Lucas Gingold was an assistant coach at Lake Travis in Texas before he took the job at Clovis West.
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For Lucas Gingold, the opportunity to become Clovis West’s next head football coach was one he couldn’t pass up.
“It was a no-brainer to come back home,” Gingold said. “To come back home and have this opportunity.”
Gingold is no stranger to the Fresno/Clovis area.
A Buchanan High graduate, he continued his playing career at Reedley College before transferring to Cal, where he played under Jeff Tedford.
After college, Gingold returned to the Valley and joined Fresno State’s coaching staff, serving as an assistant under Tim DeRuyter and later Tedford. The experience helped shape his coaching philosophy before he decided to make a career change.
“I decided to get out of college coaching,” Gingold said. “I got in my car, moved to Texas and figured it out. I was coaching in Texas for seven years, most recently at Lake Travis.”
At Lake Travis, Gingold spent the past three seasons coaching tight ends under longtime head coach Hank Carter. During that span, the Cavaliers compiled a 37-6 record. In 2025, Lake Travis finished 14-1, captured the District 26-6A championship and advanced to the Texas 6A Division I state semifinals.
The Clovis West job became available after former head coach Eric Brown left to join the coaching staff at Cal Poly.
For Gingold, returning to the Valley was the right move at the right time.
“The opportunity made me ready for this,” he said, crediting the coaches and mentors who helped him develop throughout his career.
Now, his attention turns to preparing the Golden Eagles for the 2026 season.
Gingold inherits a talented roster led by junior quarterback JJ Howard, along with transfer wide receivers AJ Williams from Hanford and Julyen Scott from McLane.
“We’re focused on a day-by-day process,” Gingold said. “We’re doing it to a Clovis West standard, and I’m bringing as much of what we did at Lake Travis as I can here. That was a premier program in every sense.”
This story was originally published July 25, 2026 at 7:30 AM.
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Anthony Galaviz writes about sports for The Fresno Bee. He covers the Las Vegas Raiders, high schools, boxing, MMA and junior colleges. He’s been with The Bee since 1997 and attended Fresno City College before graduating from Fresno State with a major in journalism and a minor in criminology.
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