![\"Rocky](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bayfield.High_.jpg\")
Rocky Long is taking over a Bayfield High School football team that currently has only 21 players. (Bob Bonnar \/ News Letter Journal)<\/p>\nRocky Long retired as San Diego State football coach six years and six days ago.<\/p>\n
He has had four jobs since then. Actually, make that five.<\/p>\n
Long was hired this week as head football coach at Bayfield High School in Bayfield, Colo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played a little golf, but I don\u2019t want to play golf every single day,\u201d said Long, who celebrates his 76th birthday on Jan. 27. \u201cAnd I work out about three days a week, but that\u2019s only two hours of the day. So I\u2019ve only got one other thing to do. I can watch TV all day and drink, or I can actually give myself something to do. \u2026 I might be the oldest high school football head coach in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long is taking over a program that began the 2025 season with three straight victories \u2014 fun fact: the first win was over New Mexico\u2019s Aztec High School \u2014 before losing six straight games in the 2A Intermountain League.<\/p>\n
\u201cRocky Long is as close to football royalty as you get in this part of the country,\u201d Bayfield AD Andy Duffy said in a release. \u201cWe are thrilled that he chose to become a Wolverine, and it is incredible to think he is going to write the next chapter of his legendary coaching story right here in Bayfield.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he signed a five-year contract, Long laughed and said: \u201cI have a one-year stipend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long didn\u2019t want to say how much he\u2019s making. Let\u2019s just say he will make in a year about what he made in two days at SDSU. Of course, Long is doing this for the love of the game, not the money.<\/p>\n
The population of Bayfield was listed as 2,838 in the 2020 census. Long said enrollment at the high school is 420. The new coach had 21 players show up for Wednesday\u2019s team meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you play a game with only 21 guys?\u201d Long asked.<\/p>\n
Rocky Long is taking over a Bayfield High School football team that currently has only 21 players. (Bob Bonnar \/ News Letter Journal)<\/p>\n
Word is that there are a couple of Bayview kids playing at nearby Durango High School. If Long can get them to return and get Bayfield players to recruit some of their classmates, then the Wolverines could round out the roster.<\/p>\n
Long\u2019s message to the players at the meeting: \u201cI expect them all to get good grades. Don\u2019t worry about the X\u2019s and O\u2019s part, because we\u2019ll be one of the best teams in the state X\u2019s- and O\u2019s-wise. But we still have to have players that want to play and want to work. We\u2019re going to start lifting three days a week, and I expect them all to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was the point of the conversation where Long mentioned that he\u2019s the new strength coach, too.<\/p>\n
Long\u2019s background is not as deep in the weight room as it is on the sideline, so he made a quick call to former SDSU football strength coach Adam Hall and quickly had a strength and conditioning plan in hand.<\/p>\n
Long served as defensive coordinator at New Mexico and Syracuse after he left SDSU. When the staff at Syracuse was dismissed two years ago, Long and his wife Debby moved to the condo they have owned the past 30 years in Durango, Colo.<\/p>\n
Long was an analyst two years ago for Durango\u2019s Fort Lewis College and defensive coordinator last year for Durango High School. He had an opportunity to become head coach at Durango, but chose this chance with Bayfield because it seemed like a better fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t like that the parents were running the program (at Durango),\u201d Long said, \u201cso I found the only way to keep coaching was to be the head coach (at Bayfield) and see if the parents try to run the program with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long\u2019s first parents meeting was coming up two hours after he got off the phone with a reporter. He previewed his message to them: \u201cStay out of our business, get the kids there on time, make sure they\u2019re willing to work and they don\u2019t go on vacation when we\u2019re having workouts and all that kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long said Durango High School had six starters miss a Monday practice one week last season in order to attend a Denver Broncos football game. Despite the absence, the players were still allowed to start in that Friday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Long told his Bayfield players on Wednesday: \u201cI don\u2019t know what you\u2019re used to, but I\u2019m an old man and I\u2019m old-school. If you don\u2019t come to practice, you ain\u2019t playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s probably older than most of the players\u2019 grandfathers, but the fire still burns to coach football, with a few life lessons along the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s fun, but \u2014 what\u2019s the word? \u2014 it\u2019s energetic,\u201d Long said. \u201cBecause you go, \u2018What the heck?\u2019 I\u2019ve got to figure out things that I\u2019ve never had to figure out before. It gets you wound up a little bit. And if you have some success, it will make you feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durango is a ski destination, so there is some wealth in the community, and some entitlement. Bayfield is 20 miles away. It may as well be 2,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re farmers and ranchers,\u201d Long said. \u201cI\u2019m assuming that any kid who has to get up at 6 in the morning and throw hay and milk a cow or something, they ain\u2019t spoiled.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is he going to do if a parent calls with an issue?<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I haven\u2019t given out my number, and I don\u2019t have to,\u201d Long said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to have to come talk to me after practice or something. It\u2019s always better in person because there\u2019s people around to see how it really goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
What sense did he get of his team during that first meeting?<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a sense that what I told them, they were taking it all in because that\u2019s not how it\u2019s been here,\u201d said Long, referring to structure and discipline that he has heard was lacking in the program. \u201cLike I told them, \u2018I\u2019m not going to tell you where I\u2019ve been and what I\u2019ve done. If you want to, look it up. (Type) Rocky Long, Wikipedia and football and you\u2019ll see.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s the last time I better hear my first name. You either call me Coach or Coach Long. I tried to call my dad by his first name one time and he threw me up against the wall. Just so you guys know where I\u2019m coming from. \u2026 It\u2019s going to be a real interesting thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without a doubt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rocky Long retired as San Diego State football coach six years and six days ago. He has had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[303,68523,551,547,68522,74,76,75,300,68524],"class_list":["post-134178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-aztecs","tag-bayfield","tag-colorado","tag-new-mexico","tag-rocky-long","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-state","tag-syracuse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}