Defending national champ Mater Dei (California) finds its new head coach

raul lara is hired as the new head football coach at Mater Dei.
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Southern California’s Mater Dei High School, winners of four High School Football America national championships since 2017, will be led by a familiar face in 2024. The school has hired Raul Lara, who led Long Beach Poly to national prominence, as its new head football coach.

Lara replaces Frank McManus, who was let go by the school earlier this month after leading the program to our national championship in his first year as head coach.

Lara, who has spent the last three years as the head coach at St. Anthony’s, is best known for his 13 years at Poly. He won five Division 1 titles as the head coach of the Jackrabbits. His record at Poly was 142-30.

After leaving Poly, Lara became the head coach at Warren High School. He took over a program that was 1-28-1 in the previous three seasons. During his five years with the Bears, he led the program to a 29-23-1 record.

Under Lara’s leadership, St. Anthony’s was 21-14 over the last three years.

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About the Author

Jeff Fisher
Jeff is an award-winning journalist and expert in the field of high school sports, underscored with his appearance on CNBC in 2010 to talk about the big business of high school football in America.Jeff turned to his passion for high school football into an entrepreneurial venture called High School Football America, a digital media company focused on producing original high school sports content for radio, television and the internet.Jeff is co-founder and editor-in-chief of High School Football America, a partner with NFL Play Football.