Sonora Wildcat football coach resigns

Sonora High School football coach Robert Cendro won over 100 games in his Wildcat coaching career. Cendro won three VOL championships and made it to the section final game twice with one trip to the semifinals. Cendro has taken a job at San Marcos High School in northern San Diego County.

Cendro, 52, has accepted the head-coaching position at San Marcos High School in northern San Diego County.
 

He leaves as the winningest coach in Sonora football history with a record of 108-55-1. His teams won three Valley Oak League championships, qualified for the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs 10 times — including a school-record six straight years from 2002-07 — and made two appearances in the section finals.

“I really want to thank everybody — the community, our coaching staff, the faculty, the administration ...” said Cendro to the The Union Democrat Thursday afternoon. “As a head football coach, you’re so involved and you rely on so many people. I’ve just had a ton of support and that has made it very easy for me to do what I do. It isn’t like that everywhere.”

Cendro is a 1975 Sonora graduate who starred in football, basketball, baseball and track for the Wildcats. He played football at Modesto Junior College and the University of the Pacific in Stockton, and was the head football coach at Orestimba High School in Newman before returning to Sonora in 1990.

He was an assistant under Gary Smith in 1990 and ‘91, then was co-head coach with Roger Canepa from 1992-94 and, after a two-year hiatus, was solo head coach from 1997 through 2008.

Cendro also coached softball and track for Sonora, his teams winning VOL softball championships in 1995 and ‘96 and capturing VOL and section track titles in 2000 and 2001.

Rick Francis, Sonora’s athletic director and varsity boys’ basketball coach, coached Cendro in track way back when and has been Cendro’s colleague the last 19 years.

“It’ll be a huge loss, not only for the athletic department and the football program, but for our school,” Francis said. “He does a lot of great things behind the scenes that nobody knows about. There’s no question he’s done a great job here. He’s such a quality man.”

Cendro informed his players after calling them together Wednesday.

“It’s sad,” said Nate Gray, a sophomore who started on both the offensive and defensive lines for Cendro’s final Sonora team. “He’s real honest. He never lied to us about anything. He knows when it’s time to be serious, but he let us have a lot of fun.”

“I was shocked,” said senior Matt Relei, Sonora’s quarterback the last two seasons. “He’s a great guy ... fun to play for and fun to be around. He’ll definitely be missed.”

What will Cendro miss the most?

“All the players and all the relationships you build,” he said.

Something else he’ll leave behind will be the legendary Sonora-Oakdale rivalry.

The teams and towns have been squaring off since 1922, and during Cendro’s tenure the rivalry was set ablaze by unbeaten showdowns in 1999, 2000 and 2003.

“I’ll miss that rivalry,” Cendro said. “Those are big games. It was fun to be part of that as a player and as a coach.”
 

Oakdale’s coach for the last nine of Cendro’s years has been Trent Merzon.

“I’ve never coached against a Sonora team that wasn’t coached by Robert Cendro,” Merzon said. “Sonora’s going to miss him. We wish him well and we’ll miss seeing him on those Friday nights.”

Cendro said he and his wife, Betty, began considering a change as the graduation of their son, Marcus, from Sonora approached in 2005. Marcus stayed home as part of the Columbia College basketball program for three years, but once he left for California State University, San Diego, the time became right for a move.

“Marcus being in Southern California has a lot to do with it,” Robert Cendro said. “Once he was gone, Betty and I decided that was what we wanted to do. It’s just a change ... something different ... change is good.”

Josh Kroeze, who played on Cendro’s first team and coached with him on the last, said he also knew a change would eventually take place.

“I’ve known this was coming and tried to pretend that it wouldn’t,” Kroeze said. “He’s awesome. It’s really going to be tough to replace Robert, especially from an offensive point of view. He has the big picture of what we do, especially the quarterback play.”

Kroeze said Cendro’s influence went beyond football.

“After he told the kids (he was leaving),” Kroeze said, “kids who didn’t even play for him, or who aren’t even athletes, came up to him and said he inspired them to work hard. It was real emotional. He’s touched the lives of a lot of kids.”

While Sonora is a proven and consistent winner, San Marcos has fallen on hard times. The Knights, hit hard by the opening of a new school in their area (Mission Hills), have won two games each of the last two seasons after going winless the two before that.

“It’ll be a great challenge,” Cendro said. “It’s going to be difficult.”

San Marcos has about 1,900 students, making it considerably larger than Sonora, and has seven on-campus coaches. Cendro is the only on-campus coach at Sonora. The school also is in a football-rich area that includes Oceanside, a reigning San Diego Section champion and the alma mater of former NFL linebacker Junior Seau.

“They play really good football in the North County, which is what that area is called,” Cendro said.

Cendro interviewed for the San Marcos job “a while ago” and, he said, was offered the position Monday.

Who will replace him at Sonora is a ways from being decided. Once he formally submits his letter of resignation, his job will be advertised to current members of the Sonora faculty and coaching staff.

If there are no takers from within, the position will be advertised at large.

Cendro has understandably mixed feelings about leaving the green-and-gold behind.

“It’s bittersweet,” he said. “To play at, graduate from and coach for the same school is special. Not a lot of people get to do that, and I’ve gotten to do it. I feel really blessed.”