Lakewood has its next football coach, as the school’s longtime athletic director Mike Wadley confirmed to The 562 Tuesday evening that the Lancers are hiring longtime local football coach Mario Morales.
Morales had successful tenures at St. Anthony and Wilson, and has been on campus at Lakewood for 14 years, currently as a dean of students. Morales was an assistant coach for the Lancers last year and Wadley said his experience and familiarity with the program are a big part of the decision.
“It’s the perfect scenario for us,” he said. “He’s the right guy that can mentor our young coaching staff. He’s been there and done that, everything is in our backyard. He’s already on campus and is a big presence on campus. This is great for the kids and the school.”
Morales said that while he’s helped out at other schools since leaving St. Anthony in 2021, Lakewood has always been a job he’s kept an eye on. When head coach Justin Utupo left for Poy a few weeks ago, Morales perked his ears up.
“The fit is good, I’m on campus, I’ve coached there this past season,” he said. “More of the ‘why’ is how Justin (Utupo) left everything. He did a great job and he set a great foundation for the program. It’s just a matter of taking over a program where he did a lot of great things and just managing it forward.”
Morales inherits a Lakewood team that returns a ton of talent, including Texas A&M commit Caleb Tafua and quarterback Kade Casillas. He also said he’s happy to get to continue coaching in the Moore League.
“I’ve always been a big community person and I love Long Beach,” he said. He also intimated that he won’t be using Utupo’s departure as a big bulletin board moment when the Lancers face Poly.
“It’ll be a cool night when we get together, it’ll be emotional for a lot of the players,” he said. “They had a great relationship with him and they still do. Relationships are a big thing, especially as you get older. If our guys want to show it that night and give him a big hug I’m cool with that. He’s a good man and he did some great things here, we all know that.”
Morales also said he’s embracing being a mentor coach to some of the young assistant coaching talent at the school.
“There’s a lot of things I learned when I was younger because I had older coaches to help me navigate through some of it,” he said. “I like being able to bring some experience to them–and these young guys have a lot of knowledge and high football IQ, so they’re teaching me a lot too.”
Morales was the most successful coach at St. Anthony in the last half-century, winning their first CIF-SS title in more than 60 years in 2016 and setting a new program record for wins in a season in 2014. He also led the Saints to a 60-37 record over 10 years, and was the coach at Wilson for eight years prior to becoming head coach of the Saints.
