FOOTBALL

Building a program, culture and family atmosphere at Kimball High's football program

Thomas Lawrence
Special to The Record

STOCKTON — Derek Graves spent several years teaching wide receivers a complex offensive system for San Joaquin Delta College, and along the way, learning how to create a familial atmosphere on a football team.

Now, he’s getting his chance to do both as a first-time head coach.

Graves received the head varsity job at Kimball High earlier this offseason, replacing Latef Grim, a former Franklin High wide receiver who went on to play at the University of Pittsburgh.

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“He’s going to pour a lot of energy into any coaching job that he takes. That’s going to benefit the program and the players,” Delta head coach Gary Barlow said of his former receivers coach Graves. “The student-athletes are going to gravitate toward him because they’re going to know he’s sincere and cares about them and wants to see them have success in their education and on the field.”

A 2008 Chavez High graduate, Graves inherits a relatively new program (Kimball High opened in 2009) coming off a historic season. The Jaguars went 10-2 overall, 5-1 in the Valley Oak League and won a playoff game against Vacaville-Wood. Kimball also knocked off crosstown rival Tracy as well as VOL foes and perennial section championship contenders Oakdale and Manteca.

Derek Graves, Kimball High's new head football coach, inherits a relatively new program coming off a historic season.

Simply put, it was easily the Jaguars’ most accomplished season ever.

It won’t be easy to replicate that kind of success as a brand-new head coach, but Graves is unfazed.

“My football story is a fight,” said Graves, 31, who was born and raised in Stockton and began playing football at age 7. “I was never the biggest or the fastest. I just always worked.”

Graves, who was roughly 5-foot-9 and 155 pounds in high school, became a Delta wide receiver before earning a scholarship to Idaho State. He finished his collegiate career at School of the Mines in South Dakota before returning to California and coaching at both Delta and Chavez.

Delta’s system in recent years has been relatively intricate, and one which gives skill position players a crash course as they vie for attention from four-year university programs. Graves will take a similar mindset to Kimball, which ironically faces antiquated (but highly successful) offensive schemes from Oakdale and Central Catholic annually.

“We’re going to run an offense that’s going to get kids to college. That’s the goal,” Graves said.

“No Wing T. No veer.”

Graves took countless mental notes while working under Barlow, which he’ll attempt to put into action for the Jaguars.

“It’s such a vulnerable time in young people’s lives… they’re going to be future presidents, future doctors,” said Graves, who has two sons in Derek, 10, and Dash, 3.

Besides Barlow, Graves credits his high school coach Eric Duncan, who he says is “like an uncle” to him, as inspiration.

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“He was a real mentor and a really good example,” Graves said. “There wasn’t a lot of representation to have someone to relate to, who’s educated, and who looks like you.”

Kimball opens the 2022 season against Tracy on Aug. 19 at home.

“Really good energy; really sharp,” Barlow said of Graves. “He has a way of pushing his players to perform at a level that a lot of times they didn’t see themselves as able to perform.”

Said Graves: “I plan on building a culture here: a real family atmosphere to sustain the program in years to come.”