Mesa starts over

Costa Mesa High officially announced the hiring of its new boys’ volleyball coaches Wednesday.

But the fact the Mustangs have been without coaching leadership to begin the season has disappointed parents and set off frustrations among the team and the school’s athletic administration.

The Mustangs have had Jim Langley in place since Friday. He’s a club coach who has worked with the Surf City and SeaCliff programs. Costa Mesa is expected to add Beau Peters, a former UCLA player who coached the Fountain Valley girls in the fall, once he is cleared by the district, the school’s principal Ed Wong said. Peters owns SeaCliff Volleyball Club.

The coaching situation will most likely be solved by Tuesday when Costa Mesa plays its second match of the season against Orange in the Mustangs’ gym.

Peters and Langley mark the fifth coaching change in as many years at Costa Mesa. The parents dislike the consistency. Yet they were hoping the coaches could’ve at least been hired before the season started.

After Garry Currier resigned as coach in December, Costa Mesa was left in scramble mode, trying to find a replacement before the spring season. Jim Kiefer, the school’s boys’ athletic director, said a selection had been made last month, but the candidate was not cleared. Thus, the season began with an interim coach, Alex Cordoba, who was the boys’ soccer head man and coaches the junior varsity boys’ volleyball team.

Cordoba was the coach on the bench for the Mustangs’ season opener March 10, when Saddleback won in five games at Costa Mesa.

“It’s not fair to the kids,” Bill Metcalfe, a player’s parent, said of the coaching situation. “It’s a big dropping of the ball by the [athletic] administration.”

Costa Mesa finished 15-8 last year and reached the CIF Southern Section Division II quarterfinals, showing promise for a bright future. But now uncertainty clouds the program’s hopes.

“I don’t believe we did [drop the ball],” said Kiefer, who is also the coach of the baseball team. “We operated in a timely manner. Our coach resigned in December. We had qualified candidates. We offered it to the most qualified person. The person didn’t get cleared by the district.”

Metcalfe said his son, Connor, as well as other players, had heard in September that Currier would not be returning this season. But they never thought to tell the athletic administration, figuring Kiefer, or girls’ athletic director Patty Smith would soon realize the situation.

Once Currier left, Connor Metcalfe had hoped to help with the hiring process. He sat in two interviews.

Connor Metcalfe, a setter bound for Cal Baptist, also mentioned to Smith that U.S. men’s volleyball coach Alan Knipe offered to help by possibly posting a job notice on his team’s website, Bill Metcalfe said. Smith told Connor Metcalfe to have Knipe call her, Bill Metcalfe said, which bothered the player and his father.

“There becomes a bureaucracy and you can’t penetrate it,” Bill Metcalfe said Saturday. “It just gets deflected. It’s unfair, not only for the kids but for the parents. We had to fork up $300. I don’t know if they will get to play a full schedule or play in tournaments. We’re supposed to put up money for what?”

Smith, who also coaches the boys’ and girls’ swim teams, did not return a phone call. She wrote in an e-mail that she would respond once the coaches are in place.

“It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks to say the least,” Kiefer said. “The situation is such, we had a girls’ coach who couldn’t commit to the boys. We had a boys’ coach who couldn’t come back. If we could hire a coach for both boys and girls and take a teaching position that would be great. But there aren’t any teaching positions open. We have several programs like that ... It’s going to be a challenge until we have teaching positions available.”

Kiefer said after the spring Costa Mesa will look into hiring a coach who will commit to both the boys’ and girls’ teams. He said the new coaches will do their best to add matches to the schedule.

Still the parents have been left disappointed.

“I think it’s the responsibility of the athletics director,” said Frank Albers, father of Andrew Albers, a junior on the team. “Last year they had a coach three weeks before the season started. It’s a constant cycle of crisis hiring.”