The562’s coverage of football in 2024-25 is sponsored by The Terry Donahue Memorial California Showcase.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
Monday night’s College Football National Championship Game may not have gone the way Notre Dame alum Justin Utupo was hoping it would go–but the future is looking bright for the new football coach at Long Beach Poly and his family.
Utupo met his Jackrabbits squad two weeks ago for the first time, and in that meeting as well as an interview, he laid out his plan for a Poly football team that returns to its roots with a physical defense that’s committed in the weight room.
“First off I’m blessed to be here,” said Utupo, a Lakewood alum who departed his alma mater to come to Poly. “This was a family decision–it wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the right decision. I feel like I was called to be here to lead this program.”
He said it was a difficult choice to leave a Lakewood program he’d built into a successful squad, making their first-ever CIF-SS championship appearance two years ago.
“That’s my alma mater, almost 10 years of my life I’ve spent as a Lakewood player or giving back to that community as a coach, I will always be here for them,” he said.
Having grown up in Long Beach, Utupo is well aware of the history and tradition at 1600 Atlantic. He said one of his first moves was to solidify alumni assistant coaches, with the popular Travon Patterson back as an associate head coach. He also said that he’s planning on bringing back a lot of Poly tradition in the weight room and in the program’s front seven.
“My question to the team was, ‘What is our culture in the weight room? Are you putting in work in the weight room in January that will win you games?’” Utupo said. “We’re going to get stronger up front–we need to be more physical on both sides of the line, offensive and defensively. Defensively for me it’s all about attitude–getting to the football with bad intentions. That was me as a player and as a coach. Offensively, we have so much talent–we’ve got great receivers, but we also have to run the ball. We can’t let teams make us one dimensional.”
One of Utupo’s other coaches will be his wife, Leilani Utupo, who will be Poly’s sports performance coach–working with athletes in the weight room but also on mental performance and approach. Overall, Utupo’s message to his team and in his first interview were about accountability.
“There’s a ton of talent here at Poly,” he said. “My goal is to build structure and accountability. Talent can only take you so far–you have to be able to lean on your structure and your process to break through ceilings at the next levels.”
It’s also no secret that Utupo is making history as the first Polynesian coach in Poly history, as he did at Lakewood and Millikan before. The Jackrabbits’ history of producing great Polynesian players, of course, is second to none in California over the last 70 years.
“I take great pride in being the first Polynesian head coach in program history,” he said. “Our culture is rooted in love and family, and that’s the environment we’re aiming to foster within our program. A lot of my coaching philosophy stems from the culture that I was brought up in, being Samoan. We are about respect, love, and being a servant to others. I’m proud to represent my culture and I hope to make them all proud of me too.”
Utupo also said he’s hoping to make some history by hosting a game on Poly’s campus, which was where they played in the 1900s through the 1950s, but have rarely if ever hosted varsity games there since the construction of Veterans Memorial Stadium in the 1950s.
Utupo also spoke about making special teams a big advantage for Poly again. The Jackrabbits were long known for lethal return men and powerful punters/kickers as well, and Utupo wants to return to those roots.
“A well coached team is disciplined on special teams, it’s a huge part of the football game,” said Utupo. “Special teams was the first thing I touched on in our meeting.”
The Poly schedule is still coming together for the Fall, and we’ll report it as games are scheduled.
