Wes Besseghini knows the 2011 spring semester will feature himself and his wife co-coaching the Dixon High girls softball team.

However, Besseghini already has another big task he’s slowly taking the reins of - even though its months from the first kickoff of the fall football season.

Dixon High named Besseghini as its varsity football head coach on March 9,  replacing former head coach Scott Winslow who resigned at the end of last season.

“We had an outstanding pool to choose from,” Dixon High Athletic Director Nick Girimonte said. “Wes just rose as the best candidate of that group with the combination of experience and energy.”

Besseghini was the varsity defensive coordinator for the past two seasons and prior to that was the junior varsity head coach for two years.

“For us, it was that combination of what it takes to run a varsity program and what it takes to work with kids at Dixon,” Girimonte said.

The new coach said the initial search – which started in February – took some time.

“It was a really long process,” he said. “They had to fly it for people in the district and for people outside the district.”

Besseghini said he put in his application to a hiring committee of local Dixon community members that ultimately decided who was suitable for the job.

Lucky for the native Dixon citizen, he got the call which many assistant coaches yearn for.

“They called three of us back for a second interview and they finally named me as head coach,” Besseghini said.

Once on the job, he'll have the challenge of keeping the Rams' three-year streak of reaching the California Interscholastic Federation Division IV playoffs intact.

Besseghini isn't aiming for just playoff appearances, however.

“Our goal is to reach the playoffs but I’d really like to make a long run into the playoffs and win that (Sac –Joaquin Section) title,” Besseghini said. “That would be our goal.”

The Dixon High graduate and former football player is looking forward to a season that features 15 returning players.

That’s a stark difference from the amount of players that left the team heading into last season.

“Going into last year we graduated 22 seniors,” Besseghini said. “We graduated a lot of seniors and had a lot of kids who didn’t have a lot of playing time.”

Besseghini isn’t waiting for the summer to get his team ready for the fall though.

“My first step is to get the kids into the weight room more consistently,” he said. “…The kids need to be lifting now, and that will be my emphasis now for them to start lifting.”

When Besseghini isn’t coaching at Dixon High, he’s teaching physical education at Dixon Montessori School. As for free time, he admits that coaching takes up a lot of his off time. When it doesn’t, he likes spending time with his young son.

“I have a 2-year old -- any free time we have goes to playing with him,” Besseghini added.

He attended Azusa Pacific University in Southern California after high school, but returned to Dixon after graduating.

“It’s a town I’ve always had a passion for,” Besseghini said. “I’ve always had a passion for the town. I grew up here and played football here, and I have a passion for the sports and kids.”

Besseghini's love for his home town and athletics may have been the ultimate ‘it’ factor between him and any other candidate.

“When we look at the whole picture, Wes is our best candidate, and that’s why we hired him,” Girimonte said.