Watt takes over Colusa football

Four points separated Bob Miller and the Colusa High football team from a Northern Section Div. III championship last fall.

Ten years had separated the last time the Redskins had even gone to the playoffs.

Now the future of the program falls to longtime assistant Randy Watt, who smiles at what separates him from what happens next: the unknown.

"The playoffs: That's our goal; that's our expectation," Watt said in a recent interview.

Except for two years, Watt has been an assistant football coach at Colusa High for nearly 25 years, including the last three under Miller.

And while Watt's experience as the head coach of the softball program for 21 years, and leading the girls soccer team to back-to-back Northern Section championships the last two seasons will be valuable, he knows running the football program is a different kind of challenge.

For one thing, he said, he will have assistant coaches, a junior-varsity program to integrate, and in the longterm, grooming his replacement. "My plan right now is to teach four more years," said Watt, 59, though the economy and other factors will be a part of that decision.

Still, he understands it is part of his responsibility to build the program and the coaching staff for the future. The likely successor, and Miller has hinted at the possibility too, is current junior varsity coach Bobby Kirkman.

"He has a lot of energy, but he just doesn't have a lot of competitive background," said Watt, who plans to involve the varsity coaches more with the JV team, and have the junior varsity coaches — especially Kirkman — involved with the varsity team.

"It's always been that way, but it will just be more formalized," he said.

Watt also will have a new athletic director, but that is the one new thing he is not worried about in the least.

"I look forward to it. Rebecca (Changus) is so very organized, and she will be very good with the scheduling and getting all the transportation lined up," Watt said. "She is very efficient."

The challenge of being the head coach is why Miller is handing his whistle and clipboard over to Watt.

"It's a good situation (at Colusa High), but it's time for me not to be a head coach," said the 60-year-old Miller, who started his career as a volunteer coach at his alma mater, Rio Linda High, 36 years ago.

Miller said he had always targeted 2010 as a retirement date, figuring he was still young enough to enjoy life a bit, or even work at something else if he wanted.

"And I've seen so many guys go out sour, and after 36 years of doing something I like, I didn't want to go out sour," Miller said.

And it isn't like Miller is giving up coaching entirely. He will be back on the sidelines at Yuba College, where he has been an assistant in one form or another for nearly 20 years.

This fall, he will be offensive coordinator and will coach the defensive backs.

"And I get to coach with my son," said Miller.

Lex Miller, who has been an assistant at River Valley High, will be the defensive line coach for the 49ers.

Watt is already putting together a practice schedule, and has what he describes as four binders of other football material organized.

"And that doesn't include the legal pad," Watt said.

All that goes to the field for the first time on May 24, the day after what Watt hopes will be a section championship celebration for the softball team.

Spring football kicks off his tenure as head coach of what will be the initial year as the Colusa High Red Hawks.