Football team lose three coachs to rival Juan Navarro, Cordell Landers and Claude Clayborne have le Pierce for Valley College

Ethan Hanson Sports Editor

Three football coaches will be trading in their Pierce College playbooks in exchange for Los Angeles Valley College paraphernalia starting fall 2014.

Juan Navarro will serve as head coach while Cordell Landers and Claude Clayborne will continue as running back coach and linebacker coach. Landers will also take the position of recruiting coordinator.

The Brahmas under Navarro kept opponents’ offenses to fewer than 20 points in six of the 11 games played last year. The defense he coached helped the Brahmas win their first American Division Bowl Championship since 2010.

Navarro’s first coaching job started in 2004, when he worked as an assistant defensive line coach at the University of Redlands. Since 2004, he has worked at Miami and Florida International where he spent four seasons, including serving as the director of football operations in 2008.

With the background he has, Navarro has never taken on a head coaching position but felt that the transition to Valley will help a program that is in need of a kick start after going 4-6 last season.

“We just got to bring a lot of organization and a lot of passion to what we are doing,” Navarro said. “We got to be passionate about football, passionate about development and leadership. We have to want to develop, have to want to go grow and have to want to believe in the system. We are going to have to have an overall belief in the process.”

Although Navarro coached at Pierce for only one year, his impact was felt throughout many of the Brahmas players who got to know him, including Brahmas offensive lineman Thomas Henry.

“From what I’ve seen last season you have to believe in his philosophy to succeed,” Henry said. “He is that kind of coach whose mentality is crazy. To be honest, to define crazy is to define coach Navarro.”

Navarro’s job at Valley will be tough, considering he doesn’t have a full staff yet, but Valley hasn’t had an active head coach since January, when former head coach Larry Kerr took a job as defensive coordinator at the University of Northern Colorado.

Navarro also has yet to meet some of his players and integrate himself into the culture of Valley College.

“I think the program needs to take a step forward in terms of the development and the processes