To Vic go the spoils

The results of this blog's first-ever poll are in, and Atascadero's Vic Cooper has won in a landslide plurality.

I put the question to you: Who's the best high school football coach in San Luis Obispo County? And out of the 134 votes tallied, Cooper (pictured right in a Tribune file photo by Joe johnston) came away with 44 — or 32 percent.

"I hope my better years are in front of me and not behind me," quipped Cooper, the only coach to tally more than 30 votes.

Technically, Cooper could have gone to 44 different computers and voted for himself every time, but that's probably not what happened seeing as how Cooper said he was skeptical of the poll and any deeper meaning revealed.

"There’s a lot of good coaches on the Central Coast," he said before giving compliments to San Luis Obispo's Craig Winninghoff (second with 29 percent) and Paso Robles' Rich Schimke (tied for fifth with 11 percent). "That’s a fairly nice honor ... Hopefully, that’s a good sign of having a good staff from top to bottom."

Morro Bay's John Andree took third with 27 votes (20 percent). Arroyo Grande's Tom Goossen (11 percent) was fourth, and the other coach tied for fifth was Mission Prep's Joe Silveira, a former longtime Coast Union coach.

If there was an option for a coach having the most success with the lowest enrollment, Templeton's Don Crow would have gotten more than the 11 votes, or 8 percent, that he got for coming into a tumultuous situation and churning out a playoff program every year.

Instead, Crow finished behind first-year Nipomo coach Russ Edwards (14 votes, 10 percent), a former San Luis Obispo assistant, and tied with Coast Union's Dave Clements, a second-year guy.

Kudos to all the coaches. These guys put in more work than most know, whether they're running eight-man programs or perennial powerhouses.

Check out the new poll, and if you have any suggestions for future questions, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail.