Mark Gritton finished his ninth season as the Head Coach of the West Hills Falcons with an overall record of 40 wins 51 losses. Gritton's ninth season marks the longest tenure of any head football coach is the school's history, and is the schools winningest football coach. 

1999 was Coach Grittons most successful season, as the Falcons won the Valley Conference Title with a 5-0 record. Overall, the Falcons were 6-4, losing to Sacramento City College in the Capital Shrine Bowl. In 1998, the Falcons finished with a record of 7 and 4 defeating Shasta College in the Pacific Graffiti Bowl in Modesto. Last season, the 2002 Falcons played in the Silicon Valley Bowl against #4 rated Foothill College. In the last five years, the Falcons have won a Conference Championship, played in three post season bowl games, and have had only one losing season. In 2003, the Falcons defeated Laney College in the Graffiti Bowl, finished with a 7-4 record, rated # 9 in Northern California and #18 in the State. 

Gritton is a native of Ridgecrest, California and received all-conference honors as a linebacker at Humboldt State University. He played professionally in Europe for a year before returning to Humboldt for graduate school. While he was completing his Masters Degree, he was the linebackers coach for four seasons.

He then moved on to the College of the Sequoias for two seasons (88' and 89'). During that time, the Giants won 19 of 22 games and two post-season bowl championships.

Before coming to West Hills, Gritton was the defensive coordinator at Wayne State College in Nebraska. During his time there his defense was ranked among the Nations Leaders in many statistical categories.

Coach Gritton teaches his players discipline and academics before athletics. Every Player is required to participate in the teams Academic Success Program which consists of attending study hall everyday and monitoring their academic progress through periodic "grade checks". This philosophy has produced eleven Academic All-Americans in 8 years (Ioelo Tafiti, Jeff West, Norman Kim, Vladimir Borombozin, Robert Corea, William Sanders, Gerardo Nunez, Josh Aigner, Jerome Ard, Darius Vinnett, and Fred Strickland).

Preaching community service, he has implemented the Community Outreach Program. It was recognized at local, state, and national levels. This program stresses community involvement: from reading to children at local elementary schools to organizing the Bicycle Rodeo at the Coalinga Health Fair. Grittons 2000 team received recognition from NBCs Willard Scott for presenting an autographed football and singing Happy Birthday to Coalinga resident, Jesse Williams who turned 104.

Coach Gritton and his wife Denise have 4 daughters; Allie (21), Jordan (16), Katelyn (15) and Taylor (11). The younger three are all cheerleaders.