Los Alamitos head coach John Barnes captured his 300th career victory in a 46-0 rout of Marina on Thursday night.

Los Alamitos head coach John Barnes captured his 300th career victory in a 46-0 rout of Marina on Thursday night. Former players were on hand to celebrate with Barnes. A trophy ceremony was held after the game.
Video by Jonathan Khamis, for OCVarsity.com.

300th Victory truly is special for Los Al's Coach Barnes

Thursday October 4th, 2012, the Los Alamitos High School Griffins routed the Marina Vikings, 46-0, in an extremely one-sided homecoming victory that saw every Viking drive stopped dead and the Griffins scoring on almost every drive of their own in the first half. But that was only part of the story at Veterans Stadium that night.

Griffins coach John Barnes achieved a remarkable milestone: a full three hundred career victories. Just to put that in a little perspective, he’s only the second coach in a century of CIF football to get that far. The trophy that he received at the post-game celebration read “Winningest Coach in OC”. This man truly has achieved something special at Los Al High over his thirty-four years there, and it was only fitting that it should be celebrated with such an incredibly decisive victory that night.

The visiting Marina Vikings, meanwhile, were hamstrung by miscues, including penalties and very painful turnovers that only highlighted the skill and power of the home team. The game seemed over by the end of the first quarter, by which point the Griffins had already scored over thirty points.

The Griffins weren’t perfect; a couple missed point-after kicks, a missed two point conversion, and several sloppy kickoffs marred their performance. Nonetheless, it was a spectacular victory to mark the occasion, and Coach Barnes’s leadership was the most valuable player of the night.

Football: Los Alamitos’ Barnes approaching another milestone

Los Alamitos football coach John Barnes will enter the 2012 season just five victories away from 300 for his career, a feat only three coaches in the state have accomplished.

Barnes, 63, has an Orange County-record 295 career victories. He has won 293 games in 33 seasons with the Griffins. He also won two games with Magnolia before his tenure at Los Alamitos, which started with the 1979 season.

Barnes said approaching the milestone makes him feel proud of his players and assistant coaches over the years. “You don’t win without great players and great coaches,” he said between the Griffins practices Monday.

Concord De La Salle’s Bob Ladouceur and the retired Marijon Ancich (St. Paul/Tustin) and Herb Meyer (Oceanside, El Camino) are the only other California coaches with 300 career victories. For 2012, Barnes will have a new assistant coach on his staff. Former Cypress coach John Selbe has joined forces with the Griffins and will coach defensive backs.