Hoping success is hereditary, Pitman High on Tuesday promoted Braden Plaa — son of Downey High’s Jeremy Plaa — to be their next football coach.
For the past three seasons, the younger Plaa has served as the Pride’s junior varsity coach, going 6-4 in 2023 and 2024. Before joining the staff at Pitman, where he’s a special education teacher, he coached the freshmen for his father, who has posted a 132-62 record in 18 seasons with the Knights and has been one of the thorniest rivals for the city’s two programs in recent years.
“I’m really happy for him,” said the elder Plaa. “He’s got a magnetic personality and kids really loved being coached by him. Our Downey players really missed him when he got hired at Pitman, and they still talk about him. I expect him to be very successful recruiting the hallways at Pitman.”
He’ll need to. A lack of numbers in the Pitman program has been one of the key stumbling blocks for a team that hasn’t posted a winning record since 2018, when Tom Tyler went 10-1 in his final season on Christoffersen Parkway.
“The No. 1 thing I need to do is build a quality staff,” said Plaa. “I’ve got to get coaches on the staff who will help maximize the potential for everything we’re doing.
“The other thing is, I need to recruit our hallways. That’s something that’s been missing the past few years. We need to get kids to come out, and present to them what’s good about our program and why Pitman football will bring the best out of them.”
Plaa got the word Tuesday morning from Pitman principal Angela Freeman that he would replace Eric Reza, who was 10-29 in four seasons at the helm.
“We’re looking at developing a new culture within our program,” said Freeman. “We had strong candidates, but Coach Plaa came in with several ideas to focus on all levels of the program to create a sense of consistency, camaraderie, and pride within our football family.”
Those are things that have been on full display at Downey High, where Jeremy Plaa has won at least seven games for 12 consecutive seasons (excluding the COVID-19 year). The elder Plaa’s staff continuity, prodigious roster sizes at every level, and exciting offense have made the Knights one of the top programs in the southern half of the Sac-Joaquin Section.
The Plaas will meet in Central California Athletic League play on Oct. 12 at Joe Debely Stadium.
“He’s proud and excited for me, but he won’t be rooting for me on Oct. 10,” said Braden Plaa, “That’ll be a fun game.”
Plaa and his brother, Beyer High water polo coach Tanner Plaa, live together near Pitman High. Tanner Plaa is a perfect 26-0 in Western Athletic Conference matchups in his two years helming that program.
Pitman athletic director Dustin Curtiss thinks being a coach’s kid has advantages.
“It’s not something that necessarily appealed to us during the interview process,” said Curtiss, whose father, Don Curtiss, roamed the sidelines for more than four decades on Friday nights at Denair and Pitman high schools. “You expect any coach to pull from another successful coach, whether it’s your dad or not. But if you’re raised around the game, you not only understand X’s and O’s, you think differently. You tend to be tactically sound because you’ve talked about little things 900 times at home.”
Plaa virtually grew up on the sidelines at Chuck Hughes Stadium in Modesto, and knew during high school that teaching and coaching were in his future.
“I’m looking forward to Friday nights, and I look forward to getting kids feeling better about themselves,” said Plaa. “My dad’s been around for a long time and he’s been a big inspiration to me. I know our name carries a lot of weight, and a big part of me wants to continue that.”
