Holland the Front-Runner for Laguna Beach Job

Dave Holland, who won more than 100 games at Corona del Mar, is the preferred candidate for the varsity football head coaching vacancy at Laguna Beach.

Holland, who resigned from Corona del Mar two years ago to become a defensive coordinator at Grossmont College in San Diego, said on Tuesday he thought he would make a nice match with the Laguna Beach program, which has gone 13-65-1 the last eight years.

“If the job is offered, I would take it,” Holland said. “That’s where I would like to be. The athletic director [Greg Marshall] is a close personal friend, an ex-assistant of mine, and we work well together. I want to help him rejuvenate the program.”

Holland still has one more interview, on Monday, with staff members and parents of football players before he will be recommended to the Laguna Beach Unified School District Board of Education.

Principal Barbara Callard said the soonest she could make that recommendation would be Dec. 12.

“He’s the top candidate, I would say that--how could he not be, with his experience?” Callard said. “He’s coming from a background of a similar schooling situation, a similar community, and he’s had success in that environment, so of course we’re interested in him.”

Holland, who went 106-92-10 at Corona del Mar, would be making the transition from the second-smallest public high school in Orange County to the smallest. He would replace Mike Roche, who went 6-24 the last three years.

Callard said there isn’t adequate time to prepare the paperwork to recommend Holland to the board of trustees for its Tuesday meeting.

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The Newport Harbor boys’ soccer program came up with a novel way to raise money for uniforms and equipment. They played indoor soccer on Saturday and Sunday, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., in 20-minute shifts in the Sailors’ gym.

The 37 participants raised nearly $2,500.

Assistant Coach Ziad Khoury, who said Edison did the same thing last year and raised about $2,500, mixed varsity, junior varsity and frosh-soph players on each team. Players raised money by getting pledges for every minute they played.

“It promotes a family feeling within the program; we’re starting to build a program here at Newport Harbor that will do something,” senior forward Justin Kerr said. “We didn’t make the playoffs last year, and one of the things we lacked is we didn’t come together as a team, we played as individuals.”

Kerr, who expects to attend Princeton next year, said he raised about $500 through the event, though he got some corporate backing from Orthomerica and Catskill Mountain Water.

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Heritage Christian’s run at an eight-man football title was ended by a seven-touchdown performance by Jeff Haddock in a 62-28 loss to Riverside Christian.

After a quarter-decade of coaching 11 players to a side, first-year Heritage Christian Coach Tom Caffrey said the switch wasn’t that big a deal.

“I found it amazingly similar because of the reduced size of the field,” Caffrey said. “Consequently, you still had to block, still had to tackle, still had to execute your offense. Because the three guys in the middle, two tackles and a center, couldn’t receive the ball, it made it just like regular football.

“I took my 11-man stuff I had run for years at Whittier Christian and made a minor adjustment for lack of a fullback. Other than that, it was the same type of game.”

The Lancers won their first league title since 1968, Caffrey said, with a 9-2 record. The Academy League champions were led by Josh Loera, who rushed for 35 touchdowns and 1,438 yards, much of that because of lineman Brian Bethke.

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Tickets for Friday’s Southern Section second-round playoff football games are available through all participating schools. Ticket prices are $6 for adults and $3 for children younger than 12.

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After Rancho Alamitos made two consecutive appearances in the Division VII final, the Garden Grove League has suddenly fallen on hard times.

Last year, all three league teams lost in the first round.

This year, two of the three were eliminated in the first round, including league champion Pacifica, which was decimated by illness and upset by Redondo Union.

Only Los Amigos, which recorded its first playoff victory in four years, advanced to Friday’s second round, where the Lobos will meet Pasadena South Hills at Covina District Stadium.

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Even though the Sunset League is generally considered the toughest football league in Orange County, it didn’t do so well in the playoffs. The four teams (including one at-large team) had a combined 1-3 record in the first round of the Division I playoffs--the worst of the five leagues in the division.

The best Orange County leagues were the Sea View, 3-1 in the all-Orange County Division V, and Pacific Coast, 3-1 in Division VIII.

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Although Los Alamitos scored a 40-7 victory over Lakewood, Griffin Coach John Barnes said he didn’t mind the Lancers holding a huge ball-control edge.

“They ran 54 plays and we ran 38,” Barnes said. “We ran six at the end to run out the clock. We figured we had 28 significant plays, and we scored six times. [Lakewood] controlled the ball, but as long as they don’t score, it’s OK.”

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Capistrano Valley mascot Brad Chapin works up a sweat during football games. But beginning next week, the Cougar mascot sheds his skin.

Chapin was an All-South Coast League soccer player last season. He decided to try being a mascot this fall. “I sweat more in the costume,” Chapin said, “than I do playing soccer.”

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Michele DeAnda has resigned as the girls’ tennis coach at Santa Margarita for medical reasons.

DeAnda coached the team for one year. The Eagles were 14-7, 4-6 in the Sea View League.

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Redlands defensive lineman Tinashi Chinouyazv, who had two sacks in the Terriers’ 38-31 victory over third-seeded Esperanza, wreaks havoc for public-address announcers as well as opponents.

“[Redlands Coach Jim Walker] told us to just announce his first name,” Esperanza’s Warren Chapman said, “which is ‘tih-NAH-shee’ because no one can pronounce his last name.”

Correspondent Michael Itagaki and staff writers Chris Foster and Dave McKibben contributed to this story.