Estancia in transition

COSTA MESA — Estancia High Boys’ Athletic Director Tim Parsel doesn’t expect his head coaches to stick around for much longer than five years, and the ones that do are more exception than rule.

It’s part of the ebb and flow of high school athletics, he said Wednesday afternoon during the first freshman football practice of the season.

Still, coaching turnover for boys’ sports has been markedly high at Estancia lately, and the school’s Bermuda triangle of unlucky circumstances are partially to blame.

The school is small, several parents of Estancia students are financially challenged, and coaches are reluctant to stick around when programs are unsuccessful, Parsel said.

All those factors help explain why Estancia is hiring its third basketball coach in four seasons, and is searching for its fourth baseball coach in as many years.

Football coach Mike Bargas, also hired this year, is the sixth football coach in 11 years.

The Eagles are hoping to find some stability in Agustin Heredia, now the interim boys’ basketball coach. Heredia was the MVP of the 1989-90 Estancia team that won a CIF Southern Section title, and he’s the team’s third coach in four seasons.

“Unless we have some unusual super candidates, he’s our No. 1 guy,” Parsel said. “Even though he’s interim right now, I kind of expect him to be named the head coach soon … Unless Phil Jackson comes into our league from the Lakers, I’d say he’s got it.”

Scott Kahawai, the coach before Heredia, resigned July 9. Kahawai is still a social science teacher at Estancia, but he told the Daily Pilot he couldn’t take the stress and frustration of heading a team that finished 2-21, 0-9 in the Orange Coast League last season.

“It’s just a hard job, a lot of hours, and unless you have a real fun experience, people don’t seem to stick around,” Parsel said.

He ticked off the names of long-time coaches at Newport Harbor: Eric Tweit, Jeff Brinkley, Dan Glenn.

“Newport has had very little turnover, and that’s why they’re so successful,” said Parsel, noting that coaches such as Corona del Mar’s Bill Sumner — who has been there for 25 years — are now a rarity.

C.K. Green was forced to give up his position as baseball coach due to scheduling conflicts. Green is a teacher at TeWinkle Middle School, which dismisses class too late to allow Green to coach at Estancia. He was unable to secure a teaching position at Estancia.

Before the district passed measures to fund athletics, Parsel said the disparity between Estancia and other small schools such as CdM and Sage Hill were even more apparent.

Before, fundraising covered the cost of athletic programs. Now, it bolsters whatever the Newport-Mesa Unified School District doles out.

“They looked at some other districts and saw how they were financing athletics,” Parsel said. “Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar can ask for a donation, and they’re completely funded. They don’t really need the district. But we can’t do that.

“So the district looked at it and said ‘We’ve got to make it equal,’ so Newport and Corona are getting the same funding we are. You can’t make it completely even. But at least the district’s attempting to help out and fund athletics and not make it so much parent-supported.”

Still even with the district’s help, Parsel, who is no stranger to coaching, is also involved with freshman football, basketball and track and field this year. Parsel coached Bargas when he was a freshman at Newport Harbor.

“As the athletic director helping out in three sports, it’s a little unusual, but it’s a lot different than being the head coach and running the program,” Parsel said. “I like to think I have something to offer the younger kids, and it’s fun.”

Last year, Estancia, which usually has three football teams: varsity, junior varsity, and freshman, only had enough athletes for two teams, a varsity and freshman/sophomore team, for the first time in school history. This year, the Eagles have three teams again, with about 31 boys on the freshman squad.

“More and more schools in Orange County — the smaller schools — are going to two teams, a frosh/soph and a varsity,” Parsel said. “We’re lucky to have three this year.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at [email protected].