Steve Denman is headed for the Kern County Sports Hall of Fame.Photo by the Tehachapi News.
Posted by The Tehachapi News, on November 29, 2015 Denman To Enter County Sports
Hall of Fame
Next season, Steve Denman almost certainly will become only the fifth head varsity football coach in the state to reach 300 career victories.
When he does so, he'll already be in the Hall of Fame.
The Bob Elias Kern County Sports Hall of Fame has announced that Denman will join two other coaches and a broadcaster as the newest inductees at the hall's 50th anniversary celebration on Feb. 25.
“I feel humbled and honored,” Denman told The Californian. “There are so many deserving people, and you get picked. And you think, ’Wow, that’s a pretty accomplished group you’re joining.’”
Denman will go into the hall along with fellow football coach Chuck Chamberlain of Arvin; former Garces volleyball coach Brooke Roberts, and Greg Kerr, longtime sports director at KBAK-TV.
Denman ended the 2015-16 season, his 34th with the Warriors, with 295 career victories. Five more victories should easily be within the Warriors' reach in 2016. With early season success, Denman could reach the milestone in early or mid-October next year.
Denman is a homegrown product. He graduated from Tehachapi High School in 1975, earned a degree from Cal State Bakersfield in 1981, and immediately returned to his high school alma mater.
A year later, he was named varsity head football coach, where he soon installed the familiar Wing-T offense that the Warriors have been using ever since, with tweaks and modifications along the way.
Denman won 99 games and and three CIF championships while Tehachapi played in the Southern Section. Since switching to the Central Section in 1992, the Warriors have won 196 games and five CIF division titles under Denman.
Denman's 295th career victory came on Nov. 6 in a 48-7 win at West High School. The Warriors lost their first CIF playoff game.
Although Denman is the winningest head coach in Central Section history, he does not have the most victories ever in the section, since 99 of his early victories came in the Southern Section.
When he eclipses 300 career victories, he will join Bob Ladouceur (399) De La Salle, Marijon Ancich (360) St. Paul-Santa Fe Springs/Tustin, Herb Meyer (338) Oceanside/El Camino-Oceanside and John Barnes (324) Magnolia-Anaheim/Los Alamitos in the 300 club.
All are inactive. Barnes was the last to retire, in 2014, at the time the winningest active coach in California.
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