Michael Machado moves to Tulare after a three-year coaching stint in Porterville
TULARE – As the central section awaits a decision from the CIF on the status of fall sports, Mission Oak has found a new leader for their football program.
Last Thursday, former Porterville head coach Michael Machado accepted an offer to be the Hawks’ next head coach beginning next season.
Machado spent the last three seasons at Porterville. He took over a 2-8 team and led them to a combined record of 20-14. He quickly turned the team around, with 16 of the wins coming over the last two seasons which both ended in playoff appearances. Last season they were a four-point loss away from an appearance in the Division IV Valley Championship game. But despite the positive momentum, the move to Mission Oak was a personal one for Machado.
“Anybody who has been a head coach realizes what the time commitment is. [This new job] fit a lot of the things I wanted to do on the personal side such as spending more time with my kids throughout the week,” Machado said. “It allows me to be more balanced in my personal life while doing what I love doing which is coaching football.”
Machado has a 13-year-old and 8-year-old, who live in Visalia. The 45-minute commute to and from Porterville caused him to miss a lot of events happening in their lives.
“During the week when they have performances or practices, it is hard for me to get out of my practice and get to them. Multiple times there have been situations where I have had to sacrifice one or the other and for the last 13 years, I’ve had to sacrifice things they did,” he said. “Moving to Tulare decreases that travel time and my teaching responsibilities will be different.”
At Mission Oak, he will be able to do a lot more with his players within school hours. At Porterville, his day would be from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. but at Mission Oak it will be from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. That gives him an extra hour in the morning and the evening, which allows more flexibility to spend time with family.
“I don’t think people understand that there is a [large] time commitment outside of the school day, so now I have the opportunity to reduce some of that. Plus, the players don’t have to wake up as early and stay as late,” he said.
Due to the status of the ongoing pandemic, Machado is walking into an unfamiliar situation as a new head coach. He plans to start bringing in players next week to start working out, but there are guidelines in place to keep players and coaches safe. Masks are optional if the team is outside but mandatory if indoors. They’ll also focus on conditioning and non-ball drills. The CIF issued a statement on their web site suggesting teams to limit non-essential personnel in locker rooms. They also stated,
“Student-athletes should refrain from handshakes throughout athletic contests including pre-, post-, and in-event, instead utilize the fist-bump.”
Thankfully for Machado, he has installed his scheme with a new team several times before. They can install their offensive plays and formations without using a football. A Machado offense will rarely huddle so that works out with the current guidelines. He also mentioned that Mission Oak has been playing great defense over the last few years, and that will help his team a lot in the first few weeks of the new season.
“We can run about 80% of our offense from our base formation and it only takes [about two weeks] to install that. It will be an advantage for us because teams [in the division] will not have seen us run it before.”
The move to Tulare will be a familiar one. Machado graduated from Tulare Western High School and spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator for Mission Oak before he was a head coach at Porterville. He coached under Mark Gambini who is no longer coaching, but still works at the school.
Machado is looking forward to reviving relationships with different staff members who were at the school during his prior stint.
“[Gambini] is a person who I’ve always turned to see what his opinions are. Having him on campus and I can just walk into his office and get his opinion is an amazing situation,” Machado said. “There are a lot of familiar faces that are still there from when I left in 2013. A lot of the coaches are still there and there are new coaches to the campus who I’ve coached with in other places.”
Machado used to coach with Mission Oak’s new athletic director David Flores. The school’s first ever principal, Isidro Carrasco, was there during Machado’s first time as a coach and it was recently announced the he will be returning again for the upcoming school year. This will be Machado’s 17th season as a coach and seventh season as a head coach. From 2010-2013 he was the offensive coordinator with the Hawks before spending three seasons as a head coach at El Capitan High School and then three seasons as head coach at Porterville.
