The 2024 season will represent the sixth season in which Lester Towns has been the head coach of the Los Angeles Valley College Monarchs football program. Based on the hard work that Towns, his assistant coaches, and players have put forth in these past eight months, this 2024 season has the makings of being a breakthrough season for the Monarch football program. And that's good news for Towns, because since 2019 he has worked tirelessly on the front lines and behind the scenes to make the Monarchs a contender. 

 

Towns every offseason stresses recruiting, which is the lifeblood of any junior college and four-year college program. And that Towns edict is all over the 2024 roster. There are 20 players from out of the state on the 2024 Monarchs roster with each and every one of those players projected to play significant roles on this team. Recruiting out of the state is one thing, but having a recruiting presence in your own part of a county is another thing in and of itself. Nearly 30 players who played their high school football in the San Fernando Valley or in areas near the SFV dot the 2024 roster. Towns has gone out of his way over the years to try to have good rapport or harmony with SFV area head coaches and those relationships have paid dividends for this program.

 

In 2023 the Monarchs had their share of ups and downs, but on the other hand so many positives came out of that season. Eight sophomore players from that team signed letters of intent to attend four-year colleges as student-athletes which included cornerback Isaiah Paul who signed with Division 1 school Western Michigan University of the Mid-American Conference. 

 

As for 2023 team accolades, the Monarchs placed 11 players on the Southern California Football Association (SCFA) Pacific League All-Conference team with four of those players making the JC Athletic Bureau/CCCFCA All-California Community College Football Team. The 2023 season represented the third time out of the five seasons (2019 and 2021 were the other seasons) that Towns has been the head coach at LAVC in which his team produced an All-State player(s). Plus, that 2023 team produced a player that added his name to the Monarch football record book in Jason Wagner Jr. who in two years here had 105 catches which placed him third all-time in Monarchs football history in career catches.