Goyeneche's rise to successful St. Bonaventure head coach linked to Therrien's tutelage

Joey Goyeneche was a young substitute teacher looking to reconnect with St. Bonaventure High football.

Luckily, he was called in to substitute for the head football coach. After history class, he left a note.

Todd Therrien returned it with a phone call and a job offer. He needed a receivers coach at the junior varsity level.

“I got my foot in the door,” Goyeneche said.

More than 15 years later, Goyeneche’s mission is to restore the luster of the green and gold with a blue-collar mentality.

“We have good dudes,” Goyeneche said, “but we’re going to outwork dudes, too.”

Four years into his tenure as St. Bonaventure High football coach, Goyeneche, using all of the lessons he had learned over the years on Telegraph Road, has led the program back to a level it has only previously seen under Therrien.

The Seraphs will play for a state championship.

St. Bonaventure (12-3) will play Folsom (12-2) in the CIF-State Division I-A state championship bowl Saturday afternoon at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.

It will be the third state bowl appearance for the Seraphs, who beat Modesto-Central Catholic and Santa Rosa-Cardinal Newman to win Division III state championships in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

The architect of those teams lays in a bed in a living health facility in 50 miles from St. Bonaventure’s campus.

Therrien has been in a quadriplegic state since suffering a severe spinal cord injury last year in a car accident with an alleged drunk driver in Clovis.

He has spent the last 10 months at a facility in Chatsworth, healing from the pressure ulcers that have slowed his rehabilitation.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Therrien, who was a player, assistant and head coach on nine of St. Bonaventure’s 11 section football title teams.

Although he hasn’t been able to watch, he is being kept up to date on the current team on visits by his father Bill and St. Bonaventure defensive coordinator Nathan Page.

“I’m just proud of them,” Therrien said. “It’s been a long season, 16 weeks. They got us back to where we need to be.”

A direct line can be drawn from the great St. Bonaventure teams of the 2000s and this team, considering Therrien’s influence on the careers of Goyeneche, Page, defensive backs coach J.B. Dock and others.

“I would not be anything near the coach I am without Todd,” Goyeneche said. “From my knowledge of the game and moreso work ethic … Todd was the ultimate grinder and I take pride in that.

“That’s what Nathan is. That’s what I am. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Jon Mack’s coaching tree continues to bear fruit.

Goyeneche had spent his childhood connected to the Seraphs. His father Steve was a coach under Mack and grew up working on the St. Bonaventure sidelines as a water boy and ball boy.

When a problem with his kidneys forced him to stop playing football after his freshman year in 1999, he transitioned to a team manager role under Mack.

“I always kind of had that ‘what if’ feeling,” Goyeneche said of his illness.

That feeling has faded as he’s proven himself over the past few seasons.

“I’m here because of my work ethic, just putting in the time watching film,” Goyeneche said. “That’s what Todd taught me.”

Therrien calls film study “a process” of gathering “empirical data.”

“Watching every film, charting every blitz, every down and distance,” Therrien said. “So we would go in (to the game) and know what we’re doing.”

After coaching JV for a decade, Page was promoted to defensive line coach and eventually defensive coordinator under Therrien.

“He’s had a huge influence on me,” Page said. “He’s had a huge influence on everybody.”

Therrien said Page also used film study “to take his game to the next level.”

“He was also a great (defensive) line coach,” Therrien said of Page. “He just needed to learn how to study film. I’m proud of him.”

Goyeneche joined Therrien’s program in 2008, first as a JV receivers and offensive coordinator under Michael Herrera. When Herrera moved up to varsity, he served as the JV head coach in 2010 and 2011.

His first season as a varsity offensive assistant came in 2012, which was Therrien’s last season as head coach.

“I wasn’t really the passing game coordinator,” Goyeneche said. “I’d come up with ideas and Todd would already have a plan and he’d take some of them.

“As the season went on, more and more my ideas got on the call sheet.”

Therrien’s suspension for the season opener against Garfield, due to a recruiting infraction, provided Goyeneche the opportunity to call his first varsity game.

“He had me so ready for that game,” Goyeneche said. “It was a tough few weeks beforehand, but I was ready to go.”

St. Bonaventure won, 48-0.

Therrien remembers a young coach with promise.

“He just needed more confidence,” Therrien said. “That was all. And he’s gained it.”

St. Bonaventure was the No. 1 seed in the CIF-Southern Section Pac-5 Division and reached the semifinals, falling to Mater Dei 21-0.

It was Therrien’s last game as St. Bonaventure head coach. He was dismissed in July 2013 following an incident during a summer 7-on-7 tournament.

Therrien hasn’t been on St. Bonaventure’s campus for about two years.

But he often thinks fondly of his time there, especially his 2008 team.

“Every day,” Therrien said. “The ‘08 team was one of my favorite teams. I thought they were right there with the ’01 team.”

Powered by running back Darryl Scott, the Seraphs beat Moorpark 42-7 in the Northern Division final and Cardinal Newman 28-6 in the Division III state championship bowl.

“Just so many good players who worked so hard,” Therrien said. “They helped us go back to back. That was something no one had done until us.”

Therrien was inducted into the St. Bonaventure Hall of Fame earlier this year. He was not able to attend the ceremony. Santa Maria-St. Joseph head coach Pepe Villasenor, his teammate on their 1996 CIF-SS Division X championship team, gave the induction speech on his behalf.

Therrien has no memory of the accident which injured him. The other driver in the collision is set to begin trial later this month, but he is not able to attend. He has contributed a statement via video.

“I just remember waking up in the ICU and not being able to move,” Therrien said.

Doctors told him he had suffered a “near-complete transection of the C4/C5 vertebrae.”

Still mostly bedbound, he is still working toward mobility.

“I’ve come a ways,” Therrien said. “But I still have a ways to go.”

The next step in his rehabilitation would be learning to extend his arms.

“If I can use the joystick with the wheelchair that would be so much better,” Therrien said. “But I can’t reach (yet).”

His father Bill is battling his insurance carrier to keep him in his current facility, where he has slowly improved.

"He’s still fighting," Bill Therrien said. "It’s going to be a long road."

Therrien's GoFundMe, organized by his brother Corey, is still active.

As St. Bonaventure returns to state this weekend, his message to the team is simple.

“Compete every play,” Therrien said. “Play every play like it’s your last, because it might be.”

Goyeneche stayed in the program under coaches John Muller, Adam Guerra and Tony Henney.

As his aspirations to become a head coach grew, he prepared himself. He served as Henney’s defensive coordinator, fulfilling the advice giving to him years before by local coach J.T. Rogers.

“He told me when I first started coaching that I needed to coach defense, too,” Goyeneche said. “I realized when I started calling defense that I didn’t know as much as I thought I did.

“Going to the defensive side of the ball was the best thing for me.”

When Goyeneche replaced Henney on New Year’s 2020, he was ready.

“I love this place,” said Goyeneche told The Star in 2020. “I know it's a cliché, but I bleed green and gold. I know what the program became under Coach Mack. I became a part of the program under Coach Therrien. We've been working hard ever since to get this program back to where it belongs, and Tony did a great job in his three years here.”

Four seasons later, Goyeneche, a product of the St. Bonaventure football program, has proven himself as its heir.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Todd,” Goyeneche said. “Todd taught me everything, as far as being a coach.

“I don’t know where I’d be if had learned from someone else.”

Joe Curley covers high school, collegiate and professional football for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcspreps on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Goyeneche's rise to head coach linked to Therrien's tutelage