Casey Neligh announced this week that he will not return as head coach for the Pajaro Valley High football team for the upcoming 2026 fall season.
The former Salinas High multi-sport standout was handed a pink slip by Pajaro Valley Unified School District in February, relieving Neligh from his position of three years. Nick Arellano was named interim head football coach.
“It was difficult information to process because of the relationships that I built at Pajaro Valley,” Neligh said. “But I have to do what’s best for my family and find work.”
Neligh told The Pajaronian he has been named the new athletic director at Seaside High, and is set to take over the position starting July 1.
“I think that it is the perfect opportunity for me to repeat history in another environment such as Seaside,” Neligh said.
Neligh led the Grizzlies to their best year in the program’s history, finishing with a 6-4 overall record in the 2025 fall season. They were runner-up in the Pacific Coast Athletic League Santa Lucia Division with a 5-1 record in league play.
In 2023, he was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach when current athletic director Joe Manfre stepped down from the same position. Neligh accumulated an 11-19 overall record, and went 9-9 in three seasons.
“It’s a tough deal,” Manfre said. “I think he’s built a pretty good product for our football program, and gotten the kids excited to play. It’s gonna be tough, but we’re just gonna have to move forward, keep going.”
Manfre added that Neligh brought tons of energy while steadily improving the program from 1-9 in his first season to 4-6 by the end of his second year at the helm.
“When he spoke the kids listened,” Manfre said. “He believed in them, and they believed in him.”
With just nine days remaining until graduation, Neligh was still out of a job at Pajaro Valley. It was the second consecutive year Neligh was pink-slipped, but he said this time around it wasn’t rescinded, making the dismissal feel more concrete.
“I got forced to find work,” Neligh said. “If I didn’t get pink-slipped, there’s no way I would be looking or leaving.”
Neligh, who is a physical education teacher and runs a sixth period football class, said his departure at Pajaro Valley was a matter of the district reducing its budget.
The budget cuts are an on-going issue at PVUSD, which most recently includes cutting assistant principal positions at all 17 elementary schools for the 2026-27 school year.
“Because I’m not tenured, there’s multiple teachers that get pink-slipped and they don’t have a job for next year,” Neligh said. “And if there is an opening, there’s gonna be a teacher from another school that comes over here and takes your job that way.”
