Modesto Christian football coach let go after 10 games. ‘I was shocked’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Modesto Christian dismissed head coach Michael McFadden after an 0-2 start.
- McFadden coached the team through a scoreless 2024 season before early 2025 exit.
- Assistant Joseph Yanez named interim head coach ahead of four road games.
Modesto Christian High School relieved head coach Michael McFadden of his duties, the now-former head coach posted on his X account Tuesday.
“As of Today I have been relieved of duties as Head coach at Modesto Christian high school, it was hard to get the program going in a right direction but I feel like I left it better then how I found it,” he wrote in his post. “The school and its young kids are a blessing and amazing people.”
Modesto Christian fired McFadden two games into the 2025 high school football season. The Crusaders were 0-2. McFadden was announced as the Crusaders’ coach in July 2024. He was the second coach in as many seasons after Jerry Grimshaw resigned in January 2023.
“I really had no idea,” he said in a phone call with The Bee on Tuesday. “I thought we made great strides from having a 12- to 13-man team to over 20. I thought … the offense started to look like it was coming together and parents seemed happy. My first thoughts were, I was shocked. I didn’t really see it coming.”
Modesto Christian declined to comment on the coaching change but athletic director Brice Fantazia did confirm Wednesday that assistant coach Joseph Yanez will serve as interim head coach. Yanez was a three-year varsity player and a member of the Crusaders’ 2014 Trans-Valley League championship team, which finished as the Sac-Joaquin Section’s Division VI runner-up under legendary coach Mike Parsons.
Modesto Christian plays its next four games on the road, starting with a trip to River Islands on Friday.
The Crusaders did not score a point in McFadden’s first nine games as coach, a stretch that spanned the entire eight-game 2024 campaign and their first game of 2025.
Last season, they were moved from the Trans-Valley League to an independent schedule midway through the year.
Last week against Stone Ridge Christian, the Crusaders scored their first points since their 2023 finale against Hilmar, and the coach said he felt things were looking up with the season.
The team showed signs of improvement, and with a large number of freshmen, he felt this year could be a building block for the program’s future.
“I feel like the numbers were up, the enthusiasm was up, we’re a young team, the air-raid offense was starting to look great. I thought we were really making strides,” he said.
McFadden will continue to teach P.E., but as far as on the field, he said he was told the school was going to go in a different direction. He said he is grateful for the opportunity he had to coach.
“I don’t know about rumors or anything, but I don’t want any negativity to come out of this. I enjoyed my time coaching there,” McFadden said. “(Coaching) is a challenging job but it’s a rewarding job.
“I wish the football program nothing but the best. I think it is an amazing place that has amazing potential and I hope that they can continue to move forward because when Modesto Christian is good, it makes the rest of the Valley good.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 3:35 PM.
