Mustangs owe big debt of gratitude to Baldwin

ROGER CARLSON

Honors are the order of the day in mid-December with All-CIF

selections, all-league choices and most valuable players the central

focus, along with an item called “Coach of the Year.”

Here along the coast of Orange County we have plenty of candidates

for the latter.

A good example is the recent choice of first-year boys water polo

coach Sam Bailey of Corona del Mar High as the CIF Southern Section

Division I Coach of the Year.

Another prime example is the rise of Newport Harbor High’s

football team to the CIF Division VI championship game, the sixth

appearance for Jeff Brinkley’s Sailors in the final in the past 13

years.

Corona del Mar fans would point to their own football coach, Dick

Freeman, after yet another appearance in the playoffs. And Estancia’s

Craig Fertig continues the hunt with the Eagles, capped by a victory

over crosstown rival Costa Mesa. And, there are a number of others

who are in the same category.

For me, the choice is easy.

His team won just twice and missed the playoffs, he was levied

with a one-game sanction by CIF for practicing when rules dictated

otherwise, and a return to the role of a head football coach lasted

but one season.

Costa Mesa’s Tom Baldwin, 73, knew what he was getting himself

into when he said it the afternoon Mesa’s administration faced its

varsity football boosters after dooming the Mustangs with the firing

of their coach, Dave Perkins, about three weeks before the football

season was to begin.

“I’m not a candidate,” said the veteran coach, one of Perkins’

assistants. “But, if they came to me and asked me, I would do it.”

It was almost a slam dunk that quickly that would be the only

recourse to stop the ship from completely sinking. And Baldwin was

indeed sought out to save the Mustangs’ season.

He was his usual self that day when he was introduced as Mesa’s

head coach, up-beat and ready to go.

But there is a wall that everyone faces in time, and what was easy

for him in the past, 17-hour days, 90-hour weeks, suddenly was a

burden too much to deal with.

Total fatigue struck hours after the Mustangs’ third nonleague

game against Huntington Beach and he suffered what is called

“arterial fibulation.”

Clearly, it was a wake-up call and Baldwin did his best to pass on

to his assistants a number of his self-imposed duties.

“When I was the head coach before at Costa Mesa (1984-91), I had

teacher-coaches ... Jim Hagey, John Carney and Doug Brown, and we

divided things up,” Baldwin said of those golden years when

off-campus coaches were just beginning to make their impact.

He was able to take off a considerable amount of time from his

daily regimen in economics classes, with a lot of “sick time” piled

up, and he did not miss any practices or games with his Mustangs.

Still, his pace was slowed down a lot.

Later it would be determined that the Mustangs were practicing

when they shouldn’t, a mistake which came about because of his late

appearance as the head coach. Also a factor was that this past

season, schools were able to play a game during the customary

“scrimmage week,” as long as they took a bye week later in the

season.

Baldwin was aware of the spider web, but was advised by school

administrators he was on solid ground, only to find out he was not.

So, he was not on the sidelines for one game, although the

Mustangs had all their assignments covered by Baldwin as they

prepared for the game.

One of the things that really kept him on the sidelines was a

wire-to-wire show of support from the Mesa parents and boosters.

“Sometimes when you lose, there are lots of negative things going

on,” Baldwin said. “But we didn’t have that.”

Today the Mustangs are busily fielding questions about the opening

which has been created with Baldwin’s decision to put football behind

him, at least for next year.

“It’s with a heavy heart that I made the decision,” Baldwin said.

“But I don’t have the energy and time commitment that comes with it.

There comes a time when you like to watch the Monday Night football

game.”

He said he expects to continue his role as boys golf coach and

will pursue the job of coaching the girls golf team, as well.

A football coach on one level or another in 43 of the past 47

years, he admits he’s not sure he’s really ready to retire from the

game.

“It’s the relationships, those are the things you really miss,”

Baldwin said. “I might be back as an assistant in a year or two.”

Mesa’s bid to find a replacement is on a hold of sorts because the

school’s budget has yet to be determined for 2005-06.

“Everything is going good and I hope they can bring in a really

good coach,” Baldwin said. “We’ve got some really good kids. We’ve

got a quarterback [Ryan French] who passed for 1,000 yards and a

runner [Tyler Legg] who rushed for over 1,000 yards and nine

touchdowns.

“And, there’s another quarterback, Cody Waldron, who is a

tremendous athlete. He’s either a very good quarterback or a very

good receiver.”

As for the present and future, he and wife Carol celebrated their

50th wedding anniversary on Saturday and today are in the midst of a

three-day run in Palm Springs. Later, in mid-August, they’ll do the

big celebration with a 12-day tour of the Mediterranean out of Rome.

They’ll be back around Labor Day, just in time for another full

slate of economics classes.

And when will the economics classes come to and end? “I don’t

know,” Baldwin said, “not until I get old.”

* ROGER CARLSON is the former sports editor for the Daily Pilot.

He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].