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This Bay Area private school has ex-49ers Alex Smith, Bryant Young on its staff · Best of: Features

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  This Bay Area private school has X forty Niners Alex Smith Bryant
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  Young on its staff. This article is being read
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  by an automated voice, generated by Everlet. While they were at different
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  ends of their long NFL careers, former number one overall pick Alex
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  Smith and Hall of Famer Bryant Young spent three seasons as San
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  Francisco Forty Niners teammates. Now the two are back on the same
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  sideline, this time as assistant coach, for a Bay Area private school.
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  At Saint
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  Francis High School in Mountain View, Smith and Young have joined they
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  football coaching stuff, Young is coaching the defensive linemen, and Smith the
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  quarterbacks. An NFL Hall of Famer is pretty insane to have as
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  your coach, Saint Francis Junior defensive lineman Parker Jacobs told SF Gate
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  at a practice this week. Or in the case of Saint Francis
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  head coach Greg Calcadno, one of your position coaches. When they explain
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  some stuff, it's pretty good and people listen. If you're a high
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  school kid, you better listen, Kokalcadno told S. F. Gate. Alex Smith
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  is a guy that's played in so many different offenses that he's
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  become just so good at everything. He'll say, Here's some stuff we
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  did with Andy Reid, and I'll think, Okay, well, that might be
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  all right. He's also really good at putting it in our terminology
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  because he's had the same play in fifteen different offenses, called different
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  ways. He's been great. It's the first time that Smith, the longtime
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  quarterback who spent the first half of his sixteen year NFL career
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  with the Forty Niners before retiring after the twenty twenty season, has
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  coached in the sport While he still has a deep passion for
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  football, he loves being a father of three kids, two sons and
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  a daughter, and told SF gate coaching at the high school level
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  is the perfect balance between getting back in the sport and being
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  a dad. Football had such a profound impact on my life, who
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  I am as a person, Smith said. I think it's the greatest
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  team sport on the planet, and I feel like I have so
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  much to give. Smith said. He didn't start playing football until high
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  school and remembers the freedom that he felt playing at that age,
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  before he turned into a top prospect, college star, and top pick.
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  Now, after a long NFL career, he's enjoying the chance to give
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  back to the sport he's made a life in and all that
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  comes with it. There's obviously a lot to teach from an X's
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  and O's standpoint and technique. But there's a lot of life teaching
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  moments, right? Smith said. I think that's why we're playing this. That's
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  certainly why, as a father, my kids play. There's there's so many
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  life lessons that you go through. While it's Smith's first foray into
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  coaching, Young has been a defensive line coach for many years in
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  his postplaying days. The fourteen year Forty Niner Stalwart, who retired in
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  two thousand seven, coached at San Jose State in twenty ten, at
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  SEC Powerhouse Florida from twenty eleven to twenty twelve, and for the
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  NFL's Atlanta Falcons from twenty seventeen to twenty eighteen. The twenty twenty
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  two inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame also spent four
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  years coaching at Charlotte Christian School, the same high school Steph Curry
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  went to, while his son Bryce was there. Bryce is now a
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  junior at his dad's alma mater, Notre Dame. After Bryce graduated high
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  school, the Young family moved back to the Bay Area and now
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  has an athlete in the high school, his younger daughter Camilly, currently
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  a sophomore and already playing on Saint Francis Varsity volleyball team, prompting
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  Young to return to coaching. There's a level of responsibility that I
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  feel like I have to be able to give something back to
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  the younger generation, Young told S. F. Gate. Smith's oldest son, Hudson,
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  is also a sophomore and starts at quarterback for the Lancers JV
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  football team. He also played on the school's freshman soccer team last
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  year. Smith initially offered his help to Calcadno as a coach last
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  year, but the Lancer coaching staff was already full. Once the season
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  ended, though, the two ex quarterbacks Calcadno was a star at Saint
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  Francis and collegiately at Santa Clara, got together and started watching film
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  in the off season. When other coaches left the school, the two
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  X forty Niners were obvious additions, and the role is offering Smith
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  a chance to relive some of his first NFL memories, now that
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  he's back on the same sideline as Young. I'll never forget the
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  day that I met B.Y. I went into the weight room and
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  he was inclined bench pressing dumbbells and each dumbbell was two hundred
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  pounds. I remember thinking, those dumbbells weigh as much as I do,
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  Smith said, later quipping that the fifty four year old young looks
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  like he could still play in the NFL. He's just an amazing
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  human being and teammate, and I learned so much from him. Ever
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  since the Forty Niners moved their team headquarters from Redwood City to
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  Santa Clara in nineteen eighty eight, a large number of Niners players,
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  coaches and executives have thrown down routes both in the South Bay
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  and on the peninsula. That has led to a steady stream of
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  children of Niners coming to Saint Francis, including children of Hall of
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  Famer Ronnie Lott, former coaches Steve Mariucci and Mike Nolan, and nineteen
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  eighties fan favorite Bill Ring. At present, Forty Niners CEO Al Guido's
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  daughter stars on the basketball team, but the ties are especially deep
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  with football. Head coach Kyle Shanahan's son Carter is a junior wide
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  receiver. Former quarterback's coach Brian Grease's son Nate is a senior defensive
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  lineman. And Quintus Cumbey, a longtime NFL scout who spent eleven years
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  in the Forty Niners front office, is the father of Drew, the
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  junior starting quarterback. Drew Cumbey said he met Smith when he was
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  a child through his father's work, but is now learning under the
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  former Niner's starter constantly. He's a very good coach, very good at
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  explaining stuff, Cumby told S F Gate. He teaches everybody he can,
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  not just your certain position group, to make sure we're on the
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  same page with everybody. It's helped me become a better communicator. As
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  for Young's coaching prowess, Jacobs said the ex NFL star has helped
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  his technique tremendously as a defensive lineman, breaking down the smallest details
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  with unique insight from inside the lines. But there's another element where
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  Smith and Young are impacting the entire Lancers team that both Jacobs
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  and Cumbey feel daily. I feel like our practices have more of
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  a like professional aspect to it, Jacob said. Our practices are more
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  like what an NFL practice would be, with the speed of practising
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  one hundred percent with every single rep we go. Our practices are
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  a lot more crisp, and that's a huge impact on the whole
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  team, offense and defense. Cumbey added,
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  I feel like you can probably make more mistakes, too, because they're
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  going to help you. It definitely increases the energy that I practice
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  with. Anything I do, if I mess up slightly, they always have
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  a great way to fix it and make it understandable for you.
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  As both Smith and Young pointed out, the private Catholic school's prestigious
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  parent count stretches beyond football too. They see That
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  as a way to make high school a little easier for their
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  children and and not put as much of a s a spotlight
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  on them because of who their dads are. You have a lot
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  of kids that are here whose parents are doing amazing thing, outside
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  of sports and entertainment, and who are very impactful in this, world
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  and working in Silicon Valley, Young said. We're just, you know, a
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  small piece to it. Psmith added, I think it's nice for my
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  son that he's not the only one, and I think the way
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  the school handles it is so nice. That presence not only makes
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  seeing X Forty Niners or current Forty Niners executives a common sight,
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  but it's brought current Niners stars to campus too. Christian McCaffrey, George
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  Kittle, Kyle Juuschik, Mac Jones, and Trent Williams all came out to
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  the Lancers season opening Dame. Against Manteca High School. That was Smith's
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  first game back on the sidelines, and he admitted that seeing those
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  players, and especially Williams, his old teammate from Washington, got him wanting
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  to put on a show for the Niners stars. What I try
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  to implore to these kids is that it's a wee thing, right?
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  I know I don't get to step inside the white lines, but
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  I'm invested in this, just like you. I've got to put you
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  guys in good positions and teach you guys, Psmith said. Saint Francis
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  won that night, thirty-one twenty three, but went one two against a
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  tough non league schedule. The Lancers begin play in the Powerhouse West
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  Catholic Athletic League on Friday against Riordan, the reigning Wakukal champions. Both
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  Smith and Young do have other commitments they are juggling while coaching.
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  Young went to Australia as a Forty Niners alumni to represent the
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  team and missed a game. Plus he still wants to be a
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  dad and go see his son play at Notre Dame. Smith, meanwhile,
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  is an ESPN analyst who does Sunday NFL countdown in studio on
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  the East Coast, and will often do the network's morning shows on
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  Mondays too. In Calcano's view, those occasional complications are completely worth accepting,
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  if it means having them around the program to coach, teach, and
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  be examples for the students. Both of those guys are better human
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  beings and role models for our kids than they are football minds.
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  And they're very good football minds, Calcagno said. You put them in
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  front of our kids and our families, and they are the example.
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  That's been the best part of it all.