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Despite having an emotional year on the field and off, PCC’s football team is ready to get its new season underway.

Last year, the Lancers bounced out of the gates with a 4-0 record and gave former Head Coach Dennis Gossard his all-time career win record at PCC.

But things turned quickly as the team went on a six-game skid and finished the season 4-6 with a winless record in the National Southern Conference.

“I’m not 100 percent certain about why there was this falling off towards the end [of last season],” said newly appointed Head Coach Fred Fimbres. “I would say that just by understanding the conference we’re in, the schedule is back-loaded so that the second half has the better, more quality opponents.”

Grant Haggard, a returning middle linebacker still cringed at the mention of last year’s season.

“Hopefully we don’t get too big-headed,” he said about his expectations for the coming season. “I think the first four games [got] to our head and that’s when we started falling apart.”

Haggard hopes that the new coaching staff will lead the Lancers to more success and with Fimbres now at the helm, the team seems to be more focused.

After keeping his eye on PCC’s football program for years, Fimbres now has his eye on another prize: winning.

“I know what we’re going to do and I know how we’re going to get this place back on track to what it needs to be,” he said.

“We can’t do the same things and expect a different result,” Fimbres said of his game plan. “What we need to do is change how we do things, how we’re going to stand, where we’re going to go, how we’re going to get there and [that] takes time.”

Though Haggard was fond of last season’s coaching staff, he hopes the change will bring home more wins.

“I think now since we have new coaches, it will be a whole new environment,” Haggard said. “I loved the coaching staff last year and I want to love it again this year. I just want to win.”

According to Haggard, the Lancers have a new defensive line coach, defensive coordinator, offensive line coach and defensive backs coach along with Fimbres.

“It looks like they’re going to take us in the right direction,” he said.

Though the team has not begun training officially (the California Community College Athletic Association rules do not allow teams to train until Aug. 11), Fimbres can get a read on many team members in their physical education activity class.

“We have the ability to see them work out in a class and evaluate them a little bit so that when we do come to official fall football, they’re not totally foreign to me,” he said.

Fimbres will need to familiarize himself with the team but he is already well versed in the sport.

According to PCC’s website, Fimbres is a Whittier native who has coached football at East Los Angeles College, College of the Desert and Cerritos College.

“I’m a Southern California community college guy,” he said. “I played against PCC, coached against PCC and recruited against PCC for years early on in my career so I’ve had PCC on my radar.”

Fimbres also thinks very highly of PCC’s football program and is confident that he can lead it to glory.

“I thought I would be a good fit,” he said. “I understand the history, I’ve seen what this place has been and I know what it can be. That was one of the reasons I was excited to have an opportunity to be interviewed and ultimately selected as the person to get PCC back on track in an athletic perspective.

“I personally believe, and I’ve thought this for a long time, that this is one of the premiere community college coaching jobs in all of the country,” he said. “I thought it would be foolish of me if I didn’t apply.”

The team will face its first opponent on Sept. 3, when Glendale College visits the Lancers in PCC’s Robinson Stadium at 6 p.m.

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