Lemoore High School athletic program hires former Tiger standout Josh Kloster to coach the school's struggling varsity football team

By Ed Martin, Editor
Lemoore High School has hired former Tiger football standout Josh Kloster to coach its varsity football team.
Lemoore High School has hired former Tiger football standout Josh Kloster to coach its varsity football team.

Lemoore High School has a new varsity football coach, and he’s a familiar face to Tiger football fans. The school’s board of trustees recently approved the hiring of Josh Kloster, a former two-year all-league and all-Valley player for the Tigers when he played here from 1988-91.

He was a three-year varsity standout at center. After his 1981 graduation, Fresno State’s Jim Sweeney recruited Kloster. During his first year, he joined fellow Tigers Lorenzo Neal, Charlies Jones, Tommy Jones, Gene Smith, and Chris Tolbert.

“It was a big-time football program,” said Kloster of his experience at Fresno State. “My most memorable memory was going down and beating USC in the Freedom Bowl.” He was a freshman.

Kloster, who runs a local construction company, was an assistant coach for the Tigers this past season. Previous coaching stints included time at Hanford and Sierra Pacific high schools. He coached three years at Sierra Pacific helping guide the young team to the 2016 Valley Championship game.

“It was a good experience,” said Kloster who is looking forward to taking command of his former Tiger team. “It was a lot of work. We won 25 games the next three years and went to the Valley championship.”

At Hanford, he served the program as a varsity track coach and athletic trainer. He also spent time with the football team where he helped coach the offensive line.

The 46-year-old Kloster is married to wife Katy and has three sons, Willy Kloster, 17, a standout football player and wrestler at Lemoore High School, Jackson 13, and Brady, eight years old. The oldest, Willy, just, currently a Lemoore junior, committed to wrestle for Cal Poly.

Kloster takes over a program that hasn’t fared well the last few years. The Tigers have just eight games the previous three years under two head coaches. They were 2-9 this year. After winning their first two games, they were blanked the rest of the way, including compiling a 0-5 record in the West Yosemite League.

The last winning season was in 2015 under then-coach Shannon Pulliam who went 10-3, including a 6-0 mark in the WYL. Pulliam’s team went to the Central Section title game where the Tigers lost to Ridgeview.

In 1991, as the team’s center, the Tigers had a formidable team, extending their season to the playoffs where they lost to a powerful Bakersfield team. “We lost in the semi-finals to Bakersfield High School. Bakersfield went on to win the Valley title. We had four DI scholarships off that football team,” he remembered.

“We are very excited to have Josh Kloster, a former Tiger star, as our new football head coach,” said Lemoore High School Athletic Director Brady Holaday. “Not only is Josh an LHS alum, but he is also in our Hall of Fame. Our goal was to hire the best football coach for our student-athletes, and we believe Coach Kloster is exactly what we need for our program. Josh is very passionate about Tiger football and is excited to get to work with the program and return a winning tradition to Tiger football.”

Kloster is looking forward to the challenge. “I am excited. I want to make sure the kids have success athletically and academically and make sure there’s stability in the program so that kids could succeed,” he said.

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