GROSSMONT HIRES FORMER STAR LAWRENCE AS HEAD COACH
QB for ’Hillers, USD youngest coach in county at just 26
Anthony Lawrence was an honor student as an accounting major at the University of San Diego when a summer internship convinced him that a 9-to-5 office job wasn’t his career path. Football was his passion. And when Grossmont High School called looking for a new varsity coach, Lawrence jumped at the opportunity.
Lawrence has been named the head coach at his alma mater. He is the seventh Foothillers coach since 2004. And at 26 years old, Lawrence is the youngest coach in the county.
“Grossmont holds a special place in my heart,” said Lawrence. “The guys at USD knew how much I love Grossmont because I told them all the time.”
Playing for Tommy Karlo at Grossmont, Lawrence was a twotime all-state player, a two-time All-CIF selection and was twice named Grossmont Hills League MVP.
He threw for 3,300 yards and 41 TDs as a senior in 2013 and 3,400 yards and 36 TDs as a junior. The Foothillers were 9-3 both those seasons.
Lawrence set more records at USD before playing three seasons of professional football in Japan.
Now he’ll be tasked with turning around a Grossmont program that, under coach Chris Holmes, went 0-10 last year and 4-8 in 2021.
“I want to dive in and figure out what I like … what works and what doesn’t,” Lawrence said. “There was good energy at our first meeting.
“I have two goals: I want my boys to develop into fine young men. And I want to create positive memories.
“How do you create positive memories? You win games. But it has to be done the right way. I want the kids to hit the books, pound the weights and work hard.”
Lawrence had the good fortune of playing high school ball for Karlo, who resigned for personal reasons after the shortened 2020 season. While Karlo will not be part of Lawrence’s staff, Lawrence said he’ll “lean on Karlo quite a bit.”
“Tommy was a phenomenal mentor,” Lawrence said. “We share the same birthday, we were both quarterbacks. We’re both grinders.
“I’ll follow Tommy’s philosophy … we’ll go fast, we’ll practice hard, we’ll run everywhere.
“I wasn’t your typical clean-jersey quarterback. I like to mix it up, get dirty. I hammered the weight room. I wanted to be the strongest guy on the field. I take pride in my work ethic.”
Recruited by Yale and Penn, among others, Lawrence chose USD and coach Dale Lindsey. He went on to break nearly every Toreros passing record. He was the starting QB from the second game of his redshirt freshman season in 2015. USD was 38-9 in the 47 games he started.
Lawrence threw for 12,628 yards with 961 completions and 120 touchdowns in his four-year career. He was a three-time player.
“I think he’ll be an excellent head coach because he understands the game,” Lindsey said. “One thing Anthony had over any quarterback here is he understood the game. He didn’t just understand how to play quarterback; he understood the whole nine yards.
“When he was here, we won three Pioneer League championships. You don’t do that by chance. The guy under center has got to be able to do the job. He was a quarterback supreme.”
After college, Lawrence spent three seasons in Japan, playing professionally for the Panasonic Impulse.
He called it “a great experience.”
“I got to coach a high school team in Japan. And after my first year, I was basically the offensive coordinator,” he said.
Lindsey hired Lawrence as USD’s receivers coach last season, and Lawrence loved it. all-conference
“I learned a lot,” said Lawrence, who will be an offcampus coach at Grossmont. “Yes, I’m young, but I have been a coach for four years. Coaching at USD convinced me I want to be a coach, but I don’t want to coach at the collegiate level.
“Grossmont is where I belong. I want to build a program here.”
More coaching moves
Brawley has made a choice on a new football coach and will make an announcement after tonight’s school board meeting.
• Vista closed applications Monday and will go through a screening process, then interviews. The Panthers are about two weeks away from making a decision.
• Valley Center is getting closer, but isn’t to the point of naming a successor to Gilster.