Mountain View has chosen one of the San Gabriel Valley’s legendary high school football coaches, Mark Paredes, as its new head coach.

The announcement Friday came as a huge surprise to many in the San Gabriel Valley, as Paredes, 72, was thought to be done with being a head coach after he resigned at Damien in 2018.

He has spent the past four years as an assistant coach at Bishop Amat.

Now he is taking on a Mountain View program that has struggled for many years, having gone 1-9 overall last season and 0-5 in the Mission Valley League.

Paredes said it simply came down to having the itch to coach again.

“The more I stayed away, the more I started salivating at the idea of coming back,” Paredes said. “I feel really good about it, I’m very energized.

“Why Mountain View? I don’t know, it was close to my house, nine minutes away. I didn’t want to travel or go to Riverside again. I just wanted to stay close by and this was an opportunity.

“I realize they haven’t been too successful here, and that’s a challenge for me. But I love the idea of building a program, I’m all for that.”

Paredes started his long coaching career at Bishop Amat, where he was the school’s athletic director from 1976-94 and its head football coach from 1986-93. He compiled an 84-14 record in eight years as head coach.

He led Bishop Amat to the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship in 1992 and the Lancers were the first team in California to go 15-0. The Lancers finished that season by winning the Reebok Bowl between the CIF-SS and L.A. City champions.

After leaving Bishop Amat, Paredes became the head coach at JW North of Riverside, where he won CIF championships in 1995 and 2001. He left North to become the offensive coordinator at Riverside College until 2010.

Paredes returned to North as its head coach for three years before moving on to Damien in 2013, where he replaced Greg Gano.

Paredes spent six seasons with the Spartans, compiling a 30-34 record. In his final season in 2018, the team was 4-7 and lost in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs.

He took a couple years off before returning to Bishop Amat as an assistant coach under Steve Hagerty.

“I’ve been coaching since 1972, it’s time to ride off into the sunset,” Paredes said in 2018 after announcing his resignation at Damien. “With the calendar changing and football becoming a year-round sport, that’s something that I don’t like and will not do. It had a big influence on my decision.”

Paredes was asked about those comments Friday.

“I was tired of football at the time to be honest,” Paredes said. “There were also some things gong on with my family. It was just busy, busy, busy and thought I was done, I really did.

“But the last few years at Bishop Amat, I started thinking about it (head coach) again, and this seems like a good opportunity for me and I hope to build something here. I’m excited.”