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Roy High teacher Chris Solomona

Roy High School

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In this Oct. 30, 2004, photo, Oregon's Chris Solomona runs an interception in for a touchdown past Washington's Ryan Brooks (79) at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore. Solomona was named Roy High's football head coach Tuesday, April 19, 2022.

RICK BOWMER, Associated Press

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Chris Solomona figured to move from Roy High School football’s defensive line coach to the defensive coordinator spot this offseason once Eric Jones left to take the Bingham High head coach job.

Solomona may yet be calling defensive plays for the Royals when they take the field this August. He’ll also have the title of head coach.

Roy announced Tuesday that Solomona, a physical education teacher at the school, will take over as head coach. He succeeds Fred Fernandes, who coached the Royals for 11 seasons before leaving in March to be Bingham’s offensive coordinator.

“I’m feeling really excited. I’m feeling really honored to be the next head coach here at Roy High School,” Solomona said Tuesday.

Solomona has coached football at Roy for the past seven seasons. Solomona, originally from southern California, also played defensive line at the University of Oregon in the early 2000s and had a brief stint with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins as well in 2005.

Before he had finished college, his family moved to Utah from California so, when Solomona was done with college, he ended up in Utah.

He worked odd jobs for a while before moving to Roy more than a decade ago. He got back into football by training athletes at Roy Junior High on the side, then began coaching at RJH. Fernandes eventually noticed Solomona and offered him a spot on Roy High’s coaching staff.

The timing of Fernandes’ departure in March meant that whoever would be Roy’s new head coach would have a short turnaround before the Aug. 12 season opener, giving school administrators a choice between picking an internal candidate who already knew the team (Solomona) or possibly an external candidate who didn’t know the team as well.

For now, Fernandes is still at Roy finishing the school year, so Solomona can still pick his brain for head coaching advice.

“Being here for the past seven years under coach Fernandes and coach Jones has been a blessing, and honestly I never really saw myself being the next head coach until I started to realize that I’ve invested a lot of years here and I’ve learned a lot from those guys. When the opportunity presented itself, I just knew I couldn’t turn it down, I had to go out and apply,” Solomona said.

Roy will have two new playcallers on the sidelines this year after the departures of Jones and offensive coordinator Luke Hobbs. The Royals will also have a new starting quarterback following the graduation of BYU-bound Parker Kingston.

The playbooks will mostly stay the same this year — for continuity reasons and given it’s less than four months to kickoff — but there will be a break-in period for everyone with new people in charge.

“It’s going to take some time, but I feel confident and I feel excited for those that are possibly going to be alongside us on this journey,” Solomona said.

Roy finished 7-4 overall last year, losing 30-28 to Westlake in the playoffs, and 5-1 in Region 2 in its first season playing in the Salt Lake County region. The Royals have finished .500 or better in each of the last 10 seasons and Solomona hopes to continue that good run of form.