One of the keys to success lately for Simi Valley High's head football coach Todd Borowski has been clock management. However, that management has nothing to do with how long his offense is on the field.

Frustrated with the long hours from his administrative job at Simi Valley, Borowski decided to give coaching and teaching another try.

When Karl Zierhut stepped down from the head coaching spot for the Pioneers after the 2004 season, Borowski took over.

ow, Borowski is managing his time the way he wants to.

"I was never at home with the administrative job," Borowski said. "I was out three to four nights a week until 10 at night supervising events at the high school. Whether it was football, baseball, basketball, PTA meetings, I was out all night. I have a 5-year-old and a 9-yearold and I was never seeing them."

After a conversation with his wife, Cathy, Borowski realized he was happier coaching and decided to give it another shot as an assistant. He opted to take the job of head coach, but only under the condition that he spends more time with his family.

Todd Borowski

"Having kids just changes your priorities," Borowski said. "My wife doesn't have to be home at a certain time now to relieve the nanny. I see my kids all the time. I take my 9-year-old daughter Paige to dance and my 5-year-old son Tommy starts flag football this fall and I'll be able to be there."

Borowski declared a new rule for the coaches on his staff this year as well. According to Borowski, they are not to miss one game that their sons play in youth football this year. But that doesn't mean that Borowski's crew isn't working hard to improve the Pioneers football team.

"I've mellowed over the years," Borowski said. "I'm a lot more at ease with what I'm doing now. I have a lot more fun with the kids and I joke around with them. I want the kids leaving the program having a good time.

"Does that mean we take it easy on them? No. It just means that we have an atmosphere where sometimes we have fun and sometimes we have to get down to business and it's important the kids know the difference between the two," he said.

Borowski started getting down to business as a coach 24 years ago after he graduated from Valencia High School.

After playing quarterback and safety, Borowski was asked to be the freshmen coach at Valencia the following fall.

According to

According to Borowski, after taking his first steps that fall as a coach, he knew it was something he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

"When guys retire from the NFL, the thing they missed the most is the camaraderie," Borowski said. "And that's the thing I loved the most about coaching. The camaraderie with the coaches, the friends you make, and seeing the players develop; it's all pretty neat."

Ten years later, in 1992, Borowski became the youngest head coach at the time in the Orange County area, when he took over the Anaheim High School job. He took a team that had won only a couple games the previous three years and promptly guided them to a 9-2 record the following season.

During that time, Borowski earned a degree at Cal State Fullerton in kinesiology and a master's degree in education and administration.

After stops as a coach at Paramount High School, and working as athletic director at Calabasas High, Borowski seems to have all angles covered now as he prepares to coach the Pioneers for his second year.

"The good thing about being so many places is you can steal a little bit from each system you worked under and make a system that works for us," Borowski said. "Still our main goal at Simi is to be competitive and we did that last year and we should be competitive this year as well."