Melendrez Helps Dolphins to Top

Dana Hills won more games this season than it had in the last two combined.

It did so without a bona fide star, the big difference being the coach.

Margo Melendrez has in three years raised the stature of the program from non-factor to seriously competitive.

In 1996, the year before Melendrez’s arrival, Dana Hills was 9-18 overall, 2-8 in the South Coast League.

Three years later, Dana Hills scored its biggest victory of the decade, probably its biggest victory ever, a 2-0 victory over eventual Division I runner-up Mater Dei.

The Dolphins (23-5-2, 7-2-1) finished second to Mater Dei in the South Coast League but exceeded everyone’s expectations countywide.

By season’s end, they were ranked seventh in Orange County and ninth among all Southern Section Division I teams.

For her role in helping Dana Hills turn the corner toward respectability, Melendrez is The Times Orange County coach of the year.

She headed candidates that included Jill Matyuch, who took over El Dorado and directed the Golden Hawks (22-4) to their first Empire League title since 1976, and the duo of Donna King and Crystal Rosenthal, who took over Calvary Chapel five games into the season and coached the Eagles to the Division V title game.

But it was Dana Hills, which won the Laguna Hills tournament and reached the finals of two others, that had coaches buzzing throughout the season.

The Dolphins finished 11-12 a year ago, and 9-15 before that.

“There was never any consistency in the program,” Melendrez said before playing El Toro for the Woodbridge tournament title two months ago. “When you’re trying to build a program, it takes a few years to get people to notice. We’re trying to gain respect and credibility.”

They did so by improving their schedule, not with weaker teams to better their record, but with better teams to improve their skill. The Dolphins played Aliso Niguel, Kennedy, Cerritos Gahr, Saugus, Santa Margarita and La Puente Bishop Amat before league play began.

And with every game, the senior-dominated team that included pitcher Loren Thornburg, third baseman Kiana Bessa and catcher Liz Lefler got better and better under Melendrez, a Times All-Orange County second-team pitcher at Laguna Hills in 1988-89, and assistant Rick Simpson.

“I thought it would take a half season for the players to believe they could compete with anyone, and beat anyone,” Melendrez said. “But they believed it from Day 1.”

No doubt, they bought into Melendrez’s optimistic and enthusiastic approach. And it paid off in a style that maximized talent on a team that didn’t have a single player on The Times All-County team.

“We don’t play to lose,” Melendrez said. “We do things to make things happen. If we go down, we’re going to go down fighting.”