Gene Noji, Woodbridge’s first football coach who led Warriors to a CIF championship, dies

Gene Noji in 2023 followed the Warriors in a varsity football game on campus. (PHOTO: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Legendary football coach Gene Noji, who was Woodbridge High School’s first varsity football coach and led the program to its first CIF title in 1987, died Thursday, Aug. 14, Athletic Director Ryan Brucker confirmed with OC Sports Zone Thursday night.

Noji was 78. He was born on Oct. 8, 1946. Cause of death was not disclosed.

“Obviously, it’s very sad news for the Woodbridge community given he was the first head coach of the Woodbridge football team,” Brucker said. “He led them to their first CIF final and championship. It was pretty sombering news to get, today was the first day back for the teachers, we get the students back on Tuesday.

“As a Woodbridge athletic family, we give our best to Randall and Gene’s wife (Audrey).”

Brucker was informed by Randall Noji, who played at Woodbridge and coached with his father. Gene Noji was Woodbridge’s first varsity coach in 1983 (he started with a JV program in 1982) and led the Warriors to the CIF Desert Mountain Conference title in 1987. The Warriors defeated Chaminade 13-10 in the final at Irvine Stadium.

Noji then took a one-year sabbatical in 1988 turning the program over to Rick Gibson.

Woodbridge was the CIF runner-up in 1988. Trabuco Hills defeated Woodbridge 34-14 in the CIF Division XIII final at Mission Viejo.

Then Noji returned as head coach for another year in 1989 before turning over the program back to Gibson. Gibson was then the head coach for 32 years and is now an assistant coach under new coach Connor McBride, the fourth head coach in the program’s history.

Randall Noji posted on X:

“Early this morning, I had to say good-bye to Dad and Coach. Dad/Coach Noji lived 78 years and not only was he a coach to me but a coach to probably thousands of baseball and football players.”

Randall Noji said his father also had coaching stops at Alemany High School, Dorsey High School (his alma mater), Long Beach Poly, University High School, Saddleback College, Segerstrom High School, Santiago High School in Corona and Laguna Beach High School.

Noji was also on the staff as an assistant coach under Gibson on the 1998 Woodbridge team that won a CIF title, the second in school history. Woodbridge defeated Santa Margarita 27-24 in the CIF Division VI final at Cal State Fullerton.

“He was the best kind of person to learn under, he was such a gracious man of integrity and respected all,” Gibson said.

Gibson recalled how proud Noji, who was the Warriors head coach for seven years, was of the first CIF title.

“Vintage Gene Noji, he just had a way of uniting a lot of people for a common cause,” Gibson said in an interview. “It sounds simple but it’s very difficult, the school wasn’t that old. It was amazing watching him lead all of us. We had a really good staff, but he assembled us with Tom Knutson and Kirk Harris and Cliff Nelson and John Halagan. It was a fantastic thing in such a short period of time to make that happen.

“When his son Randall was born soon after that, he took the one-year sabbatical and as a young coach to have the opportunity to have a great team coming back ….. he probably would have won back to back had he stayed in but …. Randall being an only child, I think he really wanted to make sure that Randall knew his dad. He took a year sabbatical and came back in 1989 for one year and decided after that one year that he wanted to spend more time with the family and not have the head coaching responsibilities on top of trying to raise his son.”

Noji remained at Woodbridge as a physical eduction teacher but stayed away from coaching a couple years. He eventually came back to help Woodbridge as an assistant coach off and on for about 10 years, Gibson said.

“Gene loved football, he would go to clinics when he wasn’t coaching all over the place and get ideas and strategies and I truly think he didn’t want to be a head coach again, he just loved the sport so much and the kids so much he just continued on,” Gibson said.

Gibson said there were countless stories of how Noji demonstrated integrity.

“In the first year of varsity, they had a chance to go to the playoffs if they won their last game, and something happened at school where a group of kids made some wrong choices and he could have turned his head and kind of said it’s really not my spot to teach a lesson, but he basically told those varsity kids, you guys made a choice and unfortunately it wasn’t the right choice, and in that last game, he played mostly sophomores and some juniors,” Gibson said.

“Had they won that game, they would have been in the playoffs, but he thought the lesson was greater than trying to win. When people hear that story, it’s Gene Noji, it’s integrity, it’s trying to teach kids more than just the football end of it.”

Even after retiring from coaching, Noji would go to Woodbridge games to film games to help in their preparation for the following week.

McBride, the current Warrior coach, also noted Noji’s impact.

“Unfortunately, I was never coached by Coach Noji,” he said. “Being someone who has grown up in the Woodbridge High School football program, I have heard countless stories and memories of the impact of Coach Noji. There would be no Woodbridge football without Coach Noji.

“I would remember him being at every home game when I played at Woodbridge and have seen him at games these past couple of years. He was a continual supporter of the program that he built. It is an honor to follow in his footsteps and carry on the legacy he started at Woodbridge.”

Funeral services have not yet been announced.

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