Readers of this blog have been kept updated on the unbelievably successful football program at Brethren High in Simi Valley, California, where John McIntosh is pastor of the sponsoring church. Coach Terry Gourley is credited with building the powerhouse out of the tiny school, and this morning’s LA News carries a feature article on how Gourley’s switch from being CEO of a company in difficulty to coaching at Brethren has become a “family affair” on the team. Here is a short excerpt–to read the entire article click here.
From bust to boom
By Gideon Rubin, Special to the Daily News
SIMI VALLEY – Of all possible results of the 2000 Nasdaq crash, the emergence of a high school football championship program on a tiny Simi Valley campus nobody had heard of a few years ago never registered a blip on the post-dot-com-bust radar.
But it is precisely the scenario that unfolded at Grace Brethren.
A little more than five years since the tech implosion left former 3Dshopping.com CEO Terry Gourley scrambling for work, he has taken over a program that, east of Oaks Christian of Westlake Village, is the buzz of small-school Ventura County football.
Shortly after his company “failed miserably,” Gourley moved his family to Simi Valley from suburban Chicago after he had lived alone near his company headquarters in Marina del Rey for six months. He began coaching at Grace Brethren while doing financial consulting work.
In just its fourth season since moving from eight-man to 11-man football, the Lancers (11-2) find themselves playing for a second consecutive Southern Section title. They won the Div. XII title last season and play Oaks Christian (12-0) in the Div. XI championship game Saturday night at Newbury Park High.
“If I’d have been successful, I wouldn’t be here, no question about that,” Gourley said. “But this is a much more long-lasting benefit than the monetary benefit would have been.”