CSM's new head man driven to make his players their best

"Everyone asks me how is it like being the new head coach," said Pollack, who has been on the CSM coaching staff since 1997, the last eight years as the assistant head coach/offensive coordinator. "I'm not a title-driven guy. Titles don't mean much to me. What commands respect is a strong work ethic and getting the job done. Commitment and loyalty of a person are much more important to me than a title. To me, success is measured by producing and helping develop young players. I will never measure success on a (job) title."

That's Pollack in a nutshell: He's candid, honest and says things you won't hear often from other coaches.

There are a number of ways to describe Pollack, a 1988 Hillsdale High graduate. Meticulous. Detail-oriented. Extremely well organized. Self-motivated. All of those things are vital if a coach expects to be one of the best at his profession. But Pollack stands out with undying work ethic, yearning to improve and an ability to organize and structure everything into one neat, tidy package.

"Details are where the differences lie," he said. "The mastery of a skill comes in repetition."

Pollack films and grades out every practice. He has his own quarterback rating chart to determine the effectiveness of a QB, and whoever rates the highest in practice will usually get the start for that week's particular game.

"If I'm going to ask the players to go out everyday and bust their butt for two hours, I think they deserve the very best feedback they can get," Pollack said. "So if I'm telling people to always get better, than I better make damn sure I'm leading by example, and not just words."

To that end, each summer Pollack travels to a Division I program and NFL team practice and immerses himself in those respective environments. Next month he plans to visit the USC and San Diego Chargers' practices. In previous years he went to the Ravens' training camp, and attended practices at Navy and Georgia Southern.

It was the latter where Pollack developed his spread-option philosophy, which he started employing at CSM in 2001.

"You always try to expand your vision and see a different point of view," Pollack said. "You try to pick up little pieces everywhere."

Pollack credited former Hillsdale coach Rich Mazzoncini, legendary CSM figure Tom Martinez, former CSM Athletic Director Gary Dilley and Owens for being the most influential figures in his coaching development. Each one of them gave Pollack an opportunity, and he's taken full advantage. Pollack, who played at Hillsdale and at CSM before graduating from Cal in '93, was working at an accounting firm when he got the itch to get into football again.

"I had lost that connection to football and wanted to stay involved with the game," Pollack said. "(I got into coaching) because when you can't play anymore, you look to fill that void."

Pollack got his start with an assistant position under Mazzoncini in '93. After four years Pollack got a spot on CSM's staff. Now he's looking to take the Bulldogs to the next level, and that means competing for NorCal Conference and state championships. It's something CSM hasn't done since being elevated into one of the best community college football conferences in the nation.

The Bulldogs have had only one winning season in five years in the NorCal, but Pollack feels they're not far away from making a breakthrough.

"Yeah, we were 1-4 in league last year, but our worst loss was by 7 points," he said. "So are you far away? Absolutely not. As coaches we have to continually develop, and you never want to sit back and say you've figured everything out, because then you're in trouble. At the same time, we have to continue to recruit quality athletes. The old saying that it's not X's and O's, it's the Jims and Joes, there's truth to that."

While Pollack won't downplay wins and losses, he said his No. 1 priority is to give young athletes a platform to better themselves coming out of high school. Two players he proudly points to include former Woodside and CSM standout Julian Edelman, who called Pollack after getting drafted in the seventh round by the New England Patriots last week.

And then there's former Carlmont and Bulldogs product Ryan Boschetti, who recently signed a contract with the Raiders after spending six years with the Redskins. Boschetti dropped by at CSM's practice Thursday and spoke to the team.

"To get that phone call from Julian, listening to Ryan again and seeing the look on (running back) Daniel Porter's face (who recently signed with Kansas), those are the things you live for," Pollack said. "The wins are nice, but it's all the other things that drive and you live for. With Julian and Ryan, you're talking about two San Mateo County kids who had no scholarship offers coming out of high school, and they came to CSM and ended up in the NFL. Huge. Just huge."

Friday, Pollack went about his usual duties. His day was done at 5:30 p.m. Some coaches might leave prematurely to get an early start on their weekend, but not Pollack. He doesn't short-change himself, the CSM program and the athletes he's responsible in developing.

"You have to continually beat the drum and not rest -- period," Pollack said. "You have to embrace discipline and adversity. You have to outwork people and be committed to one another. It's that simple."

Pollack believes in an open line of communication. He doesn't believe a head coach's job is that of a dictator. He employs an environment where everyone is free to speak their mind. To that end, CSM has a leadership group comprised of eight to 10 players who are the coach's ears, so to speak. These players relay information from the rest of the players to the coaching staff.

Defensive coordinator Tim Tulloch meets with the leadership group once a week, and Tulloch will meet with Pollack afterwards. If there's a problem, the players will often police themselves with harsher penalties than what even Pollack would lay down, he said. And whenever there are problems or the players want something done, that can be effectively accomplished, too.

For example, in the last two weeks in spring practice CSM has been conducting its practices with music being piped in over the loud speakers. Usually this would be a big no-no with coaches, but not with Pollack. Here's his rationale.

"I said, 'Why not jazz it up?' Let's see how our performance is," Pollack said. "If we can maintain our level of execution and have the music make practice more enjoyable for the players, why not have music then? You think they won't be pumped up? They've been working hard and it's been great the last two weeks."

Polished. Driven. Passionate.

There are a number of different layers and ways to describe Pollack, but perfectionist would be the most appropriate.