Mikey Badaluco has taken on the head coaching duties for the River Valley Falcons football team. Photo by Jennifer Corriea

YUBA CITY, CA (MPG) – At the conclusion of the 2024 football season, Mikey Badaluco thought his coaching career might have come to an end after he stepped down as the head coach of the Colusa RedHawks.

With his daughter headed to UC Santa Cruz in the fall, the architect of Colusa’s first ever football state championship felt he needed to work more to help her achieve her dream and coaching didn’t allow him to do that.

Yet, after she received a full ride academic scholarship, he became aware of the opening at River Valley and decided to throw his hat in the ring.

Having coached previously in Maxwell and Colusa, Badaluco liked the idea of trying his hand at a bigger school and had heard the River Valley program had a great deal of potential.

“I talked to a lot of people that have connections to the RV program and I noticed there is a lot of love for this program and a lot of resources to help make it successful. I’m excited to try something different.”

Badaluco takes over a River Valley program that had its last winning season in 2018, but thus far likes what he has seen.

“First off, my seniors are an incredible group of kids and remind me a lot of my first senior class at Colusa,” said Badaluco. “They are athletic and great kids. We think they will help us set our standards high and that the younger group will follow in their footsteps, which is exactly how it played out in Colusa. I’m also extremely excited about our coaching staff. We have 13 very knowledgeable coaches. All great guys who share the same goals. My offense will be run by Brennan McFadden, a former head coach at RV, who had big success here and our defense will be run by Izaya Johnson, an alumnus and member of the Butte College National Championship team. I also have a lot of awesome assistant coaches.”

Having gone through a rebuilding in Colusa, Badaluco feels that his experience will help him navigate through the process he is beginning with the Falcons and that things have started off on the right foot.

“We had over 40% increase in numbers during the spring and our first two weeks of summer have been great,” Badaluco said. “Our kids are buying in and they are working their tails off. We have a lot of work to do to get this program back on its feet, but both the kids and staff are not afraid of the challenge we are embracing it.”

River Valley’s new era kicks off on Aug. 22 in Sacramento, when the Falcons hit the road to face McClatchy.