Lodi High has found its football coach, and he will get a chance to face his former team on Sept. 22.
Lodi athletic director George Duenas announced this week the hiring of Joseph Rohles, who most recently was head coach for the Manteca High junior-varsity team, while also coaching the varsity squad’s special teams.
It is Rohles’ first varsity head-coaching position.
Manteca is scheduled to visit the Grape Bowl on Sept. 22 for Lodi’s final non-league game before entering Tri-City Athletic League play.
Rohles, 38, replaces Duenas, who stepped down from the football team after five years in January to focus on being the athletic director. Duenas took the Flames to two straight playoff berths — a Sac-Joaquin Section Division II quarterfinal appearance in 2021, and a first-round exit last year.
“From an outsider who’s been keeping up with Lodi football, we’ll want to maintain what we’ve been doing, trust the process of our system on offense and defense, and just fine tune it,” Rohles said. “We have to be able to not turn over the football on offense, and tackle on defense.”
Rohles said he’s settling in and getting to know the team, and doesn’t plan to change a whole lot from what Lodi has been known for over the years.
“I’ve been fortunate to coach football in many different states in my career, and in my time at Manteca High I fell in love with running the ball and controlling the clock,” Rohles said. “We’re still going to run the same system to what George and Lodi have run in the past. My years at Manteca has brought me the mentality that running the ball is the way to go. Plus, I’m a lineman.”
Duenas liked Rohles’ mentality when it comes to running the ball.
“He is also coming from a program that loves to run the rock. They’ve been very successful over there doing what they’re doing,” Duenas said. “Lodi’s always had the tradition of running the ball, so it’ll be nice to have someone come in with the same mentality. We’re just excited to see what he can do.”
Duenas, meanwhile, will be around, but stressed that it is Rohles’ program now. Besides, Duenas will be busy as he gets the school’s girls flag football program off the ground.
“And I have to be hands off, I don’t want people coming to me when he’s the guy,” Duenas said. “I’ll be here to help him, any questions or anything, but we’re here to support him.”
As a side not, Duenas said Lodi is one of 65 schools in the section starting girls flag football programs in the fall. All six teams in the TCAL are involved.
Rohles and Duenas have crossed paths a few times before. Rohles grew up in Manteca and was a lineman for Sierra High before playing at Delta College.
After Delta, Rohles left to play for Minot State in 2005 and ‘06. Duenas followed the same path two years later, playing at Delta and Minot State.
“Actually, George’s first year in Minot, I was a student coach there,” Rohles said.
Rohles moved on to coach the offensive line at McMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill. He returned to North Dakota to coach in the high school ranks for a few years, including one year as Duenas’ offensive coordinator at Berthold High School, about 10 miles outside of Minot. From there, Rohles returned to the college ranks, coaching offensive line at North Dakota State College of Science, a junior college south of Fargo.
After a shakeup at NDSCS, Rohles returned to Manteca, taking a teaching job and coaching JV for a year, followed by two years as offensive line coach and JV coach for Central Valley High in Ceres, which included a Western Athletic Conference championship for the varsity squad.
Rohles returned to Manteca High in 2017, where he has been ever since, as a position coach on the varsity team and head coach of the JV team. In addition, Rohles is a special education teacher, a position he said he will continue at Lodi High as a resource specialist program instructor.
Rohles hopes to hit the ground running, with much of the football staff returning from previous years.
“Alex Ortiz, one of the freshman coaches, I played with him at Delta, and he knows me,” Rohles said. “George amd some of the coaches, I’ve worked with already. That’s the best part, a lot of the guys that know the kids, the school, the program, have stayed to coach, and it’s going to help me make the transition.”
He’ll have a short time to get to know the team, with the section’s dead period looming on June 29.
“My goal right away is to get in there, learn how the kids are, see the kind of athletes are at Lodi High, and get to know the whole program and the community,” Rohles said.
Lodi’s season kicks off with a home game against Pleasant Grove High out of Elk Grove.
