S.B. High Names New Football Head Coach

Two weeks before the start of practice for the 2014 football season, Santa Barbara High School has a new head coach. Athletic director Joe Chenoweth announced Tuesday that J.T. Stone will lead the Dons on an interim basis following the sudden dismissal of Doug Caines late last week.

Stone, 37, was an outstanding quarterback at Dos Pueblos High and Santa Barbara City College in the 1990s. After finishing his college career at West Texas A&M, he has spent 14 years coaching football at the youth and high school levels, including stints as an assistant at St. Joseph and Righetti high schools in Santa Maria.

Stone joined the Santa Barbara coaching staff as offensive coordinator in the spring. “It’s been my goal to be a head coach, and I welcome this opportunity, although it’s unfortunate the way it happened,” said Stone, who has been employed as a teacher’s aide at Cleveland Elementary School. “I’m passionate about the game of football.”

Caines, 32, teaches film and video production at S.B. High. He started working with the football team as a video coordinator and was head coach for two seasons, going 8-3 with a league championship in 2012, and 4-6 last year. Chenoweth said the decision to replace him was made because of unspecified failings in Caines’s administration of the program. Caines will retain his teaching position at the school. “He’s been extremely professional in dealing with this,” Chenoweth said. “There’s definitely more coaching in his future.”

The Dons will open the season at home August 29 against Oxnard. At the conclusion of the season, Chenoweth said interviews will be conducted with the aim of naming a permanent head coach.