Darren Arbet (born November 26, 1962) is a former

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

for the

San Jose SaberCats The San Jose SaberCats were a professional arena football team based in San Jose, California. The SaberCats had been members of the Arena Football League (AFL) since 1995 (the year in which the team was founded); and until 2015, they belonged to ...

and current general manager and head coach of the

Bay Area Panthers The Bay Area Panthers are a professional indoor football team based in San Jose, California. They are a member of the Indoor Football League (IFL) and were to begin play in 2020 at Oakland Arena as the Oakland Panthers. Due the onset of the COV ...

of the

Indoor Football League The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2008 out of the merger between the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football. It has one of the largest number of currently active teams amon ...

. He has a career record of 169-73, including four titles, ArenaBowl XVI, ArenaBowl XVIII,

ArenaBowl XXI ArenaBowl XXI was the 2007 championship game of the Arena Football League and was played at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana on Sunday, July 29, 2007. It was the third-ever neutral site title game in league's history and the first h ...

, and

ArenaBowl XXVIII ArenaBowl XXVIII was the championship game of the 2015 Arena Football League season. It was played between the American Conference Champion Jacksonville Sharks and the National Conference Champion San Jose SaberCats. The game was played at Stock ...

Early life

Arbet attended Edison High School in

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquir ...

, where he was a standout in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

track & field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

College career

Arbet played four seasons for the

Sacramento State Hornets football The Sacramento State Hornets football program is the intercollegiate American football team for the California State University, Sacramento located in Sacramento, California. The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivis ...

team from 1981 to 1985 as a

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

Professional career

Los Angeles Cobras

Arbet joined the

Los Angeles Cobras The Los Angeles Cobras were a professional arena football team based in Los Angeles, California that played one season (1988) in the Arena Football League. History On March 16, 1988, it was announced that team would be nicknamed the Cobras, as ...

in 1988.

Maryland Commandos

Arbet played for the

Maryland Commandos Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

in 1989.

Coaching career

Sacramento State

Arbet coached

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

s at his alma mater in 1990.

Albany Firebirds

Arbet received a job coaching fullbacks and

linebackers Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

for the

Albany Firebirds The Indiana Firebirds were a team in the Arena Football League. The team was based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Home games were played at the Conseco Fieldhouse, also the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and Indiana ...

in 1992. When

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

Doug Kay Doug Kay is a retired American football coach who was most recently assistant head coach for the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League (AFL), which league ceased operations after the 2017 season. He has more than 55 years of football expe ...

, received the offer to coach the

Charlotte Rage The Charlotte Rage were a professional arena football team based out of Charlotte, North Carolina. They were members of the Arena Football League from 1992 to 1996. They played their home games at the Charlotte Coliseum from 1992 to 1994 and ...

in 1995, Arbet was promoted to

by the Firebirds.

San Jose SaberCats

On January 13, 1999, the

named Arbet their second head coach in franchise history. He won four ArenaBowls with the SaberCats. He also served as general manager, and later bought a stake in the team. His tenure ended when the SaberCats pulled out of the AFL shortly after winning their fourth ArenaBowl.

Humboldt State University

Arbet became the Assistant Head Coach, Linebackers Coach, and Special Teams Coordinator for the

Humboldt State Lumberjacks The Cal Poly Humboldt Lumberjacks are the 11 varsity athletic teams that represent California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, located in Arcata, California, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Lumberjacks compete as an associat ...

in 2016.

Cabrillo Junior College

Head Coach 2017–2020

Bay Area Panthers

General Manager and Head Coach 2022–present

AFL head coaching record

Personal life

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, Arbet became the

first African-American African-Americans are an ethnic group in the United States. The first achievements by African-Americans in diverse fields have historically marked footholds, often leading to more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for this is "bre ...

head coach to win a pro-football championship when he coached the SaberCats to a victory at ArenaBowl XVI. His nephew is former AFL player Kevin Arbet.

References

External links

Darren Arbet (coach) at ArenaFan Online

Darren Arbet (player) at ArenaFan Online
1967 births Living people American football linebackers Cabrillo Seahawks football coaches Humboldt State Lumberjacks football coaches Indiana Firebirds coaches Los Angeles Cobras players Maryland Commandos players Sacramento State Hornets football players San Jose SaberCats coaches Players of American football from Stockton, California African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{Amfoot-coach-stub