Erik Terry excited to be a head coach again leading Northwood football program

New Northwood football coach Erik Terry talks to football players shortly after he was introduced Friday. (PHOTO: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)

Erik Terry hasn’t been a head football since 2018, but he’s eager to assume those duties again leading Northwood High School’s football team.

Terry, 55, resigned as Irvine head coach in 2018 after nine seasons and 18 years with the program. He led the Vaqueros to three CIF playoff appearances, including the 2018 season. He replaces JC Clarke, who will stay on as defensive coordinator for Northwood.

“Not coaching at all this fall, but being around really made me get the itch to come back, so it’s an exciting situation with the fact that JC is going to stay involved,” Terry said. “That’s going to make the transition a lot better, a lot easier.”

Terry was still involved in coaching as an coach at Nipomo High School for a couple years before coaching at Mission College Prep in San Luis Obispo. Terry then moved into a new role at Northwood as co-athletic director with Sierra Wang. He will continue that role.

“We went up there with my son starting high school and I wanted my dad to have the opportunity to see him play, he wasn’t able to make the trips to Southern California that frequently, so it was a great experience for us all,” Terry said. “My daughter went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo so our whole family was kind of up in the area for that five-year period and we got to spend some quality time with my parents.

“My wife’s family is all down here, so it felt like it was a decision we made that we fulfilled out of that relationship and it was time to come back to this area.”

Terry said his parents, who still reside in Northern California, understood his decision.

“There are a lot of family things that came into play, I wasn’t looking at necessarily coming back to Irvine, it just happened to be that Northwood had this athletic director position and once I got down here and started talking to JC a little bit and see what direction he was thinking about going, it was one of those things that we both thought we could help each other,” he said.

Terry said he’s happy that some assistants will remain.

“Dean (Toohey) is on campus which is great and he wants to stay in the program, so the defensive side of the program is pretty solid and like I told the players, I will start talking to the current members of the staff and there are also some coaches on campus here who haven’t been coaching football here and just try and bring a staff back together,” he said. “That will be order of business number one is trying to build that staff back.”

Terry has established some top goals for the Northwood program. Under Clarke, the Timberwolves won two CIF titles and finished 9-3 this past season, advancing to the second round of the CIF playoffs.

“I want to take the foundation of what JC has laid the last four years and see what we can do to elevate our overall program,” he said. “One of the things, when I was at Irvine and people took a lot of pride in was getting our kids out in the community as well, doing more public service type opportunities and working on the whole person and whole athlete, not just focusing on football.

“That’s a piece that I hope to bring to Northwood football, giving back to the community.”

Northwood will be competing for the second year in the Foxtrot League.

“It’s a pretty competitive league, going into the season and talking to JC I think going into the season there was some skepticism about what Northwood would be able to accomplish, but like Doctor (Leslie) Roach (the principal) mentioned, he’s one of the best defensive coaches I’ve ever been around and he really got those guys to play great defense and I think that’s where it all started and then some of the other pieces fell into place from game to game and we came out a lot better than a lot of us really thought going into the season,” he said.

“What this group of kids accomplished was pretty amazing and we’re excited to see what year two has in store, because people know what JC is doing with this new style of defense he’s playing. Our goal is to upgrade our offensive staff, our offensive coordinator did a great job with not a huge offensive staff supporting him. The staff as a whole was smaller than I think anybody would like to have.

“So I think that’s our goal is to see what we can do build an offensive staff that supports the defensive staff that JC already has.”

Terry said he’s looking forward to coaching in Irvine again and re-establishing his relationships with the football coaches in the city.

“There is a comfort in being back in Irvine and that kind of football coaches’ comradery and support that we have for one another is special,” he said.

RELATED

JC Clarke resigns as Northwood football coach after four seasons; replaced by Erik Terry

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com