Like many students, head football coach Archie Ljepava has homework. Like many students, he gets out of bed in the middle of the night to do that homework. In his case, though, his homework is the hours of game preparation he must do in advance of the team’s games in the fall.
Ljepava admits to waking up at 3 o’clock in the morning, and thinking about different scenarios that could occur during a game. He ponders on all the different ways the team could win and looks for ways to best use the talent on the team. With football season being his busiest time and most sleep-deprived time of the year, Ljepava also admits he consumes plenty of coffee each day to do both his jobs.
Before heading to school, Ljepava prepares his lunch for the day. As the darkness of night slowly retreats past the mountains, Ljepava and the football team hit the school’s gym at 7 a.m.
“We started weight lifting in the morning since last November, and we weight lifted three days a week. This continued until around summer, where the team shifted to their summer practice schedule for a month or two,” Ljepava said.
This season, Ljepava has placed a heavier emphasis on weightlifting. Compared to last year, the team has gone from three days of weightlifting per week to five.
After the early morning lifting ends, Ljepava begins work on school grounds. As the head campus supervisor, he zooms around campus in his stylish golf cart, keeping wayward students in check and maintaining order and discipline throughout campus. If you ever see Ljepava on his golf cart, don’t be afraid to greet him or strike up a conversation with him, he says.
After school ends, Ljepava resumes his responsibilities as a football coach.
“We start at 4:15 pm sharp, we go about warming up our legs and arms, and then get into our dynamic period, which is stretching and our agilities,” Ljepava said.
After warm-ups, the team then gets into more football specific drills and training.
“We get right into our offensive installs and offensive indie drills, where we run drills that are specific to what we’re working on that day,” he said. “After about an hour of offensive practice, we go to defense practice with defensive installs and defensive indie drills, which are very similar to the offense.”
With two hours of drills, the team finishes with conditioning. Although not all players may like the rigorous practices, Ljepava said it’s the way to move toward constant improvement.
“It’s really hard to keep everybody happy,” Ljepava said, “but we do a pretty good job of that, it’s just trying to keep everyone learning, learning, and being able to learn and take this onto the next year.”
Ljepava also stated that he is proud of this year’s team for learning to succeed as a family.
“Everyone on the team is together, we work together, we practice hard together, we cry together,” Ljepava said. “Everything is very team oriented, and I’m really proud that we have such a cohesiveness in the group, the biggest thing for me is to see the guys smile and for them to have success on the field.”
Outside of his work at SHS, Ljepava enjoys taking the occasional trip away from town.
“I really enjoy fishing, every year we’ll take a grand trip to the Sierras and go trout fishing in the rivers and streams and lakes up there,” Ljepava said. “I really enjoy doing that, I do that to get away from everything; don’t think about anything except for getting up there and it’s very relaxing.”
On a more frequent basis, Ljepava enjoys hanging out with friends and family.
“I have kids of my own, so during my free time I’m going out and watching their sports when they’re playing, my son plays baseball for West Valley College and my daughter will play basketball here this year,” Ljepava said.
Ljepava maintains a healthy lifestyle living in the Santa Cruz Mountains, working on house renovations during his free time with his experience in woodworking, along with taking frequent hikes with his family.
Perhaps the most important part of Ljepava’s routine, though, is his pregame rituals.
“Before game nights, I will make sure I am ready,” Ljepava said. “I have a ritual where I wash all of my game clothes the night before, it’s just one of the little routines I do to prepare for a game.”
After every eventful day of work in the fall, Ljepava winds down with one of his various hobbies and then hops into bed early into the night, knowing he might awake in the middle of the night with a play or concept that will help lead his team to victory that week.
