Flying Eaglets

Joseph Boo

COSTA MESA - You couldn’t blame Estancia High boys cross country

coach Charlie Appell for feeling uncertain about his team’s future.

Alberto Munoz graduated, and so did Manuel Orozco.

To fill their shoes, Appell had to rely on 14- and 15-year-olds streaming

through high school doors for the first time. This was a classic example

of a youth movement. The star athletes are gone, so a bunch of kids who

might, or might not work out, have to replace them.

“They’re all young kids,” Appell said. “This is the first experience in

cross country for many of them. We only have two seniors. We have very

little experience, but we’ve been very successful so far.”

Instead of going through growing pains though, Estancia has started

quickly out of the chute. At the Laguna Hills Invitational, the freshmen

runners won the meet with an absurd 29 points, 23 points fewer than the

second-place team. And they were only a little off their time the

following week, scoring 34 points in a win against Woodbridge.

The Eagles only have two seniors on their team, so they constantly use

freshmen and sophomores to fill out the varsity squad. The kids have

responded so far, and Estancia is currently No. 8 in CIF Southern Section

Division IX rankings. When they do not run on the varsity squad, the kids

have made Estancia’s freshmen and sophomore squad formidable.

“I am surprised,” Appell said.

April Flores and Humberto Rojas have spent the most time on the varsity

team so far. Along with those two, the underclassmen consist of Eric

Vangeen, Gerardo Orozco, Sean Zich, Jorge Contreras, Luis Segoginao, Mile

Casillas and Eric Lopez.

Estancia’s success has been most surprising because a lot of these kids

never ran cross country before. For them to come in and run the three

miles in their first two attempts and win is phenomenal.

“I was disappointed because other kids earlier didn’t like to work,”

Appell said. “But these kids love to work.”

Thursday, Estancia gets to test its kids against the class of Orange

County cross country, Corona del Mar. The two schools did meet at the

Laguna Hills Invitational, and Estancia’s freshmen and sophomore teams

finished ahead of the Sea Kings twice. If the Eagles win again, it would

be a huge confidence booster for their young runners.

With so many youngsters on the team, you would think Estancia’s success

in the future is guaranteed. But as the Montreal Expos constantly prove,

having young talent is one thing, but keeping it together is another. And

Appell realizes he is nurturing a team instead of rebuilding one.

“Their success is encouraging,” he said. “But we’ll see in a couple of

years. We have to get these kids to stick around.”