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Garden Grove football coach Ricardo Cepeda has resigned after 10 seasons, which included winning a CIF Southern Section title, to become the school’s athletic director, he and Argonauts athletic director Ralph Stevens confirmed Monday.
Stevens is retiring at the end of the school year after 23 years as the school’s athletic director and 36 as a teacher.
Cepeda will begin serving as athletic director next school year.
“He’ll do a great job,” Stevens said of Cepeda’s transition to athletic director. “He’s really passionate about the school and athletics.”
Cepeda said he will continue to coach the baseball team at Garden Grove this spring and will evaluate the position after the season.
As Garden Grove’s football coach, Cepeda led his alma mater to eight playoff appearances. The team won the CIF Division 12 championship in 2014. The Argonauts reached the semifinals three times.
Garden Grove captured seven league titles under Cepeda while compiling a 78-36 record.
Cepeda said he will miss coaching football but is excited to follow in Stevens’ “footsteps.”
“Hopefully I’ll do a good job like he did,” said Cepeda, whom Stevens first hired as a lower-level football coach.
Garden Grove football finished 3-7 last season and missed the playoffs for the first time under Cepeda.
The Argonauts are headed the Kappa League for the next two seasons in the new Orange County Football Conference that groups teams in leagues based on power ratings.
The league includes St. Margaret’s, Segerstrom, Westminster, Brea Olinda and Esperanza.
