{"id":4661,"date":"2021-10-01T16:13:03","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T23:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/?p=4661"},"modified":"2021-10-01T16:13:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T23:13:03","slug":"gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"open-para\">The Comets coach, who has deep ties to Palomar College, recently racked up his 100th victory in a comeback season after college athletics across the state lost a year to COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>SAN MARCOS \u2014 Joe Early, the Head Coach of Palomar College\u2019s football team, first made the record books at Palomar with a 98-yard kickoff return as a student athlete in 1979.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, September 18, 2021, he made his mark in the records yet again\u2014this time as the coach\u2014when his team beat the Southwestern College Jaguars, giving Early his 100th career win at Palomar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was a student athlete here, played football here,\u201d Early said. \u201cI\u2019ve been here pretty much most of my life\u2014as a student and as an employee. I take a lot of pride in the program. I\u2019ve been here for some really good times and for some hard times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 2020 season lost to COVID-19, for example, will go down as a uniquely difficult time for athletic programs and coaches everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of guys that haven\u2019t played in a year and a half\u201d because of the pandemic, Early said of this year\u2019s team. \u201cWe started out on a good note with a win, even though 95 percent of our players are freshmen. We\u2019re improving every week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Palomar\u2019s Athletic Director, Daniel Lynds, said wins are hard to come by at the collegiate level of football, and so it\u2019s rare for coaches to hit the 100-win milestone.<\/p>\n<p>But victories, Lynds added, are only part of the mission at a community college, where players are learning and developing and trying to earn a position at a prestigious university football program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJoe has 100 wins, but I\u2019d bet he\u2019s got close to 1,000 transfers. The real win is to help those 20 to 30 students each year who move on from our program and continue their academic and athletic pursuits,\u201d said Lynds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCoach Early is a dynamic, positive leader, and everything he does is to promote the well-being of student athletes here at Palomar,\u201d Lynds added. \u201cA hundred wins is an incredible milestone, but it\u2019s really a minor accomplishment in the context of his career. He touches more lives than that on a weekly basis. We\u2019re proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition to coaching, Early is a tenured professor at Palomar, and this year is serving as Chair of the Kinesiology Department.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m lucky to be where I\u2019m at, and I think the future is bright,\u201d said Early.<\/p>\n<p>The Comets football season continues at 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 2 with a home game\u2014the annual Breast Cancer Awareness Game\u2014against rivals San Diego Mesa College. Palomar home games are played at Escondido High School; admission costs $10 for adults, $6 for seniors, children and members of the military.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo of Palomar Comets football by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/103144655@N04\/albums\/with\/72157713298324552\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hugh Cox<\/a> for Palomar Athletics.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Comets coach, who has deep ties to Palomar College, recently racked up his 100th victory in a comeback season after college athletics across the state lost a year to COVID-19. SAN MARCOS \u2014 Joe Early, the Head Coach of Palomar College\u2019s football team, first made the record books at Palomar with a 98-yard kickoff&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/\">\u00a0Continue Reading:<span> Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10413,"featured_media":4662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,23,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carousel","category-features","category-home","category-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins - Palomar News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins - Palomar News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Comets coach, who has deep ties to Palomar College, recently racked up his 100th victory in a comeback season after college athletics across the state lost a year to COVID-19. SAN MARCOS \u2014 Joe Early, the Head Coach of Palomar College\u2019s football team, first made the record books at Palomar with a 98-yard kickoff&hellip; \u00a0Continue Reading: Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Palomar News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-01T23:13:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2021\/10\/Comets-football.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2351\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1567\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Pfingsten, Tom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Pfingsten, Tom\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Pfingsten, Tom\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/38478049641ec4b9154ceafe0647a2c4\"},\"headline\":\"Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-01T23:13:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":485,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/50\\\/2021\\\/10\\\/Comets-football.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Carousel\",\"Features\",\"Home\",\"Slider\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\\\/\",\"name\":\"Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins - Palomar News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/50\\\/2021\\\/10\\\/Comets-football.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-01T23:13:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/38478049641ec4b9154ceafe0647a2c4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/50\\\/2021\\\/10\\\/Comets-football.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/50\\\/2021\\\/10\\\/Comets-football.jpeg\",\"width\":2351,\"height\":1567,\"caption\":\"Palomar College football game\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Palomar News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/38478049641ec4b9154ceafe0647a2c4\",\"name\":\"Pfingsten, Tom\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f9783a57a21bb15e96e120e3a61977e4d216b6b0141f53c142c85954086286de?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f9783a57a21bb15e96e120e3a61977e4d216b6b0141f53c142c85954086286de?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f9783a57a21bb15e96e120e3a61977e4d216b6b0141f53c142c85954086286de?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Pfingsten, Tom\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.palomar.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/tpfingsten\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins - Palomar News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins - Palomar News","og_description":"The Comets coach, who has deep ties to Palomar College, recently racked up his 100th victory in a comeback season after college athletics across the state lost a year to COVID-19. SAN MARCOS \u2014 Joe Early, the Head Coach of Palomar College\u2019s football team, first made the record books at Palomar with a 98-yard kickoff&hellip; \u00a0Continue Reading: Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins","og_url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/","og_site_name":"Palomar News","article_published_time":"2021-10-01T23:13:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2351,"height":1567,"url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2021\/10\/Comets-football.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Pfingsten, Tom","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Pfingsten, Tom","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/"},"author":{"name":"Pfingsten, Tom","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/38478049641ec4b9154ceafe0647a2c4"},"headline":"Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins","datePublished":"2021-10-01T23:13:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/"},"wordCount":485,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2021\/10\/Comets-football.jpeg","articleSection":["Carousel","Features","Home","Slider"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/","url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/","name":"Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins - Palomar News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2021\/10\/Comets-football.jpeg","datePublished":"2021-10-01T23:13:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/38478049641ec4b9154ceafe0647a2c4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2021\/10\/Comets-football.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2021\/10\/Comets-football.jpeg","width":2351,"height":1567,"caption":"Palomar College football game"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/gridiron-milestone-football-coach-joe-early-hits-100-wins\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Gridiron Milestone: Football Coach Joe Early Hits 100 Wins"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/","name":"Palomar News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/38478049641ec4b9154ceafe0647a2c4","name":"Pfingsten, Tom","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f9783a57a21bb15e96e120e3a61977e4d216b6b0141f53c142c85954086286de?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f9783a57a21bb15e96e120e3a61977e4d216b6b0141f53c142c85954086286de?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f9783a57a21bb15e96e120e3a61977e4d216b6b0141f53c142c85954086286de?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Pfingsten, Tom"},"url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/author\/tpfingsten\/"}]}},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-01 07:22:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10413"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4663,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions\/4663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}