Steve Papin, prior to Menlo-Atherton’s Sept. 6 game at Levi’s Stadium, will not return to coach the Bears in 2020.
After one season with a 7-4 overall record and a Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division championship, Steve Papin will not return as head coach of the Menlo-Atherton football team next season.
Papin was informed Monday his contract will not be renewed for the 2020 football season. He took over the program on the heels of M-A’s 2018 state championship season, after serving as head coach at Independence High School-San Jose for five years.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity that the M-A AD gave me the chance to coach the fine young boys of that program,” Papin said. “And I’d like to take the chance to say thank you to the [East Palo Alto] and the M-A community.”
This season, the Bears went one-and-done in the postseason, falling 42-35 to Wilcox-Santa Clara in the opening game of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs. M-A’s three non-league losses came to eventual Division 1-A Northern California champion Serra; Utah High School Athletic Association state semifinal East-Utah; and Sierra Foothill League champion Folsom.
“It was extremely surprising to me,” Papin said of Monday’s meeting with M-A principal Simone Rick-Kennel and athletic director Steven Kryger. “I thought we’d done enough, with our schedule. I thought we’d done enough to get a second year.”
Papin took in-game criticism from fans during games this season. Fans were frequently vocal in objection to M-A’s play calls and on-field personnel decisions.
This is not uncommon in sports, or in high school arenas, but Papin was noticeably agitated following an Oct. 18 win over Sacred Heart Prep to all but secure M-A’s second straight Bay Division championship. In the minutes following the game, he complained to school administrators, while on the field, voicing his displeasure over the continued ridicule from individual fans.
“I was being chastised and being talked about,” Papin said. “It was one of those things, we win and they don’t accept me.”
Papin has quite a history of winning. The one exception is his first year at Independence, when the 76ers recorded just one victory in 2014. He quickly built the program into a winner though, culminating in a Blossom Valley Athletic League Santa Teresa Division co-championship in 2017, and an outright Santa Teresa title in 2018.
The 2020 season is still up in the air for Papin, he said.
“I’ve talked to a few coaches at the JC and the high school level,” Papin said. “To be honest, I’ve never been fired, so this one hurts a little bit. So I’ve got a strange taste in my mouth. I do this for the kids, so to have this snatched from me, it’s going to take me some time to figure out what’s next.”
M-A announced the decision to not renew Papin’s contract Monday. Kryger said all M-A coaches are hired based on one-year contracts, and are evaluated following their respective seasons.
“All coaches are on one-year contracts and we always make a decision for the following year,” Kryger said. “And in this case, we felt like, in the best interests of the program and the kids of M-A, we needed to have someone else be the leader.
“Papin is a high quality person which obviously made the decision even tougher,” Kryger said.
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CA Is Burning said:
Dirk van Ulden said:
LittleFoot said:
Any parent worth their salt is already homeschooling their kids - that is the only right answer moving forward.
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