Pat Squires hired as Dayton football coach

Dayton High School stayed in the same league for its new varsity football coach.

Pat Squires has been named Dayton High’s new football coach. The 48-year-old Squires, a retired Navy man, has coached football at Fallon for the past eight seasons as the head JV coach and special teams coach for the varsity. Prior to that he coached two seasons at Kent Lake High School in Washington.

Squires takes over a team that went winless last season (0-10) and scored just one touchdown, that coming on its final series of the season against Fernley. He replaces Tom Eck, who resigned for personal reasons after the 2015 season.

“I’m thrilled and really excited to be part of this program,” said Squires, who has coached football the last 10 years in Nevada and Washington. “I plan on being around here a long time.

“I love kids and I wanted to run my own program. Brook (Hill, Fallon head coach) has been wonderful to me. I was a finalist for the Dayton job last year. I don’t like to see kids fail. From what I saw on film and in person, there wasn’t a lot of trust. I want to see kids succeed all around the area.”

And, Squires was a big hit with the Dayton administration during the interview process.

“Dayton is very happy to welcome coach Squires to the Dust Devil football program,” said athletic director Cory Sanford. “His football knowledge, intensity and energy that he showed in his interview has already transferred onto the program. Coach Squires hit the ground running and has already had spring workouts. The turnout has been great thus far, and the players are already energized about the fall season. We feel like he is the right fit for what our program needs at this time.”

Anybody who has watched Dayton football has grown accustomed to a running football team, and unfortunately not a good one at that.

“We are going to run a pro-style spread offense,” said Squires, “I believe we have the talent to run that.”

Squires does have quarterbacks Tayton Watson and Blake Fletcher coming back, though nothing is official until the first day of practice in August,

C.J. Wilhite, Eric Kernbach, Tyler Chandler, Ernesto Rojas, Robert Cornwell, and Jason Anthis are wide receivers listed on last year’s varsity roster, and again, a lot can change between now and August. Jesse Schmidt, Dylan Torgerson, Prescott Jones and Jason Sandborn are among the running backs listed on last year’s roster.

“We will get into double tights and run the ball when we need to,” Squires said.

Squires said he plans to run a 4-4 defense.

The new Dayton coach said he has established a summer program, and he plans on taking his team to a camp. Where the Dust Devils end up, according to Squires, will depend on how many players decide to come out for the program.

One problem with Dayton football is it hasn’t had a freshman program for approximately 10 years, and that forces underdeveloped freshmen to play against sophomores who already have a season under their belts. Not exactly a fair situation.

Squires has a solution, but whether it gets approval from his own administration could be another story. Squires wants to start a freshman program this year and not have a JV program.

“I’d like to see freshmen plays against freshmen,” Squires said. “My goal is to get enough freshmen out to have a freshman team. I need about 25 players to make that happen. I think it’s huge that Dayton hasn’t had a freshman program. Freshmen have been forced to play JV, and that puts them against sophomores, and even some juniors, who are more developed and have a year or two of high school under their belts. If we have a freshman team, kids can get confident playing against kids their own age and similar size.

“I don’t think it’s been a lack of interest or coaching. I think some of the kids have stayed away because they would have to play JV.”

Sanford said Dayton has been looking at a lot of possibilities.

“We are trying to come up with what is best for our program as we move forward,” Sanford said. “This is just one of those many possibilities being discussed but a definite decision has not been made at this point.”

Squires admits his plan makes it tough for last year’s freshmen, who would have to play varsity as sophomores.

“For one year it would (hurt the sophomores), but sometimes you have to sacrifice things for the betterment of the future (bigger picture).”

Bishop Manogue didn’t field a JV team last year, instead letting a talented freshman class play together.