TEMECULA ---- Bud Kane announced to his football team on Saturday night that he would not return to coach football at Temecula Valley High next season.

"There is no biggest single factor," Kane said Monday. "There's a lot of factors. It's been a great time and I knew it was going to come to an end sometime."

Kane came to Temecula Valley when the school opened in 1985, and has been there ever since. He has compiled a record of 174-84-1, including a pair of CIF titles in 1990 and '91.

His legacy will be the work he did in establishing high school football in a region that had two large public high schools when he accepted the job ---- Elsinore and Hemet ---- and now has 13, including newly opened Tahquitz and Heritage. A 14th school, Murrieta Mesa, is slated to open in 2009.

Word of Kane's decision spread quickly through the county and beyond.

"The first thing that comes to mind is just the fun that we had," said Mike Maxwell, the starting quarterback for Temecula Valley in 1988-89, and currently the offensive coordinator at Santa Margarita in Orange County. "We always had a good time. He created a lot of great traditions and it's sad to seem him go. I just hope those traditions carry on."

Some of those traditions will carry on, and not just at Temecula Valley. Great Oak assistant coach John Carnesecca, part of a cadre of assistant coaches who worked for years with Kane at Temecula Valley, said that one particular tradition, Wednesday night practices, have been adopted by a number of other schools across the Valley.

"He was great at saying, 'This is what we do. This is how we do it.' And those traditions poured into all these other programs," Carnesecca said.

Kane played his high school football at Riverside Ramona before moving on to Riverside City College and Northern Arizona, where he was the starting quarterback in 1972. He came back to the area after college and worked his way up the coaching ladder until taking over as the head coach Elsinore in the early 1980s.

After three seasons as the head coach at Elsinore, one of those men who would be part of Kane's tightly knit coaching fraternity, Stan Ford, committed to becoming the first athletic director at Temecula Valley. At the time, the school was nothing more than a patch of graded dirt at the corner of Margarita and Pauba Roads.

"My plan was not to leave Elsinore," Kane said.

Ford, who had also come from Elsinore, had other ideas.

"Anybody who has ever dealt with Stan knows that the man can sell," Kane said. "You'll walk away shaking your head going, 'How did I say yes to that?'"

The way Kane recalled it, Ford's pitch wasn't exactly the hard sell: "Well, you don't want to go to Temecula so never mind."

"What do you mean?"

"No, you don't want to leave so you better not ... No, never mind. You just better not drive back into the hills of Temecula and look at the site. Because you don't want to do that."

So on his way surfing one day, Kane stopped by the site of the proposed school.

"I parked right about where the press box (now) sits," Kane said. "It's hard to picture what it was like. But I know that I sat up there and all this was was a graded lot, and there was that stadium bowl. It was cool. And I bit."

These days, more than the landscape around the school has changed. Ford stepped down as the athletic director at the end of the last school year, and was replaced by Steve Rapaport. Carnesecca took a job at Great Oak a couple of years ago and a few of Kane's other trusted assistants, Neil Skarin and Dennis Harrah, are also planning to leave.

"One of the great things about my job has been coming to work with my best friends every day," Kane said. "We've been doing this together our way for a long time, and it's been fun."

This week Kane, between reminisces, has one thing on his mind: preparing his team for its final regular-season game against Chaparral.

"Pound the Pumas," Kane shouted to passing players, as he conducted his football P.E. class Monday.

The Golden Bears are 5-4 overall this season, and 1-3 in the Southwestern League. Saturday night's 49-7 loss to Vista Murrieta effectively ended their playoff hopes.

"It's going to be weird," said junior varsity football player Ty Jaglowski, as he prepared for P.E. class. "This will be his last week of practice."

Kane said he intends to stay on as the school's softball coach, and he'll continue to teach, too.

Still, Carnesecca, and many others in the community, are echoing Jaglowski's comments.

"You can't separate Temecula football and Bud," he said.

Staff writer Tom Sheridan can be reached at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2649 or tsheridan@californian.com.

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18 comment(s)[-]Go to Top

3x TVHS Parent wrote on Nov 5, 2007 11:31 PM:Coach Kane has been an inspiration to more kids than we can count. They come back to visit year after year. It's a testament to Bud's love for his kids and their love and respect for him. Football just won't be the same without him marching up and down the field. Thank you, Bud. You gave your all to our kids and our wonderful TVHS.

Cathy wrote on Nov 6, 2007 6:35 AM:My husband Jerry... ( first class of TVHS) is in shock..Bud Kane was his coach back when the school first opened. We wish Coach Kane the very best!!

Coastal Eddy wrote on Nov 6, 2007 7:20 AM:With a 1-3 league record, it's time for Kane to go. We need a winning team at TVHS. Nothing less will do!

Say It Ain't So.... wrote on Nov 6, 2007 7:22 AM:Unlike many of the folks who have been watching Temecula Valley football for years, I've only been watching it for the past two years. Coach Kane has assembled quite the impressive record over his 22 years and, for that, he should be saluted. Coaching and mentoring are honorable professions and their affects on the players and those they've touched last a lifetime. All things come to an end, though, and I hope the next coach will guide this team back to the prominence it once had in high school football. It will take imagination, dedication, and hard work. And, ideally, this new coach won't run the same four offensive plays over and over and over and over......and, definsively, will run something other than the predictable cover two. Maybe Coach Kane was just tired and lost his imagination. Either way, great job coach and best of luck.

Coach may have been too effective for his own good wrote on Nov 6, 2007 8:05 AM:Having a success rate like he did is a good way to invite unwanted jealousy from self-suffering coworkers. Remember: Utilising a "constructionist" educational philosophy is not acceptable anymore for individuals engaged in our educational environments. However; "making a good use of the instructional minutes and using standards-based instruction." is exactly what serves the mass definition of parents who do not involve themselves, nor their kids in team activities such as sports and learning opportunities.

itsabouttime wrote on Nov 6, 2007 10:53 AM:IT IS ABOUT TIME!!!!!!! Maybe his football players will have a chance to learn GOOD sportsmanship and how to play football legal. Instead of thinking its a all out fight on the field. The players are nothing but rude and obnoxious and with his coaching have come to believe they are above rules and regulations of the league. THANK GOODNESS HE IS GOING!!!

TVHS 2000 Alumni!!! wrote on Nov 6, 2007 3:13 PM:"itsabouttime" I don't know who you think you are to say such things about a man that you don't know. Coach Kane was a great FB coach and is a great man. I enjoyed every moment I spent on that field for the 4 years I started there. And he's the reason Popwarner kids my age wanted to grow up to play for the Golden Bears. I wish him the best! Go BEARS!!!

Ms T wrote on Nov 6, 2007 4:26 PM:After reading the comment from itsabouttime, I got to thinking about how cruel people can be. Just because you are anonymous, you think you can say hurtful things. My dear old mother always said, "If you can't say something nice about someone, better to say nothing at all." Kane has already said he was stepping down. If he had proved himself to be a bad guy and everyone knew it, but was staying on, people are free to express their opinions. But in this case, whoever you are, you are a mean-spirited person, and I'm glad I don't know you.

John wrote on Nov 6, 2007 4:54 PM:Ms T, itsabouttime has the right to state his/her opinion. Lighten up a bit...itsabouttime didn't say anything "mean spirited" and is merely stating an opinion. Try not to take things so darn seriously.

Congrats to Kane!! wrote on Nov 6, 2007 5:07 PM:He did an outstanding job over the years. He was always fair to his players. He instilled good work ethics into his players which is sorely lacking in today's generation of kids. To Coastal Eddy and itsabouttime: Jealousy and Envy will get you nowhere! You obviously do not know Bud Kane, or you would not make those comments!

Brittanie wrote on Nov 6, 2007 8:00 PM:Congrats Kane, you were a great advance sports teacher & coach. :]

itsabouttime wrote on Nov 7, 2007 3:07 PM:Trust me this is not jealousy or envy. How can one be jealous when your child plays for the team. I am hoping my son will learn by the next coaches at wherever he comes across them what true and honorable sportsmanship is. Its not gloating over a opposing team member getting hurt or being rude at the end of the game to the other team. My son has been quite proud of all of this and trust me when a COACH says its okay to act this way his players believe him. Because they are GOD and even though my son has come to realize its wrong he goes along so he can play on that field. "Glad the season is over!"

jonathan wrote on Nov 10, 2007 12:39 PM:The only players that are ever bitter towards coach Kane are the ones that didnt play from what I remember, they had to insult one of the best coaches I ever had to make up for their lack of physical abilities. He will always be TVHS football. ... I played under him, I have absolutely no complaints about him or his coaching. TVHS will forever miss coach Kane. So all the people say he was a terrible and an old/ignorant coach. Look in the mirror and realize how ignorant you sound. your an emberrasment

kyle wrote on Nov 12, 2007 5:06 PM:haha we beat TV Chap rules

gary c. wrote on Nov 29, 2007 11:49 AM:hes the best no one can replace him chap sucks

George TVHS '03 wrote on Dec 14, 2007 1:47 PM:To Coastal Eddy, itsabouttime, and kyle you all new-commerss to my old city ... you've ruined what Temecula used to be and now ragging on Bud Kane, a last bastion of Temecula's better and former self, is a disgrace. He's mentored mentored more people then you'll ever do good for society He's a great guy, and also was a great golf coach when he did that too. He's probably leaving because of having to educate ... like you and/or your ... kids. Do everyone a favor and move to Moreno Valley.

Jlo wrote on Dec 28, 2007 1:12 PM:I am a very avid TVHS fan! have been for over 10 years now. Went there, graduated from there. I am very thankful for Coach Kane's leadership of such a great team. But, I have heard of many unsportsmanlike actions of his. And have heard about players playing when ineligible and so on. I hope the new coaches teach players to be responsible for their own actions.

tvfan wrote on Jan 11, 2008 8:49 AM:With the advent of Vista Murrieta stepping up in just a few short years and the Chapparal program going so strong with their new coach, it's time for a change. Kane had the luck of a program that had a growing base of students and at one time the only school around with a larger talent base. Competition and the delution of a talent pool with Chapparal and Great Oak has made things tougher on the program. Good luck to coach Kane and thanks for his efforts. It's time for some new blood with some fire in the belly, and time for a new offense that can adjust to it's current talent.

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