Joe Pirillo is Riverbank High School’s new varsity football coach and math teacher.

Pirillo most recently taught and coached at Lathrop High School, in the Manteca Unified School District.

He started working with Bruin players over the summer, and following the section-required dead period, began official practices on Monday last week. With classes at the high school starting on Thursday, Aug. 5, practices will move to after school.

Pirillo previously worked at Lathrop High for the past six years, both teaching math and coaching varsity football there.

The school year before that, he worked as a substitute teacher at Stanislaus County Office of Education.

He graduated in 2009 from University of Minnesota-Morris with a BA in statistics.

This year’s football season starts on Aug. 20, with the Bruins on the road taking on Millennium High School in Tracy. Then it continues preseason games by hosting Delhi on Aug. 27, going on the road to Delta High in Clarksburg on Sept. 3, and hosting Argonaut High School from Jackson on Friday, Sept. 10.

The first Trans-Valley League week, Sept. 17, brings Riverbank a bye, with Bruin league play beginning on Sept. 24, hosting Modesto Christian High School.

The Bruins will play 10 games this season, as opposed to last year’s COVID-abbreviated five-game line up, with the last game, at home, scheduled against Hilmar on Oct. 29.