BAKERSFIELD’S JEFF CHUDY SELECTED AS 2007 ACCFCA COACH OF THE YEAR

WACO, TEXAS – Bakersfield (Calif.) College Head Coach Jeff Chudy has been named the 2007 American Community College Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year. The award will be presented to Chudy at the American Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year Dinner on Wednesday, January 9, at the 2007 AFCA Convention in Anaheim, California.

“It is a great honor, and I am very humbled by being named the 2007 American Community College Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year,” Chudy said.  “This award is a tribute to our players, coaches and community and Bakersfield College. We have a lot of history and tradition at this school, and I take great pride in trying to measure up to what the coaches and their teams have done in the past. To win this award says a lot about what we have been able to accomplish at Bakersfield, and I take great pride in accepting this honor.”

Chudy finished his fourth season as the Bakersfield College head coach, and 16th overall with the program. He has an overall record of 39-10 as the Renegades head coach. In 2007, Bakersfield finished with a 12-1 mark and won the Western State Conference Mountain Division championship. Chudy led the Renegades to a win over the College of the Desert in the Golden Empire Bowl, and made the school’s second straight appearance in the Southern California title game. This season, Chudy had the good fortune of coaching his son, Bryce, who is a freshman on the Bakersfield squad, while his father, Craig, assisted as the running backs coach.

The team’s success this season came off the heels of a successful 2006 campaign when Chudy helped lead Bakersfield to a 11-2 record, another victory in the Golden Empire Bowl, a second Western State Conference Mountain Division championship and a Southern California semi-final playoff appearance.

Chudy began his head coaching career at Bakersfield in 2004, leading the team to a 7-4 record, a second place finish in conference and a Golden Empire Bowl victory. The Renegades improved in 2005 during Chudy’s second season, going 9-3 overall with an appearance in the Southern California semi-finals. In his four years at Bakersfield, Chudy has guided the Renegades to two conference titles, four wins in the Golden Empire Bowl and four straight appearances in the playoffs, which includes two trips to the Southern California title game.

Chudy began his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at Fresno State from 1983-84. He moved on to Taft College from 1985-1990, serving as defensive backs coach.  In 1990, he helped guide the Taft football program to the California State championship, co-head coaching with Tom Harrell. Chudy led the men’s track team to a state title as well. Chudy spent one season as a defensive backs coach at Porterville College in 1991 before moving on to Bakersfield in 1992. He coached defensive backs for the Renegades until he was named head coach in 2004. Chudy played safety at Taft from 1979-1981, and moved to Fresno State in 1982 before a knee injury cut his career short.

About the ACCFCA: Community college football coaches are among the very best in the profession. In recent years, there have been two organizations, the California Community College Football Coaches Association and the National Junior College Football Coaches Association. Each organization had its own coach of the year. In 2000, the AFCA invited the organizations to meet at the AFCA Convention. Three national goals were set: to form a national community college football coaches’ association, to study the possibility of a national championship game between the two organizations and to elect, yearly, a national coach of the year and to have that coach recognized by the AFCA.

Their initial goal, to create an umbrella coaches association, has been accomplished. In 2002, the American Community College Football Coaches Association selected its first national coach of the year, Michael White of Reedley College.  Past winners of the ACCFCA Coach of the Year are: Troy Morrell, Butler Community College, 2003; Tim Hatten, Pearl River Community College, 2004; Don Dillon, American River College, 2005 and John Featherstone, El Camino College, 2006.