The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Peralta asked to step down at Elsinore
Highly successful coach, who retired as teacher this school year, told that administrators prefer on-campus coach
Tony Peralta, who guided the Elsinore football program to its only CIF Southern Section championship, said he has been asked to step down after 21 seasons leading the Tigers.
Peralta, who has been coaching football for four decades, retired from the classroom earlier this school year. Before the winter break, Peralta asked his administration if he should resign as the school’s football coach, as well. Peralta said he was told not to at that time and planned to continue as a walk-on coach.
However, Peralta was informed Thursday that the school would be making a change at the top, as the administrators would prefer an on-campus coach. The decision ends the fourthlongest tenure for an Inland football coach. Only Norte Vista’s Ken Batdorf, Centennial’s Matt Logan and Chaffey’s Chris Brown have been at their schools longer than Peralta was at Elsinore.
“I am not angry or bitter, by any means, and I completely understand the decision to have a full-time coach to lead the program going forward. I would probably do the same in their position,” Peralta said Thursday. “I want to thank Elsinore High School and LEUSD for the chance to lead this program. I feel blessed beyond measure to have been the football coach here for this long.”
Peralta brought stability back to one of the oldest football programs in the Inland Empire. When he was hired in 2002, he was the program’s third head coach in as many seasons. He compiled a 134-101-1 record over 21 seasons at the helm. Peralta’s teams at Elsinore qualified for the playoffs 19 times and won or shared a league championship nine times.
Elsinore reached the 2006 CIF Southern Section Central Division final, but the Tigers came up short in a 16-13 loss to a Colony team that featured future NFL players Bobby Wagner, Josh Andrews and Omar Bolden. It was the program’s fourth finals loss in as many appearances.
Peralta got another opportunity to win a CIF Southern Section championship four years later, and this time the Tigers captured that elusive title with a 21-7 victory over Summit in the Eastern Division championship game.
“My goals when I was hired were to bring that stability and be a role model on campus,” Peralta said. “I wanted the program to be in better shape than when I found it, and I feel good leaving the school knowing we accomplished that.”