Longtime San Joaquin Memorial football coach retires. A familiar name takes over
After 26 seasons at the San Joaquin Memorial head football coach, Anthony Goston has retired.
Goston, 48, said it was time to move on because he is a principal at Memorial where it takes up most of the time.
“So many memories, so many players that have come through and so many great coaches that I’ve worked with,” Goston said.
“You’re always going to remember the players that have come through your program, especially the ones when I was first starting out.”
Goston became the Panthers’ head coach when he was 28-years-old in 2004 and ever since built the program that became a powerhouse.
Under Goston, the Panthers won the Central Section three times and won the CIF Regional Division 2-A championship in 2018.
In 20 seasons, Goston compiled a 158-80 record, according to section historian Bob Barnett. Goston led the Panthers to seven league championships.
It didn’t take long for the Panthers to find their next head coach.
Rich Tuman, who stepped down as the Lemoore High head coach in December and later hired to be the Memorial offensive coordinator, was elevated to the head role.
Tuman said the decision to leave Lemoore was because he lives in Clovis and has a family business. Traveling back and forth took a toll on his business and wanted to focus on being close to home.
He said Fresno City College gave him a call but Goston reached out and agreed to take over the OC position.
He was there 45 days when Goston caught him off guard.
“We had a meeting,” Tuman said. “He said ‘are you ready?’ I thought he was talking about the offense and he goes ‘no. I’m going to retire. You’re going to be the head coach’ and he explained why he would like for me to take the job.”
Tuman was with Goston from 2014-2017 before later joining Lemoore.
At Lemoore, he led the Tigers to a Division II section championship in 2022 and was 30-12 in four seasons, Barnett said.
Goston said he’s excited for Tuman.
“I knew I had a good guy on staff that kind of learned under me when he was here,” Goston said. “He went to Lemoore on his own and implemented some of the things that we did. It was easy to turn it over to someone that really has the same passion and believes in the same mission and tradition of our school to turn the keys over to.”
