What’s more impressive: Dylan O’Leary, the 25-year-old rookie football coach at San Dimas High, or Dylan O’Leary, the math teacher who graduated from UCLA and got his master’s at La Verne?
He’s good in both roles. San Dimas has started 2-0, with wins over Glendora (24-21) and Chaffey (44-8). His father, Tim, was a longtime baseball coach at Covina. Dylan spent four years as an assistant coach at South Hills.
He used to be a three-sport athlete at San Dimas, which has long used the Wing-T offense in football. When O’Leary was interviewed for the job, one of the first questions was, “Are you going to run the same offense?”
He was truthful in saying no.
San Dimas has switched to a spread offense. O’Leary has helped himself by adding lots of experienced assistant coaches and former head coaches.
Even though O’Leary is young, he’s earned respect in the classroom and on the field. He’s a full-time math teacher with a teaching credential. Even when he was 22 and teaching math to 17- and 18-year-olds at Chino Hills, few were skeptical about his youth.
“I’ve never really had an issue with my age,” he said.
In a time when it’s tough getting a full-time teaching job at such a young age and when coaches are mostly walk-ons, O’Leary is in position to make himself very valuable.
And, if the wins keep piling up, San Dimas might need to put a fence around his classroom so no one steals him away.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
