Cabrillo College has recently named Santa Cruz's Justin Hansen as the new Head Football Coach on Monday evening. Hansen is a former linebacker and defensive coordinator for the Seahawks and now will be at the helm for this upcoming year.
Since the fall of 2019 Cabrillo College has been without their football team. A football team that has a rich history in the community of Santa Cruz County sports and one that has been missed deeply the past two years. Currently in the last year of a two-year suspension following a rules infraction, Cabrillo College has recently been given the green light by the board to be reinstated for play in the upcoming 2022 season. And the first order of business was to find their new leader and they went out and got their guy.
Coming off of this two year absence Cabrillo Athletic Director Mark Ramsey could not be more thrilled on the signing. "Justin Hansen is a product of Cabrillo and Santa Cruz County and he has a passion for Cabrillo College football," Ramsey said. "He appreciates Cabrillo College and I know he's going to do everything he can to build us back up."
Coach Hansen is an alumni of Santa Cruz High School where he helped lead the Cardinals to the Central Coast Section Championship Game. After high school Coach Hansen went on to play at Cabrillo and won two conference titles and two bowl games. He then began playing for NCAA Div Ⅲ Cal Lutheran University from 1998-99 which eventually led him to a brief career for the indoor football team Sioux Fall Storm, his career was sidelined due to a surgery for his arm.
Having this deep background in the community is something that Cabrillo and Coach Hansen both take pride in and would love to continue. There is no better way to strengthen the relationship with the community than to recruit local talent, which is exactly what Coach Hansen plans on doing. "To be able to help guys that for the last couple years haven't had that home community college to play it, I'm glad to be the guy bringing it back."
Coach Hansen started his coaching career back in 2000 as a graduate assistant at his old college Cal Lutheran and in 2003 he later went on to Chaminade College Prep School in Los Angeles to be the Defensive Coordinator. Hansen then returned to his alma mater Cabrillo where he served as Defensive Coordinator for two more conference championship teams up until 2011.
In 2011 Hansen returned to Cal Lutheran where he served as the Linebacker Coach and then came back to the Central Coast once again to be the defensive coordinator for Hartnell from 2012-17. The year following he then found himself back at his beloved alma mater Cabrillo College, he served as the Defensive Coordinator for the last season before the two year
shutdown.
Before receiving the two year suspension in 2019, the Seahawks finished 8-2 and snapped their 12-year bowl game drought. It was Cabrillo's best overall record since they went 10-1 in 1999. In the first two years of Coach Hansen's tenure The Seahawks will not be eligible to play in postseason bowl games as part of their suspension. When asked how he would like these next two seasons to progress considering the postseason ban Coach Hansen said, "It's not ideal, but really it's one bowl game. We can still go out and win a Conference Championship every year so that's still going to be the goal, we just won't get the bowl game at the end."
In the following weeks Coach Hansen will be looking to fill out his staff and look for players to fill out the roster for the upcoming 2022 season. Hansen says he believes there are many players who have graduated the past couple years who have been working out and staying in shape to play football again, whom he would love to have on the team. If any student-athletes are interested in playing football for Cabrillo please visit our Athletics website and scroll to the "Recruits" tab for more information.
The Seahawks and Coach Hansen are looking to come out next year and look as if they never skipped a beat. When asked what he wanted the identity of the team and program to be, Coach Hansen said, "The great teams I've coached at Cabrillo, their top attributes were playing fast, playing hard and they played for each other. So if we do those things then we'll be alright."
Ricky Parra Jr.