2022 Monarch Football Staff
Lester To
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When the 2022 season kicks off on September 3rd, it will mark the fourth season of the Lester Towns era at Los Angeles Valley College. Towns has immediate plans to turn the Monarch football program into a force to be reckoned with in Southern California Junior College Football. He’s not interested in talking about where he hopes to lead the Monarch Football program, he’s more interested in doing the work that is required to make this program a force. And those duties include diligent recruiting in Southern California, taking an assertive approach to making sure his players take care of business in the classroom, working tirelessly to get his players to four-year colleges, and more.
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Towns can relate to every player who has worn or will wear the green and gold due to his own extensive background as a football player and as an assistant coach. Towns has 31 years of experience as a football player (high school, college, and the NFL) and coach going back to the early 1990s.
After a standout career as a two-way player for the Pasadena High School Bulldogs, he took his talents to the University of Washington. While at Washington from 1996 to 1999, Towns played under head coaches Jim Lambright for three years and Rick Neuheisel in his senior year. In his career at UW, Towns was a two-time team co-captain (1998 and 1999), led the Huskies in tackles his junior year (91 tackles in 1997), and he was selected to the 2000 Senior Bowl and East-West Shrine All-Star games for his hard work during his senior year of 1999.
After his career ended at Washington, Towns was selected by the Carolina Panthers in the seventh round of the 2000 NFL Draft. Towns became a two-year starting inside linebacker for the Panthers from 2000 to 2001 which included him leading the entire 2001 Panther linebacker corps in tackles with 101. Towns played for the Panthers from 2000 to 2003 which included seeing significant time on the Panthers’ Super Bowl XXXVIII team in ’03. Towns finished out his NFL career in 2006 with the Miami Dolphins.
Two years after his NFL career concluded, Towns decided to go into coaching. His first stop was in Charlotte, North Carolina where he worked as an intern for the team that drafted him eight years earlier, the Carolina Panthers. From there he secured a serious coaching feather in his cap, which was serving as the Alabama Crimson Tide Assistant Strength Coach and Defensive Assistant from 2008 to 2012. While at Alabama, Towns saw the Crimson Tide capture two National Championships in 2009 and 2011. Furthermore, Towns worked with twelve linebackers who played in the NFL which included Rolando McClain, Dont’a Hightower, and C.J Mosley.
After a rewarding four years at Alabama, Towns took his coaching talents to Portland State University where he served as the Vikings’ Recruiting Coordinator and Linebackers Coach from 2012 to 2015. While coaching at PSU, Towns coached the likes of two-time All-Big Sky outside linebacker Ian Sluss (159 career tackles, 23.5 career tackles for loss, and 5.5 career sacks); 2012 Big Sky Honorable Mention pick Jaycob Shoemaker (204 career tackles, 23 career tackles for loss, and 2.5 career sacks); future Canadian Football League fixture Khalil Bass (122 career tackles at PSU); and two-time All-Big Sky Conference middle linebacker Jeremy Lutali (209 career tackles and 17 career tackles for loss).
It was Towns’ recruiting from 2012 to 2015 that helped the Vikings go 9-3 in 2015, which was the school’s first nine-win season since 1994.
The 2016 season saw Towns take on the Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator positions at Glendale Community College. While at GCC, Towns coached four All-State defensive players in inside linebacker Cody Shoemaker (2016) who went to Boise State University after he left Glendale. Cornerback Keyon Hardin (2016). Defensive end Payton Lory-Sanders (2016). And he also coached outside linebacker Teddy Gallagher (2017) who was a three-time All-Sun Belt Conference player at Division 1-A school Coastal Carolina University. Gallagher was recently invited to the Carolina Panthers' 2022 mini-camp. In addition to those All-State players he coached at GCC, nine Glendale players made All-Conference from 2016 to 2018.
in his first year as head coach at LAVC in 2019, Towns took on a 49-man Monarch roster with 30 of those of players being freshman. Couple that with the fact that before the 2019 season started the Monarchs were projected to finish in last place in the six-team American Metro Conference. But instead, the team finished in fourth place with a 2-4 league mark to go along with their 3-6 overall record.
One of the highlights of the season was a 16-7 victory over long-time rival Pierce College, which enabled the Monarchs to keep the Victory Bell for another school year. That win highlighted a two-game winning streak (they beat Los Angeles Southwest College 25-21 the week after) that the Monarchs sorely needed at that point in the season.
Despite the odds stacked against the Monarchs in 2019 which included widespread youth, a less than fifty-player roster, and the team going up against a scrappy and unforgiving American Metro Conference, the Monarchs consistently confronted every obstacle that stood in their way.
After the 2019 season, the Monarchs placed four players on the Southern California Football Association American Division All-Metro League Teams. One of those four players included brilliant defensive end/outside linebacker Anthony Lira (he accumulated 23 tackles for loss) who was named the Metro League’s Defensive Player of the Year.
That 2019 team also had the honor of sending six players to four-year colleges.
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Lester Towns III
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Head Coach
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Paul Holt
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Offensive Coordinator, Quarterbacks
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Kevin Haggerty
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Offensive Line
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Jason Wagner
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Wide Receivers
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Robert Joseph
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Running Backs
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Jason Manary
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Defensive Line
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Christian Salazar
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Linebackers
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Talal Tabbara
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Defensive Backs
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David Rountree
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Special Teams Coordinator
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Scott Develle
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Offensive Assistant |
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John Hassell
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Assistant Coach, Strength and Conditioning |
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Matthew Robinson
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Videographer |