By Michael LEVITSKY

It was a dream 23 years in the making. 

Glendale Community College appointed its newest head football coach on Feb. 11, naming former CVHS Falcon Tanner Farwell as interim head coach for the 2020 season. The coach will hold the interim tag for one year before the college makes a decision regarding future seasons.

To say the 29-year-old Farwell and Glendale College are deeply entwined is an understatement. His parents met there in 1982; his father on the football team, his mother a cheerleader. Just over a decade later, the elder Farwell returned to Glendale as an assistant coach and, a few years later, at the age of 6 his son was the team’s ball boy … a position he would hold for the next 12 years. Farwell was forced to relinquish his post in 2009, only to take on a new role as a starting offensive lineman on the team under coach John Rome, who retired at the end of last season.

Farwell takes over for Rome, who had run Glendale’s program since 2008. The Crescenta Valley High alum adds his name to a very short list of those who have donned the title of head football coach for the Vaqueros in the last near-half century. Since 1972, just three other individuals – Jim Sartoris (1972-88), John Cicuto (1989-2007), and Rome (2008-19) – have stood at the helm.

“Glendale College, you know, it’s my home,” Farwell said. “At 5, 6 years old I was running around that field when it was just grass and dirt… I feel that if anyone can carry on the tradition of Glendale College, it’s me because I know almost everything about it and the history of the program.”

Following his two years as a starting guard and center under Coach Rome, Farwell finished his playing career at Southern Oregon University and became a student assistant for one season before returning to Southern California as an assistant coach at Glendale for two.

He spent the next two seasons at Los Angeles Valley College and most recently at Citrus College where he held several roles including offensive line and tight end coach, recruiting coordinator, offensive coordinator and associate head coach.

A native of the Crescenta Valley community, Farwell spent his four years at CVHS on the offensive line for the Falcons, playing under the likes of former coaches Tony Zarrillo, Alan Eberhart and Paul Schilling.

“Tanner was a great kid,” said Coach Schilling. He coached Farwell in his freshman season. “[He] was definitely a born coach who definitely knew as much about coaching football as our entire freshman staff back in 2005… he wanted to be a leader and he always took on that role.”

“Crescenta Valley has a lot to do with where I came from and where I started,” said Farwell. “When you have good coaches that, you know, can give you guidance and help you develop your character … it carries from the football field to the campus. I couldn’t be luckier to be surrounded by good high school coaches, and it was pivotal in my career and developing me as a young man.”

The new Vaqueros lead man emphasized his plan to heavily recruit local talent, including players from St. Francis and, of course, Crescenta Valley, his alma mater.

“There are just so many great kids within the area that it’s my job to provide an opportunity where kids know that they can develop academically, socially and athletically,” said Farwell.

The former assistant now turned head coach takes over for a Vaqueros team that went 2-8 (2-4) last season. Glendale’s most recent winning season was in 2014 when they went 9-2 overall. That season was also Farewell’s last as an assistant at Glendale before heading to LA Valley College.

  Michael LEVITSKY