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Touching Tribute Offered For Grand Marshal Largent
largent float
Nick Largent acknowledges the crowd along Main Street for Friday afternoon’s Homecoming parade; he and his older brother Steve rode in the parade in honor of their dad, Greg Largent, who was selected as this year’s Grand Marshal but passed away on Sept. 11. Greg’s sons and his four grandsons took part in the parade at the high school track during halftime festivities for the Friday night football game as well. Marg Jackson/The Times

(Editor’s note: The following is a piece presented by retired Escalon High School teacher and coach Rusty Fachner during halftime festivities at the EHS Homecoming Game on Friday night, Sept. 16, honoring the late Greg Largent.)

 

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Grand Marshal of tonight’s Escalon Homecoming 2022 is longtime coach and teacher, Greg Largent. Although Greg is not with us this evening, let us all take this opportunity to celebrate his life and his career.

Greg was Escalon born and raised. A true pillar of the community, Greg was the son of John and Toni Largent, brother to Mark Largent, and husband of Cindy Largent. He was the father to Steve and Nick and the grandfather of Giancarlo, Enzo, Stefano, and Kade.

Greg was a 1981 graduate of EHS. While attending high school he was the epitome of the term “scholar-athlete”. He was a four-year, three-sport athlete competing in football, basketball, and baseball where he earned numerous All-TVL honors. After earning his degree from CSU-Stanislaus, he returned to Escalon where he became a social studies and physical education teacher at El Portal Middle School. For the next 30 plus years, he positively affected the lives of literally thousands of students while making the subject of history come alive.

While attending college, Greg had the opportunity to assist legendary baseball coach Bob Loureiro and it started Greg on a path that would lead to a stellar coaching career. In addition to baseball, Greg coached football and basketball. In the ‘90s he took the helm of the Escalon girls’ softball program, and produced three TVL championships.

In 2005, Greg took over the position of head baseball coach at EHS, and things would never be the same. During the next 17 years, Coach Largent’s team won 10 TVL titles, three Sac-Joaquin Section Championships, and two California State Titles. From 2005 through 2013, the Escalon baseball program won eight titles in nine years. For his efforts, Greg was named TVL Coach of the Year an incredible 10 times, as well as being recognized as the California State Coach of the Year. In 2019, Coach Largent received the highest honor the Sac-Joaquin Section can bestow upon a coach when he was named the recipient of the Dale Lacky Model Coaching Award.

All of this and he still had the time to spend 27 years as the “Voice of the Cougars”. Anyone who has followed Escalon Football will always remember Greg smoothly announcing those wonderful words, “Touchdown Cougars!”

This past May, Greg retired from teaching and was given the Escalon Unified School District Teacher of the Year award for his years of service to the students of our community.

Coach Largent, your being named Grand Marshal for tonight’s Homecoming is our way of saying “Thank You” for touching all of our lives in such a positive manner. For being such a great coach, great teacher, and most importantly, a great human being. You will live with us all forever.

To close tonight’s Grand Marshal celebration, we would like to ask two favors of the crowd. First, if you were ever taught or coached by Coach Largent, we would like you to please stand. Second, will everyone else please stand and acknowledge the life and work of Greg Largent with a huge cheer and a round of applause. Thank you!