CORONA — It’s 10 in the morning, and Centennial football coach Matt Logan is at the computer putting the final touches on the day’s practice plan. Centennial’s practices are carefully scripted by Logan, who said he puts in around 16 hours each Sunday coming up with those blueprints for the week. “Matt’s organizational skills and attention to detail are fantastic,” said Norte Vista coach Ken Batdorf, who has been longtime friends with Logan. “He accounts for every single aspect of the game. And it’s something like that separates great coaches from everyone else.” Centennial’s Head Coach Matt Logan talks to an assistant coach during a nonleague football game against Santa Margarita on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (Photo by Milka Soko, Contributing Photographer) And it’s a big reason Logan now sits on the cusp of Inland history. Logan picked up his 292nd career victory last week when his Huskies beat Murrieta Valley 28-9 in a Big West Conference-North Division contest. Logan moved into a tie with Dick Bruich, the legendary coach who guided the Fontana and Kaiser programs for a combined 31 years, for the most wins by an Inland football coach. Logan has the chance to move into the top spot alone when Centennial hosts Norco — Logan’s alma mater — in a league game Friday night. “I am a big fan of his, and this is something he absolutely deserves,” Bruich said of the record. “I hope he keeps going and pushes the number higher.” Bruich and Logan coached in different eras of high school football, but there are plenty of similarities between the two coaching legends. “The thing about ‘Coach B’ was he outworked and outprepared everybody else,” said Chris Ybarra, who played for Bruich during Fontana’s glory days in the 1980s. “There wasn’t the technology back then that there is now, but he made sure his players were ready for anything the other team was going to throw at us. He’s the ‘OG’ for a reason. So many have tried to replicate him, but very few have done it.” Bruich and Logan also took similar paths. They both learned the craft as assistant coaches at a handful of schools before taking on a head coaching role. Bruich started at Cantwell (his alma mater) and Pius X before becoming the defensive coordinator at St. Paul under another legendary coach, Marijon Ancich. John Tyree was the coach at Fontana when he brought Bruich on staff as defensive coordinator in 1975. Bruich took over at Fontana in 1977 when Tyree left for Cal Poly Pomona. Logan coached at Mater Dei, Edison and Esperanza before he was tabbed by Ron Gueringer to be Centennial’s defensive coordinator in 1995. Logan took over in 1997 when Gueringer went over to Valley View. Bruich and Logan would take their respective programs to the next level. Dick Bruich won 292 games over a combined 31 seasons as the football coach at Fontana and Kaiser high schools. (File photo by Milka Soko/Contributing Photographer) Fontana burst onto the national scene in 1978 when it beat Loyola (No. 1-ranked in the nation at the time) in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section playoffs. The Steelers won CIF Southern Section titles in 1987 and 1989, and the 1987 team was declared mythical national champions by ESPN and Associated Press. Logan has guided Centennial to 10 CIF Southern Section championships and one CIF State title (2008). The Huskies have been nationally-ranked many times, but it was the Centennial’s back-to-back Pac-5 Division section titles in 2014 and 2015 that truly solidified the program at the highest level. At Fontana, Bruich assembled a staff that would remain together for the better part of two decades until Bruich stepped down after 1998 season. “We had 7 or 8 guys that all contributed to the plan for the week,” Bruich recalled. “We paid attention to every little detail to be prepared for the next game. We put a big emphasis on practicing well. If a practice was going poorly, we would just start things over. We also coached with a sense of urgency. It was never, ‘We’ll get this right by Week 4 or 5.’ It was always, ‘We’ll get it done now.’” The importance of practicing well on a daily basis is another thing the two coaches have in common. “I’ll take a bad practice much harder than any loss,” Logan said. “You lose a game, it might just be that the other team played better than you did. But if you have a bad practice, there’s no one else to blame other than yourself. That why we do try to do the things the way we do at practice.” Anthony Catalano was the quarterback on Centennial’s championship teams in 2014 and 2015. He now is the program’s wide receivers coach. “There always is a reason for whatever he does,” Catalano said of Logan. “I remember him always being very structured when I played for him. I didn’t always know the reasons why, but I was so bought into whatever he was doing. I grew up seeing the success Centennial had and was honored to be playing my part. I think I appreciate it a little more now that I’m seeing it from a different perspective.” Corona Centennial head coach Matt Logan holds up ten fingers for his 10 championships at Corona Centennial after winning the CIF-SS Pac-5 Division championship game at Anaheim Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015. Logan and Bruich coached against each other only once, in an all-star game. But the two have had several conversations over the years. “I’m amazed at his memory,” Logan said. “I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday, and he can recall details from every game he ever coached.” Bruich had a direct influence on Logan in one aspect of coaching. At Fontana, Bruich and his staff took Saturdays off to “enjoy the experience of Friday night and spend valuable time with family.” Logan said he used to begin preparing for the next week on Saturday, but that changed after a conversation he had with Bruich around 2000. Bruich got the opportunity to build a program from the ground up when Kaiser opened. He guided the Cats to back-to-back section titles in 2002 and 2003. Bruich stepped down after the 2008 season at the age of 61, saying, “It’s time. I need to let somebody else do this. It’s a young man’s game.” Bruich, who turned 77 in July, has never regretted his decision “to give up the football ghost” when he did. “I was very fortunate and honored to have the time I did as a football coach, and I enjoyed every single minute of it,” Bruich said. Related Articles High School Sports | IE Varsity’s previews of the top high school football games for Friday, Oct. 25 High School Sports | Centennial girls volleyball team sweeps Crescenta Valley in Division 2 playoff opener High School Sports | IE Varsity’s CIF Southern Section playoff scoreboard for Wednesday, Oct. 23 High School Sports | Inland college notes: Players respond following cancellation of San Bernardino Valley College football season High School Sports | IE Varsity’s previews of the top high school football games Thursday, Oct. 24 Logan will turn 58 on Nov. 4, and many have speculated how many more years he will coach. Logan offered a small hint earlier this week. “I have started to think more and more about it because that time is getting closer,” Logan said. “I could be done in 4 or 5 years in terms of the retirement system, so I would have the option to do that. So, my plan is to retire at some point and take a year off from football and see what it’s like. I don’t golf or have many hobbies, and I don’t want to be that person sitting on the couch all day.” Even if he does step down as Centennial’s coach in the coming years, Logan said his coaching career probably would not be finished. “I would still like to contribute and continue to teach the game,” he said. “I don’t need to be the head coach or a top coordinator to get that satisfaction of doing what I love to do. I think being an assistant coach at a junior college is a real possibility for me.” Bruich became the Inland Empire’s winningest football coach back in 2006, when he earned his 280th career victory (a 17-14 playoff win over King) to pass the late Gary Campbell, who won a combined 279 games at Banning (one year) at Norco (34 years). Logan surpassed his former coach to become Riverside County’s all-time leader when Centennial beat Liberty (Peoria, Ariz.) last season. And another record will soon be his. “They are legends,” Logan said of Campbell and Bruich. “To be up there with great coaches like them … . It’s a bit crazy to think about it.”