Steve Sell steps down as Aragon head football coach

“I was with [Williams] that 1999 season and I didn’t know (he was retiring). … He didn’t tell me until the final day of the season. What he said to me was, ‘When you know, you know.’ You know when it’s time, just like decisions people have to make in their lives,” said Sell, 58. “The last five, six years, you do an inventory at the end of the year — ‘Where am I on this? Do I have a burning desire to come back?’ If not, it’s not fair to the kids.

“It’s one of those jobs that if you’re not 100% certain you want to do it, you can’t do it. There is no halfway. … There’s no denying it. … I’m very much at peace.”

All told, Sell has spent 35 seasons coaching Aragon football, after graduating from the school in 1984. He will remain as Aragon athletic director. He said he made the decision so quickly after the Dons’ season ended with a 33-21 loss to Scotts Valley in the first round of the Central Coast Section Division III bracket so that he can begin the process of hiring a new coach to give him the most time to prepare for the 2024 season. The next coach will be just the fourth at the school since 1971.

“I want to do it now so the rebuilding of the staff can begin. I think we have a chance to be good next year again. I want the next head coach to have a chance to inherit a good team,” Sell said. “There is a process we have to go through for people to apply, so we’ll follow the process.”

Sell steps down with the all-time school wins record of 162, to go along with 105 losses and one tie.

“I don’t know about the losses. I try to forget those,” Sell said. “Those are a lot of body blows.”

Sell said being the head coach takes up more time than most can imagine and the emotional roller coaster of a competitor, which Sell is, has taken its toll, as well. Many coaches will say the time of elation after a win is much shorter than the duration of disappointment following a loss.

“I’ve been doing it for a long, long time. The job, to keep up and compete and give your kids a chance, it requires a great deal of time and energy and personal sacrifice. There is great emotional sacrifice you put into it,” Sell said. “It wears on you. You do it for years and years and at some point, the anxiety and fear of failure grows by leaps and bounds.

“There is a quote, ‘There are two emotions as a head coach, elation and despair, and there is nothing in between.’ No truer words were ever spoken.”

Sell started his coaching career in 1989 under Williams, his head coach when he was in school, assuming offensive play-calling duties his first year. He spent 11 years as Williams’ assistant before taking over prior to the 2000 season.

During his 24 seasons as head coach, he had 17 winning seasons, with five Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division titles, including four in a row from 2003 to 2006. He also won a pair of PAL Ocean Division crowns, including a co-championship with Capuchino this season.

His teams qualified for the CCS playoffs 19 times, going 10-17. He appeared in eight semifinal games and won the 2021 CCS Division IV championship, 38-14 over St. Francis-Watsonville.

“Coach Williams (who died in 2021), he put the program on the map. But for Sell to just carry on the legacy, being an Aragon grad as well, taking over the legacy from Williams to take it where it is now (is incredible),” said Ash Parham, a 1999 Aragon graduate and one of Sell’s top assistants for the last 12 years.

Initially a special teams coach, Parham moved up the assistant ladder, eventually becoming the defensive coordinator before Sell elevated Parham to assistant head coach in 2021.

Parham said he intends to apply for the open head coaching position.

“He’s such a figure in the community. Everyone knows who he is,” Parham said. “He leaves a big wake wherever he goes.”

Parham said he had no idea Sell was planning to step aside. He found out the day of the “Flea Game” against Hillsdale Nov. 3, a 34-7 Dons win.

“(He told me) day of the Hillsdale game, literally,” Parham said. “He’s like, ‘Hey, this is probably going to be it for me.’

“It was definitely a surprise. I assumed he’d be there for two or three more years.”

As the years have gone by, Sell said it gets harder and harder to ramp up for the next season. The emotional toll, along with the time commitment, both were enough for him to call it a career. While he enjoyed the wins, the dread of another loss — and there is always another loss — just became too much.

“Even though it’s high school football, it consumes you. Everything is so invested,” Sell said. “I’ve always wondered what it’s like for the quality of your weekend to not be decided by the outcome of a high school football game. It determines whether you have a good weekend or not.”

While Sell said he has developed a ton of relationships with student-athletes through the years, they have come at the expense of time with his own family. But they have also been among his biggest supporters. His two children, Justin and Maria, who were both athletes in high school and college, along with wife Karen, have been fixtures at Aragon games for years and continue to support him.

“Part of it is not quite fair to my family. I value time with my wife,” Sell said. “Karen has been the most supportive wife imaginable and there was zero pressure from her. I think she’s happy to have a husband available for an entire fall, a quarter of the year, not dictated by the outcome of high school football games.”

From 2000 to 2017, Aragon had just two losing seasons. The program has been up and down the last several seasons as changing demographics have impacted the team. In 2018, the team went just 2-9, yet still qualified for the playoffs as the fourth-place team out of the Bay Division. The 2019 season was the low point of his career, as the team went 1-9 and forfeited to Menlo-Atherton out of concerns of safety for his team, which was decimated by injury and a lack of talent.

But from the ashes of that season rose the makings of a CCS champion just a couple years later.

“Definitely went through some peaks and valleys. The 2019 season was the most trying season. … That was the low point, forfeiting that game to Menlo-Atherton. The thing had to break and we had to rebuild it,” Sell said. “That’s why last year’s seniors and this year’s seniors were so important to our program. They were important to rebuilding the program.”

While Sell will no longer be stalking the sidelines as a head coach, he will still be heavily involved in Aragon athletics as the school’s AD. He is also one of the leaders of the PAL and is the CCS president. He’ll have plenty to keep him occupied.

“I love being an AD. I think it’s an important job being a leader at the league level and the executive level (at CCS). I get a great deal of joy and satisfaction,” Sell said. “It’s been a good ride (as head coach). But I just knew it was the right time.”