Cabrillo administration informed the562 Friday afternoon that the Jaguars have offered former Narbonne coach Malcolm Manuel their head coaching position and he’s accepted; he will be the new coach pending employment processing and clearance. Manuel is a Cabrillo alum, which was a big part of the decision according to assistant principal over athletics Andrea Itson.
“A big deciding factor was that he’s a Cabrillo alum, he really cares about our community and our program,” said Itson.
Manuel was selected from a field of four finalists that included a current assistant as well as another former Narbonne coach, Manuel Douglas, according to sources.
Malcolm Manuel said he was thrilled to find out he got the job and to be returning to the Westside.
“I was honestly taken away,” he said. “I prepared for it, but it just means a little bit more because it’s Cabrillo. I’m excited, I’m ready to get to work and to be back home.”
A Carson native, Manuel played high school ball at Carson and attended Los Alamitos before transferring to Cabrillo for his last two seasons, where he played under head coach AJ Luke, graduating in 2010.
The Jaguars have been 2-8 each of the last two seasons after going 0-10 and 1-8 the two seasons prior. Former head coach Shane Gonzales drew a ton of respect around the league and city for keeping the Jaguars program going on the Westside coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, when low numbers threatened to shut it down.
Gonzales, who was hired days prior to the COVID-19 shutdown, resigned this offseason after four years coaching the Jaguars in order to spend more time with his family; he will be an assistant coach at Mayfair next year.
Manuel said he appreciated what Gonzales did to take the program forward.
“He did a really good job, he saved the program,” said Manuel. “I think he’s put this program in a stable position to where my staff can come in and put our mark on it. We’ve done things to help us win games and give us a winning formula.”
Manuel’s Narbonne teams were successful, but not without controversy. This season they went undefeated in the regular season, but forfeit six games after the Los Angeles City Section and LAUSD ruled that seven players on the team were ineligible due to reasons ranging from falsifying address information after transferring in to pre-enrollment contact. Narbonne will not be eligible for the playoffs this year as a result of sanctions taken against the team last year.
Marine League opponents Banning, San Pedro, Gardena, and Carson refused to play Narbonne in 2024, issuing a letter to the LA City Section accusing the Gauchos of illegal recruiting tactics and saying the playing field wasn’t level.
The Gauchos won playoff games over Dorsey and Birmingham and ended up defeating San Pedro for the LA City Section Open Division championship 75-31.
Itson said that Manuel was open about the situation in his interviews with Cabrillo administration, which factored heavily into the decision to select him as the Jaguars’ next coach. Manuel said he appreciated the way the school approached what happened at Narbonne last season, as well.
“They weren’t judgmental, they were straightforward with their questions,” he said. “That was encouraging for me. People can look in from the outside and say ‘this happened’ or ‘that happened.’ It was crazy reading things on (social media) last year and not being able to respond or correct things. (Cabrillo’s administrators) embraced me and they were open with their questions.”
Manuel said he gave Cabrillo the full story of what happened last year including what he would change moving forward.
He inherits his alma mater at a time of transition–the Jaguars are firmly established and no longer in danger of shutting down, and they now have an alum coaching who is experienced and successful.
“There’s talent in the program, there’s resources at the school,” he said. “I’m really excited.”
