Two former NFL players coached H.S. teams to massive wins this weekend

NFL players seem to have a lot of success coaching high school football teams. Maybe too much. This weekend, former Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce coached California’s Long Beach Poly to a 99-9 win, while 16-year NFL veteran Jon Kitna’s team at Washington’s Lincoln High won 91-0.

After the games, Pierce and Kitna both told local media that they’d tried everything to slow their teams down, short of handing the ball over. Pierce pulled his starters after the first quarter, Kitna after the second. Pierce played four quarterbacks, Kitna played three (and didn’t let them throw passes longer than five yards after the second quarter). 

“We didn’t want to do anything in that second quarter and beyond that could be misconstrued as rubbing it in someone’s face or going over the top. That was a difficult second quarter,” Kitna told the News Tribune.

Their efforts did little to stop the onslaughts. Even a running clock (once a team is down by 40, the clock runs continuosly) didn’t help in either game. LB Poly’s 99-point total was the highest in California’s Southern Section since 2005. 

At least there was a silver lining for LB Poly’s opponent: Compton’s 9 points were more than LB Poly had allowed in all of its 2013 league play, according to USA Today, and the team jumped out to an early 6-0 lead before Pierce’s squad took over.

Gazette Sports posted highlights of the game on YouTube:

Kitna has been coaching at his alma mater since 2012 and his son is the quarterback. So far LHS is 5-0.

Pierce, who played in the 2006 Pro Bowl and won the Super Bowl with the Giants in 2008, is in his first season at LB Poly, a perennial powerhouse in one of the country’s best football states. His team is 5-1.