Familiar face in new place as coach

Bob Fernandez, the new girls basketball coach at Will C. Wood High School, keeps an eye on a youngster as she practices dribbling Monday morning at the Wildcats youth basketball camp.

Bob Fernandez is not counting the days until his Will C. Wood High School girls basketball team faces Vacaville, where he has taught for 16 years and once was a coach … of the girls basketball team.

Fernandez has switched sides and changed colors in the cross-town rivalry, just as Mark Wudel did when he left the Bulldogs to join Wood’s faculty and became the Wildcats boys basketball coach.

The difference for Fernandez is he will continue to teach at Vacaville even though he is coaching at Wood. His new allegiance is evident in his cell phone message, which ends with “Go Wildcats!”

Bob Fernandez gets a brief bit of exercise by pretending to be a defender during a drill.

Black and orange were Fernandez’s colors during his four seasons as Vacaville’s girls basketball coach. He resigned in 2005, however, because of “philosophical differences with the administration that was there at the time.”

Fernandez declined to elaborate, other than to say he realized he longer needed to coach with the Bulldogs. Figuring that he was finished as a coach, he looked forward to playing golf and relaxing.

Then came an offer to become the junior varsity boys coach at Vacaville Christian High School. Fernandez accepted the job for no other reason than Chris Minner, who was the Falcons varsity boys coach at the time, is a “great buddy.”

Opportunity knocked again for Fernandez in 2006 when VCHS needed a girls basketball coach. He coached the varsity team for four seasons.

Jeff Rodriguez’s departure after five seasons as Wood’s girls coach opened another door for Fernandez, who applied for the position because he yearned for a “new and different challenge”

“I loved being (at VCHS). I enjoyed the kids and parents,” he said. “As coach, you want to coach in competitive games. Many of our (VCHS) games were not competitive. We won by 30 or 40 points.”

Chances are Fernandez will not have that luxury at Wood, but he is not selling the Wildcats short.

“We have a talented team,” he said. “If the players buy into what I’m doing, we’re going to be good. I believe in my system, and I’ve been lucky enough to have good players who realize what I want.”

What Fernandez wants a team that is disciplined and plays fundamental basketball. He will settle for nothing less. After all, the coach is a “competitive dude.”

“Not too many people know that about me,” he said.

They do now.