Santa Cruz native Norm Costa — one of the winningest high school football coaches in the Central Coast Section — died from lung cancer on Friday morning. He was 79.
As successful as he was on the field, he was equally good in the classroom. He finished his career as a physical education teacher.
“He was one hell of a history teacher,” said Angelo Ross, his longtime assistant coach and friend of 68 years. “He made history come alive.”
Fittingly enough, Costa’s name is all over sports history publications.
Costa finished with a 253-65-4 record overall in his 36 seasons. With the Chieftains, he amassed 206 wins, 16 league championships and seven CCS titles. He was inducted into the California Coaches Hall of Fame (2004), National Coaches Hall of Fame (2005), Palma’s Athletic Hall of Fame (2006), and Salinas Valley Sports Hall of Fame (2014). He was league coach of the year 15 times and CCS Coach of the Year twice.
Costa is survived by his wife of 57 years, Sharon, who lives in Salinas, and their three sons (twins Timothy and Christopher, 54, and Steven, 51). The Costas have seven grandchildren.
Hundreds of former players looked at him like a second father.
“I’d run through a wall for that man when I played,” said Chieftains alumnus Jeff Carnazzo, who replaced Costa as coach following the 1999 campaign. “So would everyone else. He would get that out of you.”
Ross said Costa didn’t have many rules as a coach. The more rules you had meant the more rules that would be broken. So he kept things simple: Show up on time and practice hard.
“That’s it,” Ross said. “It was the same thing for his coaches: coach them.”
Costa inherited a program that endured five straight losing seasons when he took over at Palma in 1977. Immediately, he introduced the fly offense and the turnaround began. He endured only one losing regular season in his 23-year career in Salinas. His teams amassed a 114-7-0 record in the 90s — the final 36 games were part of the program’s 47-0-1 unbeaten streak. At the time, it was the second-longest streak in California history.
“He was an old-school coach,” Carnazzo said. “He was all about toughness. If you survived his two-a-day practices, then you made the team. They were physical and they were grueling. It was not like football today; it was old-time football. You were hitting every day and running until you puked.”
When his players stepped on the field each Friday, they were hardened, hungry and ready. In a tradition he implemented and still stands, the Chieftains take the field while bagpipes are played by students.
Costa wasn’t a motivational speaker by any stretch, and though he hated cold weather and rain, he never let on to his players. Game day was a reward for practicing hard.
“Whether it was raining, cold or 100 degrees, he’d always say, ‘It’s a great day for football,’ ” said Carnazzo, who played his senior season in 1984 under Costa.
More often than not, substantially more often, the Chieftains emerged victorious. Costa didn’t hold staff parties for his fellow coaches after each win, he went to Wienerschnitzel, where he got his fill of chili dogs and chili fries.
Costa, a 1958 Santa Cruz High alumnus, also coached the sport at a pair of now-defunct schools, Holy Cross (1964-1969) and Marello Prep (1970-1976) in Santa Cruz, before turning Palma (1977-1999) into a juggernaut. He retired from coaching following the 1999 season and Carnazzo, promoted that year after serving 10 years as the junior varsity head coach, was selected as his successor. After a year off, Costa helped out as an assistant at the lower levels for three to four seasons.
Carnazzo said he never learned so much as he did in the ’99 season. That said, even as Costa’s assistant, he had no idea the legendary coach intended to step down.
“He was a very private person,” Carnazzo said. “He never told me. He didn’t tell me until April.”
Costa didn’t withhold everything, though. His best advice to Carnazzo?
“He said, ‘Make your players think you’re a bit nuts and that you’ll go off at any time,’ ” Carnazzo said.
Costa backed it with an example. After one practice, he heard the players goofing off and getting overly raucous in the locker room. So he stormed in, ordered them back to the field as they were — some in girdles and others barefoot — and made them run wind sprints in the dark.
“I’m not sure what his reputation was, people say he was old school,” said Timothy, who, like his twin brother, is a doctor. “As a dad, he was a typical father: moderately strict and he did everything for us.”
A former center on Santa Cruz High’s football team and catcher on the baseball team, Costa attended San Jose State University, where he met his wife.
At Marello Prep, Costa wasn’t paid much, so he took a second job working at a liquor store.
“In his off time, he was off,” said Timothy, noting his father enjoyed watching TV, reading and collecting sports magazines and books. “We’d go on vacations and he’d be normal. During the season, he was pretty intense.”
His father loved coaching all sports, Timothy said, noting that he filled in where he was needed: track, baseball, wrestling and golf …
“He liked to teach,” his son said. “Football is a cerebral sport. He had a brain like that. He didn’t have many trick plays, but he knew when to use them.”
“I likened him to Bobby Fischer, the chess champion,” Ross said. “He was doing this with no headphones or hook-ups. To see the way he set up teams was so magnificent.”
And he liked to joke, too. His dry sense of humor was a comfort to his players at the all-boys school, Carnazzo said.
“If you had a son, you wanted him taught or coached by Norm Costa,” Ross said. “That was his highest accolade.”
Ross paused, his voice going heavy.
“I’m going to stop,” he said. “I’m going to sob.”
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