Peninsula High’s Mihaljevich Calls It Quits : Basketball: He cites the demands of running a prep program as the reason for his resignation.

John Mihaljevich, the dean of South Bay prep basketball coaches with 26 years’ experience, has resigned as coach of the Peninsula High boys’ team, effective at the end of the season.

“Right now I feel a lot of melancholy and sadness to make this difficult decision,” said Mihaljevich, who informed his team Monday.

Peninsula (19-7), the Bay League runner-up, defeated Channel Islands of Oxnard, 57-41, in a Southern Section Division I-AA playoff opener Tuesday night and will play Long Beach Poly (16-10) in a second-round game Friday night at Poly.

Mihaljevich, 58, coached the Palos Verdes boys’ team for 24 years before moving to Peninsula last season. He said the consolidation of Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Miraleste into one school was a difficult transition and contributed to his decision to resign. He will continue to teach physical education at Peninsula.

“It took a lot more out of me than I thought,” he said of the school merger. “It was a hard transition for everybody. Unless you’re directly involved in that process, you can’t appreciate how difficult it is.

“Yet I went at it with enthusiasm. I had to familiarize myself with the other kids and coaching staffs. It was a lot of hard work, but I’ve certainly felt good about what we’ve accomplished.”

Mihaljevich’s career accomplishments include a 420-206 record, seven league titles and one Southern Section title in 1975. That was the year Palos Verdes, led by Bill Laimbeer, ended Verbum Dei’s run of five consecutive CIF section titles by upsetting the nation’s No. 1 team in the major-division semifinals. Verbum Dei was led by David Greenwood and Roy Hamilton, who both went on to play at UCLA.

Palos Verdes then beat Marina of Huntington Beach, 64-52, in the championship game. Marina was led by guard Rich Branning, who became Laimbeer’s teammate at Notre Dame.

“That team exemplified all the kinds of teams I’ve liked coaching,” Mihaljevich said of the 1975 squad. “It was a team with a lot of players who played good team ball and sacrificed for the good of the team.

“I liked the fact that when we played, we were well-prepared and were a formidable opponent for any team we played.”

Known as a tough practice coach and disciplinarian, Mihaljevich helped launch the careers of many outstanding players, including Laimbeer of the Detroit Pistons, Jan van Breda Kolff, formerly of the New Jersey Nets and now the men’s basketball coach at Cornell University; Mark Acres, a former center with three NBA teams; Jeff Acres, a pro player in Japan; Brian Jackson, a pro player in Europe, and Jim Spillane, who played at UCLA.

Peninsula girls’ basketball Coach Wendell Yoshida has shared gym time with Mihaljevich for 13 years, 11 as the girls’ coach at Palos Verdes.

“I’ve had the ideal situation,” Yoshida said. “I’ve been able to be around the best (high school) coach in the South Bay, if not in all of Southern California.”

Yoshida, whose last two teams at Palos Verdes and Peninsula won state titles, said he has learned a lot from watching Mihaljevich.

“I don’t think there’s a better coach fundamentally or in getting his team prepared to play,” Yoshida said. “He gets the most out of his kids.”

Although his love of coaching has not diminished, Mihaljevich said he grew weary of the demands of running a high school program. Counting summer league games, he said he has coached between 60 and 65 games in the past year.

“I think it’s time to turn it over to somebody younger, somebody who can put up with all the rigors it takes to run a program,” he said. “I never wanted to give anything less than 100%; then I think you’re short-changing the kids. I don’t want to be fooling myself.”

Mihaljevich said he would consider being an assistant, either at a college or high school, but has no immediate coaching plans.

“It’s given me all my joy and happiness to work with the kids up here,” he said. “I look back at my coaching career and it’s a good time to go. I’ve accomplished what most coaches would like to accomplish.”