When Ryan Price saw Point Loma High’s head football coaching position was open he wasted no time in submitting his application. Principal David Jaffe selected him from a group of talented candidates to become just the fifth head coach in the school’s 99-year history.
During six years as head coach at University City High and his time as an assistant at La Jolla High, Price noticed qualities he admired in Pointer players.
“What I saw from afar is true,” Price said after a recent practice. “We have a bunch of scrappy, tough, really physical kids who are willing to work hard and have great attitudes. They do the right things and they are coachable. You can tell they’ve played sports the majority of their lives and been coached well. We were successful this summer in passing leagues at SDSU and USD. We’ve thrown an entirely new offense and defense scheme at them and they’ve picked it up and retained it well.” And that new offense?
“We’re innately a spread team,” Price said, “But we’ll line up in a number of different formations, dress it up different ways. We like to throw it around but are very adamant about establishing a run game. We’ll be physical at the point of attack and run the ball but we also like to throw and spread it out so guys have the opportunity to get the ball in open space and score.” And on defense?
We’ll be a 4-2-5 defense,” Price noted. “It’s best for the spread teams we play but we’ll morph it up a couple different ways based on how teams are playing us. It suits the kids we have here to be successful.”
The Pointers have also been returned to both CIF Div. I and the Western League with a new playoff format that uses season-ending ranks for divisional pairings.
“The Western League is a tough draw, one of the toughest in the county,” Price observed. “With Saints, Cathedral, Madison, and Lincoln, this speaks to the success of the Point Loma program after multiple deep runs in the playoffs. It’s going to be a challenging situation. We have a team with some strong seniors who will anchor us but we will have a young core who will grow a lot during the season. We will line up, give it our best shot in every game, and be as competitive as possible.”
Playoffs will be a “wait and see” situation as CIF pairings are made by computer based on each team’s wins, losses, and strength of opponents.
With all these factors in play, how will Price measure the Pointers’ success?
“We don’t have any easy games,” Price notes, “So success for me is our team being competitive, playing at a high level and giving their best in every game we play. Seeing the coaching being reflected on the field and making some type of playoff run is important. But my real measure of success is how much our big core of young guys grows during the season.”
Speaking to the community, Price said, “I couldn’t be more excited having everyone on board and supporting the program. We’re going to do our best to represent this community, embrace and involve the alumni, and have our kids give back to the community. We want to represent the school and community the right way, continue the pride and tradition of this program, and give the community something they can be proud of.”
Price played high school football in Colorado but while at Northern Colorado University, he suffered a career-ending injury. He joined the U.S. Navy where he served four years before moving to San Diego where he has worked for the U.S. Navy for 20 years, currently in Point Loma.
Price was defensive coordinator at University City High before a six-year head coaching stint there. Last year he was defensive coordinator at La Jolla High where his team used a big second half in Pete Ross Stadium to defeat the Pointers 48-29 to take “The Shoe.” The teams meet on Oct. 25 this year at La Jolla in a game likely circled on Price’s calendar.
Price lives in Escondido with his wife and 15-year-old stepson.
