When Santa Margarita plays Bellarmine of San Jose in the CIF State Bowl Championships Division 1 game tonight at Home Depot Center in Carson, it will be the the final game in which Santa Margarita offensive line coach Marty Spalding will coach.

Spalding, 65, is retiring from coaching. He has been a football coach for 40 years, mostly as an assistant coach working with linemen. He is nationally known as an outstanding coach of linemen.

Spalding has nine CIF championship rings won at four different schools — El Toro, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo and Santa Margarita.

He said he would pitch in at Santa Margarita if Eagles coach Harry Welch asked him to do so. “The day-to-day thing is over for me,” Spalding said. “But if Harry needs me, I’ll come running.”

Spalding and wife Pam are going to spend a great deal of time traveling the globe. He also loves working on his cars and motorcycles, and is a voracious reader.

Welch’s assessment of Spalding: “It all starts with what I have seen as being the most prepared coach of any coach I have known in my 40 years of coaching. He follows that preparation with unbelievable organization. He is an inspiration to all all coaches, the old-timers and the neophytes.”

Marty Spalding. There goes one of the all-time greats, folks.

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