Longtime SRV Football Coach Dave Kravitz Joins Staff at Cal

Rumor is now official.

After spending the 2009 football season strictly as a fan, longtime San Ramon Valley High football coach Dave Kravitz is back in coaching.

Kravitz has joined the staff at California High as a quarterbacks coach, Cal coach Eric Billeci confirmed Wednesday.

"I found out about his interest through our principal, Mark Corti, he relayed it to me after the season was over," Billeci said. "He'll be one of our quarterbacks coaches and assist in the development of our passing game."

In 17 years as the head coach at San Ramon Valley, Kravitz compiled a 123-63-5 record, qualified for the North Coast Section playoffs 12 times and won NCS titles in 2004 and 2007. During his tenure, the Wolves had just one losing season and made the playoffs in each of his last nine seasons.

He said he considered a few different coaching options before settling on the one at Cal.

"Being that my kids have gone to Cal High and two other kids that will be going to  Cal High kind of tipped the scales a little bit," he said. "Through my kids, I've known the staff that remained after Tony (Sanchez) left and (Billeci) came, so there was a comfort level there."

Kravitz's son Alex was a senior on the team at Cal this year and his oldest son, Drew, played for former coach Sanchez before graduating in 2008.

Three of the last four quarterbacks Kravitz coached earned Division-I scholarships as San Ramon developed a reputation as one of the best passing teams in the state.

However, Billeci said the Grizzlies will continue to employ a run-heavy offense.

"I think he can help expand our passing game," Billeci said. "San Ramon was more of a spread team (when Kravitz was the coach) and he'll help add another dimension to our offense. We'll still be a run-first, pass-second team, but if need be we'll hopefully be able to throw the ball too."

Kravitz said there is an adjustment period going from head coach to assistant coach, but is embracing the change.

"It's a learning process, the last time I was as assistant coach was in 1988," he said. "I welcome the change and look forward to that dynamic. The bottom line is I'll do whatever I can to help the players and help (Billeci). There's going to be some moments when you want to assert yourself, but it's the role of the head coach to play on the strengths of his assistants."

He will continue to teach physical education at San Ramon.

"It's different, but it's not that big a deal," Kravitz said of teaching at one school and coaching at another. "We're only opponents one week out of the season."

Longtime Kravitz assistant Steve Wallace will also join the varsity staff as an offensive line coach. 

Cal is coming off a 5-6 season, in which it was eliminated in the first round of the NCS playoffs by Washington.

The Grizzlies will open up the 2010 season at Washington and will wrap up the non-league portion of their schedule with College Park and Castro Valley.

Mark Kessler replaced Kravitz as the head coach at San Ramon Valley and led the Wolves to a 6-5 record in his first year, which ended with a 27-7 loss to eventual runner-up Pittsburg in the NCS first round.

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