High School Showcase: Foothill HC Alex Gomes-Coelho

Foothill HC Alex Gomes-Coelho discusses the Mustangs’ unbeaten start, Joshua Pilgard and their league-title matchup with Hiram Johnson.

BY BRENDEN NUNES

Oct 28, 2026, 4:45 PM

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Watch: High School Showcase: Foothill HC Alex Gomes-Coelho | 10 mins

High school football season is in full swing, bringing Friday night games to schools all throughout the Sacramento region. With plenty of potential future NFL and collegiate talent, there’s plenty to watch locally.

Sactown Sports is expanding its coverage of the local high school football scene with the ‘Sactown Sports High School Showcase’, a weekly feature highlighting top teams, players, and matchups from around the area, brought to you by IBEW Local 340: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Each week, Sactown Sports’ The Drive Guys, with Whitey Gleason and Allen Stiles, will be joined by a reporter, coach, or another voice connected to the local football scene to get the latest insight.

For the latest edition of the High School Showcase, The Drive Guys were joined by Foothill High head football coach Alex Gomes-Coelho, whose Mustangs enter this week 7-0 overall and 5-0 in league play, with an unbeaten Hiram Johnson ahead.

Sactown Sports High School Showcase

The winner will have a chance to claim the league title, but Gomes-Coelho wants his team to approach the matchup the same way they have every other game this season.

“We’re excited for the opportunity,” Gomes-Coelho said. “They have a lot of really talented athletes over there, some good size. We’re just hoping that we go out there and show what we can do.”

Quarterback Joshua Pilgard has been at the center of Foothill’s success offensively as the one orchestrating that side of the field for them. Gomes-Coelho credited the weapons surrounding his quarterback and highlighted Pilgard’s ability to work through his progressions and get the ball to playmakers.

“He just has to execute,” Gomes-Coelho said. “We got a lot of really good weapons around. We got receivers coming out from every corner of the field.”

With a huge matchup coming up, their coach wants his Foothill squad to bring the right intensity from the opening snap. He pointed to lessons from legendary basketball coach John Wooden when explaining his preference for gradually increasing intensity throughout rather than living and dying with each play.

Embracing a team-first approach also seems crucial to the Mustangs’ success as they aim to keep climbing. With several players wanting opportunities to make plays, Gomes-Coelho said he continues to remind his team the importance of winning as a team, overriding individual statistics.

“Not every dog eats every day,” he said. “But you got to be happy for the family when they score, when they’re the ones making the plays.”

Now in his second season at Foothill, Gomes-Coelho is aiming to build a sustainable culture for the program.

“At the end of the day, we’re here to win, not here for individual stuff,” he said. That message extends beyond Friday nights.

Team dinners each Thursday with guest speakers from different backgrounds help create that by letting players talk with them about life beyond football. Because only a small percentage will continue playing at the next level, the program focuses on teaching high schoolers lessons beyond football that they can still learn through the sport and team environment.

“You got to build to be the best man you can be,” Gomes-Coelho said.

The Mustangs will try to execute those lessons as they head into their biggest game of the season, hoping to walk away with a league championship.

Listen to and watch Sactown Sports’ The Drive Guys with Kevin “Whitey” Gleason and Allen Stiles, airing weekdays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. PT on Sactown Sports.